Chiquita Brands was initially the United Fruit Company, famous in Colombia for the massacre of workers in 1928 in Cienaga. Chiquita Brands International is now a leading international marketer and distributor of fresh food and related products. It is one of the largest banana distributors in the world and it has been operating in Colombia since last century. National and International labour, environmental and human rights protection advocates have denounced Chiquita Brands for its environmental, social and health impacts caused by the violation of the basic rights of banana plantations workers and the financing of paramilitary groups in order to suppress protest. Forjando Futuro is a foundation helping those dispossed. In 2012 it announced that there was an estimate of 19.5 USD million that Chiquita has paid paramilitary groups un Uraba but that the true figure acknowledged by the paramilitary themselves was 40 USD million. Among the paramilitary forces, the AUC, a terrorist group, was paid too by Chiquita Brands. There were several court cases opened in the United States and in Colombia against Chiquita Brands. |