A court sentenced her to serve 11 years in prison for 11 years and 3 months, seven former American banana executives Chiquita Brands because they had funded far -right paramilitary organization, notorious for the cruelties he had committed against his 1990s.
The court, in the prefecture of Antiochia (northwest), found seven defendants guilty of “a distinguished conspiracy to commit criminal offenses”, while releasing three others, according to his verdict, consulted by the French Agency.
In addition to the prison sentences they will serve, the convicts should pay a fine of $ 3.4 million.
This is the first conviction against Chiquita leaders in Colombia. US justice, however, had decided in 2024 to pay millions of dollars to victims of the Civil War, stressing that the multinational had given about $ 2 million to AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), a far -right paramilitary organization.
The AUC attributes a host of crimes committed in the context of the civil conflict that continues to today in the Latin American country.
What did the company support
Among the persons who were convicted are three former CEO of Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary from 1990 to 2004. One of them, Charles Dennis Kaiser, is an American national.
The funds given by the company to the AUC “were used to finance the extension” of paramilitary action in the area, to facilitate murders, abductions, torture leaders of the so -called civil society and farmers, according to prosecutors.
Since the beginning of the US investigation, multinational assures that there was blackmail and that payments were made to protect its staff.
The AUC has been terrorizing for two decades by raising a ruthless war against far -left organizations and those who were perceived as sympathetic, sometimes with the contribution of the regular army. It is also known that it was involved in drug trafficking. The Clan del Golfo cartel is partially reincarnated.
Social Democratic President Gastavos Petovos Petros, Antonio Shangino, praised the “historical” and “exemplary” decision.
“For years, land workers and land workers have turned into victims of fear and violence. Today, justice has given the answer, ”he ruled via X.
