Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr

The nonprofit EarthRights International has filed a lawsuit against Chiquita Brands International on behalf of more than 200 Colombians, alleging the plaintiffs experienced violence at the hands of paramilitary agents funded by the banana company.

The demand for a jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey alleges that Chiquita engaged in a "campaign of terror" in order to maintain control of a Colombian banana-growing region from at least 1992 through 2004.

"In order to produce bananas in an environment free from labor opposition and social disturbances, Chiquita funded, armed, and otherwise supported these paramilitary groups," the complaint says.

The lawsuit revives an earlier suit filed by Earthrights in 2007. In that case, the nonprofit filed a class action suit on behalf of victims in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida. But in September of last year, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra denied class status in that suit and dismissed a handful of individual plaintiffs' cases.

The new claims by EarthRights are brought by alleged victims who would have been members of the class action case dismissed in Florida.

The plaintiffs are family members of trade unionists, banana workers, political organizers, social activists and others allegedly threatened, tortured and killed by paramilitary organizations, according to the complaint.

No one at Chiquita's U.S. headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, could be reached for comment.

Chiquita has faced a number of lawsuits related to its activities in Colombia. In 2007, it confessed to financing a designated global terrorist group in a U.S. criminal case and agreed to pay a $25 million fine.

In early 2018, Chiquita settled lawsuits brought by the families of Americans killed in Colombia by armed groups that Chiquita admittedly paid. Terms of the settlement were confidential, but the families were seeking tens of millions of dollars.

EarthRights communications director Kate Fried said the complaint was filed electronically and business shutdowns in the U.S. aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus have not yet impacted the proceedings. Arguments are set for the week of May 18.

EarthRights argues that Chiquita funded, armed and otherwise supported paramilitaries in Colombia so as to quell labor opposition that could stifle banana production. The deaths of plaintiffs' relatives, it says, were "a direct, foreseeable, and intended result" of that support.

"We are not backing away from accountability for Chiquita," said Marco Simons, general counsel for EarthRights. "In its desire to maximize profits, the company chose to do business in a conflict zone and then financed death squads as part of a strategy to protect those operations, contributing to the murder, rape, and torture of thousands of Colombians."

Chiquita's counsel has not yet been made public. In previous suits, Blank Rome has represented the company.

Two Brazilian companies purchased Chiquita in 2015 and moved its U.S. headquarters from Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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