People & Power - Corporations on Trial
People & Power

Chiquita: Between life and law

An investigation into Chiquita Banana’s illicit payments to Colombian paramilitaries.

Fined $25m by the US federal court for funding a terrorist organisation, Chiquita, the US-based banana distribution company, is now facing a number of new lawsuits.

The plaintiffs want compensation for the victims of Chiquita’s actions and are demanding that the company’s directors be extradited from the US to stand trial in Colombia. 

As former paramilitaries begin to speak out, the truth emerges about a dark chapter in US corporate history, where big business took sides in a civil war and profits mattered more than lives.

This episode of People & Power aired from June 10, 2009.