OK, give us a mini.
I got a mini.
Now, you're a fan of a banana every now and then, correct?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, nothing.
Like, so cheap.
So plentiful, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So it wouldn't surprise you to know
that there's blood baked into every banana that
comes to the grocery store, correct?
Oh, no, that would surprise me.
Oh, OK.
Well, this story comes from Salon.
It is an article.
Sorry, I'm just moving this so I think I get a little bit less
reverb or echo from it.
I thought you had cheezies.
I wish I had cheezies.
No.
This article comes from Salon posted on July 11th, 2024,
written by Nan Dika Chanturji.
Title, Chiquita found liable for paying off right wing death
squads that killed labor organizers in Colombia.
I hope this doesn't have to do with bananas.
I hope this is just totally something
I decided to talk about bananas first, and then this
is different.
It was just a conversation starter,
because that's what we're good at.
People know that.
Chiquita is actually a gorilla that lives at the zoo.
Very influential.
I love that name for a gorilla, by the way.
So Chelsea, are you familiar with the sticker
that's on all the bananas with the lady with the fruit hat,
the Chiquita sticker?
Now I'm feeling nervous.
OK.
You're asking me that.
Chiquita Brands International, the banana giant,
has been found liable for funding a right wing
Colombian paramilitary organization, the United
Self Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC,
that targeted labor organizers and must now
pay $38.8 million in damages eligible reported.
OK, and what's that, like 5% of their profits a year, maybe?
Oh, god, no, not even.
Yeah, I don't like that sentence.
Quote, this historic ruling marks the first time
that an American jury has held a major US corporation
liable for complicity in serious human right
abuses in another country.
End quote.
According to a press release from the plaintiff,
Earth Rights International.
I'm sorry, I laughed.
I laughed because this is the first time.
And how many times have we talked
about what corporations are doing?
It's probably the only time, too.
Let's face it.
They're going after the big banana.
Yeah, big banana, which is why the gorillas in the zoo
are doing it, big Chiquita.
Anyhow, in 2007, Chiquita admitted in a sentencing
agreement to paying the AUC protection money from 2001 to 2004.
Though company representatives insisted
it was a victim of extortion.
And my god, if you knew the history of the Banana Republics,
which has to completely do with Chiquita,
you would laugh at the fact that they're saying
they're being extorted. Oh, yeah.
Chiquita and Banana Republic.
The whole idea of a Banana Republic
is a place that the Americans toppled.
So they have a dictator that was very friendly to banana
farmers.
What?
Yeah.
Yeah, you didn't know that?
This whole episode is blowing my mind right now.
And it's just a mini.
It's only a mini.
Yeah.
So a US court ordered it to make a $25 million fine.
And the National Security Archives noted,
and no executives who authorized the payments were identified
much less prosecuted.
A six-week long trial at a federal court in Florida
included testimonies from families of victims,
Colombian military officials, and Chiquita executives.
Quote, testifying on May 14, Evans
described the 2006 summary he created for the plaintiffs
tracking 10 years of Chiquita's paramilitary payments
and based exclusively on thousands of internal records
produced by Chiquita in the case.
And quote, the National Security Archive noted, quote,
Evans explained how he sorted through thousands of payments
request forms, security situation reports, spreadsheets,
auditing documents, depositions, legal memoranda,
and other documents from Chiquita's own internal records
to create the summary, which tracks over 100 payments
to the AUC, most of them funneled through Convivier,
self-defense groups that acted as legal fronts
for the paramilitaries, end quote.
The claim against Chiquita is the company still paid
the AUC nearly $2 million by knowing that the paramilitary
group was engaged in considerable violence,
kidnapping, extortion, torture, forced disappearances,
and murder.
Oh my God.
The West Palm Beach trial only focused on the nine
of the cases brought against Chiquita by victims
of AUC violence among hundreds.
The jury found the company liable in eight
of the cases presented.
I'm very curious about the ninth then.
That is crazy.
Nanos.
It is bananas, I agree.
Yeah.
The verdict does not bring back the husbands and sons
who were killed, but it sets the record straight
and places accountability for funding terrorism
where it belongs at Chiquita's doorsteps.
Said Agnieszka, freesman, a lawyer who represented
the plaintiffs the New York Times reported,
according to jurors, Chiquita has failed to act
as a reasonable business person, and the company
had knowingly provided substantial assistance
to the AUC that created a foreseeable risk
to harm to others.
And the company had failed to prove that AUC threatened it
or they had, quote, no reasonable alternative,
end quote, to paying AUC.
Chiquita has vowed to appeal the decision,
and quote, the situation in Columbia was tragic
for so many.
However, that does not change our belief
that there is no legal basis for these claims.
The company said in a statement per the Times.
So that's the end of the story.
Except that they've been found liable.
In court, yes.
That's such a low standard court.
And I just wanna say, I just did a quick Google,
and I have bananas in my kitchen right now
because they're so cheap, and now I'm like, oh no.
There's literally nothing that's cheap
except for bananas. Why are they so cheap?
But now I'm hoping they are not Chiquita bananas.
They are definitely Chiquita bananas.
And their headquarters are in Switzerland.
Yep.
They're an American, it literally says.
Yep.
They're an American company.
Yep.
And Chelsea, you should look up what name Chiquita went by
prior to the 1990s.
Yeah, United Fruit Co.
Yep, and you should look up the history of United Fruit Co.
And how they toppled so many
democratically elected Central American countries,
the Americans on behalf of the United Fruit Co.
So that they could just get free land
in Ecuador, Guatemala.
That's just off the top of my head
that they put a dictatorship in place for.
So it sounds like we need to do an episode on bananas.
I thought it was common knowledge,
but we might have to do a banana episode.
Oh no, I didn't know anything about this.
I thought the bananas that I was eating
had no blood on their hands.
Okay.
That's why they're so cheap.
Also, I do like the fact that a pack
or a bushel of bananas is called a hand.
So good play on words there.
This is not the first time Banana Republic
has come up in this series either.
It has not.
We have brought up Banana Republic.
It has not.
Okay.
When? Tell me precisely when.
I also, I also.
Maybe in the episode.
I would have to look back,
but I'm fairly certain it has come up before.
I also do just want to point out
that I find it very interesting
that they're saying they were being extorted
by AUC to pay them.
And the AUC was murdering unions.
No, not business people,
but you know, in fact,
the very essence of enemies of business people.
So what a weird coincidence.
It's very weird.
And if anything, I believe big banana.
No, I can't.
I can't after this episode.
I will never look at bananas the same.
That's, okay.
Now that I know that bananas are called a hand.
I will look.
A hand of bananas.
I'm just going to look at them.
That's when they're grouped together.
It's a hand.
Yeah. They look like fingers.
Yeah.
It's so creepy.
And they got blood on those fingers.
No.
Yeah.
I hate that.
Anyhow, so much blood.
Weird dictatorship problems.
I thought this was common knowledge.
Apparently we might have to do an episode on it,
but it will not be in the next 48 hours,
but you do still need to come back for it.
Oh, yeah.
Eventually for that and in 48 hours for something else.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I'm just leaving you with crunching eyes.