Peeling the Banana

A trial pitting Chiquita Brands International against hundreds of Colombian families, who claim Chiquita-backed militias murdered their relatives during a decade of civil conflict, will enter its preliminary phase Friday in a West Palm Beach, Florida courtroom.

"We've been in limbo," says Terry Collingsworth, the first attorney to file a civil suit against Chiquita in the U.S. last year for funding the right wing paramilitary group, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, which killed scores of unionists and civilians in Chiquita's Colombian banana growing region. Collingsworth, who has said he would like to drive Chiquita out of business because of its behavior, added "Friday we start having fun."

Chiquita pled guilty in federal court last September to paying $1.7 million, between 1997 and 2004, to the right-wing paramilitary Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC, and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The company said the payments amounted to extortion and that if it had not paid, the AUC would have harmed its workers and its property. Families of the victims feel otherwise. Several lawsuits filed around the country in the past year say Chiquita should be held responsible for the deaths. In late April, a federal judicial panel ordered the various lawsuits, filed in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., all to be heard in a West Palm Beach court.

This Friday the plaintiff's lawyers will meet with U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach to set the rules for the trial, followed by a period of discovery. The trial, however, could be a year away. "It's an unusual procedure unless there are multiple cases," says Collingsworth. "We're very concerned that the case is going to be slowed down."

In the meantime, Colombia's Attorney General has vowed to seek the extradition of several Chiquita executives implicated, though not named, in a Justice Department filing that outlined Chiquita's illegal activity in Colombia and that lead to the last fall's guilty plea. No individuals from Chiquita have been charged.

On Sunday, C.E.O. Fernando Aguirre defended the company on the CBS show 60 Minutes saying that "the responsibility of any murders are the responsibility of the people that made the killings, of the people who pulled the trigger."

--George Quraishi