The moral of this story may be this simple: Careful choosing countries in which you do business. Cuidado!
A secondary moral: Be even more careful about paying for protection once there.
Chiquita Banana began doing business in Colombia and in 1997 realized that there were dangers everywhere. So, in 1997, Chiquita began paying the United Self-Defense Forces (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group to provide protection for drug traffickers and businesspeople against leftist guerrilla groups.
Let’s just recognize this safety tip: When you are on the same side as the drug traffickers there are bound be some murders.
Talk about ethical dilemmas. How does one keep track of who’s killing whom? And are there any good guys?
In 2001, the United States designated AUC a foreign terrorist organization. Chiquita was, therefore, violating U.S. laws by paying AUC. Chiquita settled up with the Justice Department in 2007 with a guilty plea for dishing out $1.7 mil to the AUCers. Chiquita then quit paying AUC.
But, many farmers in the area were killed in the exchanges of gunfire amongst the warring groups. So, the farmers and their families filed suit against Chiquita for the deaths in the crossfire and for funding the violence that drove them off their lands and then scooping up that acreage at cheap prices.
The lawsuits began in 2007. One of Chiquita’s defenses was that it was not clear who shot whom during the Colombian civil war. The war did end in 2016 with a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the leftist guerillas.
Yet another Chiquita defense was that it only paid the money to AUC to protect its employees and farmers. A jury in South Florida saw it differently and awarded the farmers and their families (16 total) a $38.3-million verdict.
There are more suits pending. And there are leaders in Colombia asking the justice system there to hold businesspeople accountable for their roles in the ongoing war. So far, the suits have been only in the U.S.
So, back to the beginning — be careful where you do business because there are lots of rocks and hard places. No matter what you do and whose side you are on, there can be 31 years of challenges, including exchanges of gunfire and a multi-million -dollar jury verdict.