Chiquita Brands seeks lawsuit dismissal in Colombia

Faced with potentially billions of dollars in legal liability, Chiquita Brands International is asking a U.S. federal appeals court to block lawsuits filed against it by thousands of Colombians whose relatives were killed in that country's decades-long civil war.

The produce giant, which long had huge banana plantations in Colombia, has admitted paying a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group $1.7 million over a seven-year period.

The company insists it was blackmailed into paying or risking violence against its own operations and employees, although in 2007 Chiquita pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges that it had supported terrorists.

Source: Al Jazeera