Bogotá (EFE).- Seven former executives of Banadex, a subsidiary of the banana multinational Chiquita Brands International, were each sentenced to eleven years and three months in prison by the Sixth Criminal Court of the Specialized Circuit of Antioquia, which found them guilty of financing the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Those convicted of aggravated criminal conspiracy are Reinaldo Elías Escobar de la Hoz, John Paul Olivo, Charles Dennis Keiser, Álvaro Acevedo González, José Luis Valverde Ramírez, Víctor Julio Buitrago Sandoval, and Fuad Alberto Giacoman Hasbún, according to a ruling released Wednesday.

"We welcome this decision, which comes two months after the statute of limitations expired, and which recognizes the multinational's ties to the AUC through more than 100 illegal payments," said Senator Isabel Zuleta of the ruling Pacto Histórico party on Wednesday.

In addition, the Court imposed a fine of 13.879 billion pesos (approximately $3.4 million).

"The ruling identifies paramilitary Raúl Hasbún, alias 'Pedro Bonito,' as the link between Chiquita and the AUC's Banana Bloc," Zuleta added.

According to the ruling, the company had ties to paramilitaries and financed paramilitary groups that operated in the Urabá region and the department of Magdalena, and was involved in crimes committed by this criminal group between 1997 and 2004.

The litigation

The ruling made clear that the "Prosecutor's Office proved that Chiquita Brands (through its subsidiary Banadex), believing the extortion was not punishable, authorized the transfer of funds to the AUC."

He explained that the company used organizations known as Convivir, which were the seed of paramilitary groups, which, although "on the date of the events they enjoyed legal presumption," had already "been infiltrated by the Self-Defense Forces" to obtain those resources.

"This financing was known to all executives, who had a necessary participation in accordance with their role in the company and duly approved by their superiors at the parent company," the ruling states.

The conviction of the Colombian executives follows the ruling issued by a federal jury in Florida (USA) in June 2024 that the banana multinational Chiquita Brands International, accused of financing paramilitary groups in Colombia that left thousands dead in that country, will have to pay $38.3 million to plaintiffs and families of the victims.

The ruling in a civil lawsuit filed in a West Palm Beach court, following a decade of litigation, states that Chiquita failed to demonstrate that "the assistance it provided" to the AUC to protect its employees from violence was the result of an "unlawful, immediate, and imminent threat" from the terrorist group.

The ruling also noted that Chiquita's assistance to the AUC constituted "a dangerous activity" that increased the risk to community members beyond the dangers to which they were normally exposed.