Supreme Court Allows U.S. Corporation to Finance Terrorism Without Accountability

April 20, 2015 Washington, D.C. – The United States Supreme Court announced today that it will not hear Cardona v. Chiquita Brands International, a lawsuit on behalf of victims of terrorism and crimes against humanity in Colombia. This landmark case could have decided whether U.S. courts can hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses they commit abroad under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a federal law that allows foreigners to sue for violations of international human rights law. By declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court has created yet another obstacle in the path of victims seeking remedies for abusive corporate actions abroad, and allows a U.S. corporation to get away with financing terrorism without accountability to its victims in U.S. courts.

EarthRights International (ERI) represents Colombians who were tortured and whose relatives were murdered by paramilitary death squads financed by Chiquita. From 1997-2004, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC), used Chiquita’s financial support to spread fear in the banana-growing region of Urabá, Colombia. The AUC tortured and killed thousands of villagers, labor leaders, and community organizers who were suspected of favoring leftist guerrillas or making trouble for the plantation owners.

Among the plaintiffs is Jane Doe 5, whose husband John Doe 9 was a labor union president from the banana growing region of Urabá. The complaint alleges that the AUC detained, tortured, killed and dismembered John Doe 9 in retaliation for his union activities, and that “Chiquita benefited from the death of John Doe 9 by removing a labor activist who threatened the stability and profitability of Chiquita’s operations.” In total, the families of over 4,000 victims of paramilitary violence in the banana-growing regions of Colombia are suing Chiquita, and all believe that the deaths and torture benefited Chiquita by suppressing labor organizers and community leaders who might have driven up labor costs or supported Chiquita’s political opponents.

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http://www.earthrights.org/media/supreme-court-allows-us-corporation-finance-terrorism-without-accountability