Bananagate

A former paramilitary leader testified in Colombia that all banana companies have paid paramilitary groups, naming Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. In March 2007, Chiquita agreed to pay a $25 million fine to the U.S. Justice Department for having paid protection money to Colombia's leading paramilitary group between 1997 and 2004.

Chiquita had also acknowledged having paid guerilla groups depending on which group had been in control of its banana-growing region in Uraba. After September 11, 2001, the U.S. added both Colombian paramilitary and guerilla groups to its list of terrorist organizations.

The banana union, Sintrainagro, has denounced the payments by Chiquita, but not because they were seen as part of some effort to destroy the union but because they weren't sufficiently effective in protecting the union from armed actors.

In early June, Chiquita was sued on behalf of families of victims from both paramilitary and guerilla violence during the time Chiquita acknowledged it was providing payments to the armed groups.