this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
433 points (99.8% liked)

News

21698 readers
4133 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Landmark verdict against Chiquita marks first time major US company held liable for funding human rights abuses abroad

A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the American banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997-2004.

The landmark ruling late on Monday came after 17 years of legal efforts and is the first time that the fruit multinational has paid out compensation to Colombian victims, opening the way for thousands of others to seek restitution.

It also marks the first time a major US corporation has been held liable for such rights abuses in another country and could lead to a series of similar lawsuits involving rights violations across the world.

top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thejoker954 62 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At a bare minimum any company that helps terrorists or supports any type of human rights abuse should be taken over and made some sort of public commodity.

Like a corporate applied eminent domain. Now all 'profit' goes directly into the community coffer.

[–] Vorticity 21 points 2 weeks ago

Now all ‘profit’ goes directly into the community coffer.

Only after reparations have been made to everyone impacted. I'm sure there were more than eight families who were impacted by Chiquita funding terrorists for eight years and I doubt their abuses were actually limited to those eight years.

[–] Iheartcheese 52 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Chiquita ordered to pay 38 million fee to kill people.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At least now they actually have to weigh up the costs, before it was free.

[–] TallonMetroid 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

For a large corp 38.3M is chump change, though.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 13 points 2 weeks ago

Chiquita Brands International's revenue is $3.1 billion. - Chiquita Brands International peak revenue was $3.1B in 2023.

Yep.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

You can be negative if you want but this is still a step in the right direction.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen 40 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If corporations are people (Citizens United) they should be able to be tried and get the death penalty.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 14 points 2 weeks ago

Japanese seppuku style for the folks running the company.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago

So the price to kill someone is 4.75 million? Got it.

As long as the actual people in charge (read: CEO, CTO, CFO, anyone else on the board of directors and any other executives) aren't held directly responsible with a proper punishment that isn't payment, the killing of people is literally just a fee of 4.75 million dollars.

[–] JASN_DE 22 points 2 weeks ago

Good start st least.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I need to start a company so I can legally kill people.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You can also just be a police officer in the United States.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, but I might get held accountable if I kill the wrong race. _cough_white ppl

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

No, maybe a fruit or water company.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck that. Take all the managers at the time, everyone who knew about this deal, and throw them all in jail for 8 counts of murder.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Banana giant death squads. What a world.

[–] CheeseNoodle 4 points 2 weeks ago

Not even the worst thing the US has done for bannanas.

[–] ours 3 points 2 weeks ago

Wait until you learn about the Coca-Cola death squads. I wish I were joking.

[–] Fedizen 11 points 2 weeks ago

all the executives at the company at the time should be in jail or sent to columbia for trial.

[–] ObamaBinLaden 6 points 2 weeks ago

Where do you put death squads on your PnL sheet?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

"Hey Boeing, hold my beer."

[–] artichokecustard 5 points 2 weeks ago

the banana republic never fell

[–] uebquauntbez 0 points 2 weeks ago

Is it bananas or peanuts?