In early March of this year, the banana producer Chiquita admitted to having paid a total of two million dollars to the Colombian paramilitary terrorists: United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). According to Chiquita, this money was meant to protect their own employees who would otherwise have been murdered by the AUC. Instead, the AUC used that very money for the murder of trade union members and other employees working on Chiquita plantations. During the period in which the payments were made, 62 bloodbaths took place in the banana-producing region Urabá taking the lives of 432 people, many of them workers on Chiquita banana plantations. Aside from financing the paramilitaries, Chiquita also helped to import three thousand AK47 rifles (Kalashnikov's) and millions of pieces of ammunition for the paramilitaries. When these funding activities came to light, charges were brought against Chiquita by the US government for supporting a terrorist organization. However, simply by pleading guilty and paying 25 million Euro, Chiquita bosses managed to buy their way out of the charges. In other words, nobody from Chiquita Brands has been punished! Furthermore, the victims of the paramilitary violence have not yet received any kind of compensation; not one cent of the 25 million Euro went to the victims, not even one apology! And so, the victims of the paramilitary violence started a court case in June 2007: one in Washington and one in Florida. They are demanding that the Chiquita directors be prosecuted for their support of the Colombian armed conflict.