Bulldogcakes
03-14-2007, 03:55 PM
<p><font size="3"><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070314/terrorism_bananas.html?.v=5"></a><strong><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070314/terrorism_bananas.html?.v=5">CHIQUITA Banana Charged in Terror Investigation...</a></strong></font></p><p>Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine and admit paying a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming region.</p><p> </p><p>the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.</p><p>The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. The right-wing group was designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization in September 2001.</p><p> </p>