Chiquita's history in Colombia is more than a century old. Its roots grow out of the United Fruit Company, notorious in Latin America as a U.S. Army backed opponent to agrarian reform and agricultural workers' unions. Though later known as United Brands in 1970, and then Chiquita in 1989, business in Latin America has continued in similar veins. In 1928, several thousand workers of Colombia's banana plantations began a strike demanding written contracts, eight-hour days, six-day weeks and the elimination of food coupons. Military forces murdered thousands of United Fruit Company Workers who were protesting. [1]

Throughout the 20th century, the company was infamous for using a combination of its financial clout, congressional influence and violent refusal to negotiate with striking workers to establish and maintain a colony of "banana republics" in Latin America. Often the CIA and the US Marines provided the company's muscle, as in the case of the overthrow of the populist Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz in 1953. [2]

In 1975, a federal grand jury accused United Brands of bribing Honduran President Osvaldo Lopez Arellano with $1.25 million, with the promise of another $1.25 million later, in exchange for reducing taxes on banana exports. Lopez Arellano was removed from power, but later investigations revealed repeated bribes carried out by the company. [3] Subpoenas were also issued regarding possible payoffs in Italy, West Germany, Panama and Costa Rica. [4]

In May of 1998, The Cincinnati Enquirer published a series of articles that exposed Chiquita's still-questionable business practices. The articles, written by Mike Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter, reported cases in which the company used tactics including "bribery, abusive corporate control in Honduras and Colombia, the use of harmful pesticides, and repressive actions against workers" to bolster