Blood Bananas Case

Introduction
Chiquita Brands International is a successful company with a long history that began in 1899 as the United Fruit Company. The company has endured over time through changes in leadership, acquisitions, and process changes to become one of “the big three” banana distributors in the world. While they have become successful; their past has been tarnished by paying bribes to government officials, supporting U.S. coups against smaller nations and exploiting local workers. The company that originally revolutionized the banana trade by using refrigerated ships was now faced with the decision of whether to continue to pay a terrorist organization in Colombia, South America to ensure the safety of their employees, stop payment and face the consequences or sell the business and exit the country.
Background
The issue at hand is partly the result of the industry itself. Bananas grow best in tropical regions, such as the Caribbean, Central America, Asia and Africa. They are critical cash crop for many of the lesser-developed countries. The banana producing country in question here is Colombia, South America which has a population of over 45M people, the second largest in South America. It has the 4th largest economy in Latin America although the income inequality is prevalent due to very uneven wealth distribution. It is in this environment that paramilitary organizations such as the AUC thrive. According to Fernando Aguirre, a former Chiquita CEO, “These lands were lands where there was no law. It was impossible for the government to protect Chiquita employees.”
The AUC was created in 1997 as an umbrella organization of regional far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia, each intending to protect different local economic, social, and political interests by fighting insurgents in their area. They were estimated to have more than