Florida venue for Chiquita Colombia suits

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 30 (UPI) -- A U.S. judicial panel has ordered that claims that U.S. fruit company Chiquita Brands played a role in scores of killings in Colombia be heard in a U.S. court.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach, Fla., will handle the lawsuits that alleged Chiquita regularly paid off a rightist terrorist group that killed nearly 200 Colombians in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Palm Beach Post said Wednesday that Florida was deemed by the panel to be a more appropriate venue for the cases as opposed to Washington, which Chiquita had favored.

"The district is closer to Colombia, where many of the events that bear on this litigation took place," the panel on multi-district litigation wrote in its order.

Chiquita last year pleaded guilty to paying the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia $1.7 million, which the company contends was extortion money.

The plaintiffs, however, say Chiquita should have pulled out of Colombia or at least reported the alleged shakedown to U.S. authorities. They also contend there is no evidence that the payments did anything to protect Chiquita's workers.