CATEGORY:INVESTIGATION ---------------------------- INSIDE GRENADA Sunday March 18,2007 According to an article appearing on a CNN online website last week, banana giant, Chiquita Brands International has entered into a plea agreement with federal authorities in the US on charges that it engaged in transactions with a terrorist organization. The article went on to state that the company has agreed to pay a $25 million fine. It is believed that from around 1997 through to February 2004, Chiquita would have made somewhere in the vicinity of 100 payments to the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) totaling over $1.7 million. The company is also alleged to have paid money to two left-wing organizations (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army) - from around 1989 to 1997 – when these groups controlled areas where the company grew bananas in Colombia. In 2002, the US government designated the AUC as a terrorist organization. Under US law, it is illegal for companies to engage in business transactions with groups or organizations that the US government deems as terrorists.