The Chiquita Papers Banana Giant's Paramilitary Payoffs Detailed in Trove of Declassified Legal, Financial Documents http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB340/index.htm

Banana Giant's Paramilitary Payoffs Detailed in Trove of Declassified Legal, Financial DocumentsEvidence of Quid Pro Quo with Guerrilla, Paramilitary Groups Contradicts 2007 Plea DealColombian Military Officials Encouraged, Facilitated Company's Payments to Death SquadsMore than 5,500 Pages of Chiquita Records Published Online by National Security ArchiveNational Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 340

The documents provide evidence of mutually-beneficial "transactions" between Chiquita's Colombian subsidiaries and several illegal armed groups in Colombia and shed light on more than a decade of security-related payments to guerrillas, paramilitaries, Colombian security forces, and government-sponsored Convivir militia groups. The collection also details the company's efforts to conceal the so-called "sensitive payments" in the expense accounts of company managers and through other accounting tricks. The Justice Department investigation concluded that many of Chiquita's payments to the AUC (also referred to as "Autodefensas" in many of the documents) were made through legal Convivir organizations ostensibly overseen by the Colombian army.