Security & Strategic Review - August 2025

In a major ruling on 23 July, a Colombian court sentenced seven former employees of the Colombian subsidiary of multinational banana firm Chiquita Brands to 11 years in prison for financing paramilitary groups in the 1990s and 2000s. The sentence comes as Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary, Banadex (now Banacol), has faced mounting scrutiny in recent years over its links with the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which demobilised in 2006.