WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Chiquita Brands International asked a judge Friday to dismiss lawsuits claiming the banana company paid Colombian paramilitary groups that killed hundreds or even thousands of people.

Lawyers for Chiquita insisted that the money it paid over a seven-year period to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia had no direct connection to massacres, kidnappings, assassinations and acts of intimidation committed by the group in banana-growing regions.

“There are no allegations that Chiquita was directly involved in any of these incidents,” said Gregg Levy, an attorney for Cincinnati-based Chiquita.

The company acknowledges a subsidiary had paid the right-wing paramilitary group _ known by its Spanish acronym AUC _ and another group. But its lawyers contend the company was essentially extorted by the groups that controlled areas where its bananas are grown.

But lawyers for the Colombian plaintiffs claim in the lawsuits that Chiquita should be held liable for billions of dollars in wrongful death damages, alleging it paid both the AUC and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The U.S. lists both as terrorist groups.

“The AUC was engaging in murder, torture, forced disappearances and destruction of these communities,” said Terry Collingsworth, representing family members of about 173 people who died. “Everybody knew this. Chiquita knew it.”

The lawsuits claim Chiquita should be held liable for allegedly providing material support to the AUC in the form of cash, weapons such as AK-47s, military supplies and even access to its banana ports for cocaine trafficking.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702430.html?wprss=rss_nation/wires