On November 14, victims of a Colombian paramilitary group filed suit before the Manhattan federal court against the American banana importer Chiquita, according to the Associated Press. The plaintiffs—relatives of 387 people killed during the civil war by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)—are accusing Chiquita of complicity in terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity for having given money to the AUC. They are demanding 7.86 billion dollars in damages from the American company. Chiquita admitted that its former subsidiary, Banadex, paid 1.7 million dollars to the AUC between 1997 and 2004. It argues that Banadex had no other choice, given the situation, than to pay for protection from the groups that had threatened to bring death and destruction to its banana plantations. According to Jonathan Reiter, the New York lawyer who filed the suit, Chiquita allegedly went well beyond that, also providing weapons to its "protectors".