1.   Chiquita Brands International is the main foreign banana company active in the Uraba region.

2.   For the U.S. banana companies though, the EU import regime is designed to protect European companies importing bananas.

3.   He says he has no savings and no way to make money if the banana companies do not hire again.

4.   He then proceeded to say that George Ventura, a former lawyer for Chiquita, had been a crucial source for his articles about the huge banana company.

5.   More galling for Teran are allegations that he has succumbed to pressure from the hugely powerful banana companies to help them make sure the suits are tried in Ecuador.

6.   Some big U.S. banana companies, including Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International Inc., have also lobbied against the quotas.

7.   The banana company announced that its loss from continuing operations in the fourth-quarter narrowed from a year earlier.

8.   The Clinton administration is taking that action at the behest of the U.S.-owned Chiquita banana company.

9.   The island banana company is partly owned by the governments of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Dominica and Grenada, all Windward Islands.

10.   The paper alleged that Chiquita had attempted to bribe officials in Colombia, sprayed pesticides on workers, and secretly controlled other banana companies.