The Bush administration was pulled in competing directions, perhaps because its desire to avoid undermining a newly elected, friendly Colombian government conflicted with its frequent public assertions that supporting a terrorist group anywhere constitutes a criminal offense and a foreign policy mistake.
[…]
The attorney general of Colombia, Mario Iguaran, and other Colombian officials have dismissed Chiquita’s assertions that it was a victim of extortion and paid AUC to protect its workers. An Organization of American States report in 2003 said that Chiquita participated in smuggling thousands of arms for paramilitaries into the Northern Uraba region, using docks operated by the company to unload thousands of Central American assault rifles and ammunition.
In Terrorism-Law Case, Chiquita Points to U.S. (Washington Post)
(Image from Watching America, along with this interesting El Tiempo article: Four Million Bullets)
Update: Documents Implicate Colombian Government in Chiquita Terror Scandal (National Security Archive)