Dole strikes back against “Bananas!” documentary

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You might remember this post we did in June on a documentary about Nicaraguan banana-plantation workers and the Dole Food Co.

Well, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Dole accused Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten of slander and libel in making the documentary, which was shown at last month’s Los Angeles Film Festival.

The film ‘Bananas!’ chronicles a 2007 case against Dole and prominently features L.A. attorney Juan J. Dominguez, who now faces contempt charges.

The Times’ Victoria Kim reports:

In light of the judge’s finding of fraud by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Dole attorneys contend in the complaint that ‘Bananas!’ unfairly demonizes Dole and is riddled with factual inaccuracies.

Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney, in a 60-page ruling dismissing two pending lawsuits, said attorneys for the Nicaraguans engaged in a brazen scheme to recruit men who had never worked on banana plantations, train them to lie on the stand and fabricate medical evidence to back up the claims.’

Read the rest of Kim’s story about the Dole lawsuit here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City