A Portland law firm is one of three lead counsels involved in a federal lawsuit filed by relatives of U.S. missionaries killed in Colombia.

The suit claims that Chiquita Brands International Inc. contributed to their deaths by financing the leftist rebel group known as FARC.

Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios is representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Miami, that seeks unspecified damages for families of five missionaries from the Sanford, Fla.-based New Tribes Mission. They were kidnapped in the 1990s, held hostage for lengthy periods and ultimately killed by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, its Spanish acronym, the lawsuit says.

Preti Flaherty got involved in the case through a contact it has with the mission’s general counsel, according to Gregory Hansel, a partner in the firm.
“We have a national practice and this is one of the cases we’re handling now,” he said.