Paris court deals blow to French Caribbean pesticide fight

By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A nearly 20-year fight to hold the French government criminally responsible for using a banned pesticide in the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe has received a serious blow. A court in Paris dismissed the case. The judges agreed that the use of chlordecone on banana plantations was a health scandal and an “environmental attack whose human, economic and social consequences” will keep harming the islanders for many years. But they said it’s too hard now to determine criminal responsibility. Another French court agreed last year that islanders were harmed, but denied any compensation. Advocates for the islanders say they will appeal.