A final verdict of Nicaraguan judge Socorro Toruño has brought an end to the hunger strike of ex-banana workers...The judge decided that a number of American [firms] will have to pay a compensation of $ 97 mln. to 150 former employees, who have suffered unrecoverable injuries from the use of pesticides. It concerns the companies Standard Fruit Company, Dole Food, Dow Chemicals, Shell Oil Company (Shell Oil USA) and Occidental Chemical Corporation. These companies have distributed chemicals in Nicaragua during the sixties and seventies, which were banned under US sanitary laws. Now legal trials will begin against the multinationals.