Our Company's History (Background Information)

The United Fruit Company was a powerful corporation throughout the early 1900s that controlled huge portions of Central America during the 1900s. The United Fruit Company bribed leaders throughout central America, and they would even fund coups to make sure they had allies in power. These people would then give the United Fruit Company land concessions to repay them for the money they gave. The United Fruit Company began to clear rainforests throughout Colombia and Central America, and they owned massive percentages of countries; at one point they owned 40% of Guatemala, and all of it was for growing bananas.  They were not just making plantations, they also needed transport to get the bananas to the United States. The plantation towns were completely controlled by the United Fruit Company, meaning they controlled what you could buy, what you could eat, and where you slept. At one point Guatemala put the United Fruit Company in charge of their postal service. People began to go to these banana plantations because they were told they would get paid well. However, this was a lie, as the United Fruit Company gave little to nothing to these farmers. They didn’t even give them real currency most of the time. The currency they gave them was fake currency that could only be used in the shops in the plantation towns. United Fruit Company was so powerful that they had their own navy with 93 boats! With all this power, the United Fruit Company was named El Pulpo, which in English means The Octopus, because their tentacles stretched all over Central America, Colombia, and the Caribbean. These countries were all being run by United Fruit Company, this is where the term Banana Republic comes from, meaning you exploit land to gain profit on one particular item (in this case bananas.) Honduras was the first company to start protesting against the banana company. The banana company did not like this and organized a private army to replace the current president with a president of their liking. These events would continuously occur and the banana companies would keep putting down the rebellions. They were able to keep doing this as the United Fruit Company was backed up by the United State. Honduras was invaded the most with an astonishing seven invasions. Then things began to heat up as in Colombia in 1928 many workers started protesting against work conditions and not getting paid real money and were trying to negotiate with the United Fruit Company. Instead of negotiating with them the United Fruit Company went to the United States and made it seem as if the people rebelling against the company were communists. The United States then threatened to invade the country of Colombia and get rid of the rebellion, Colombia did not want this to happen so they sent in their own troops to put down the rebellion with the order to,” spare no ammunition.” The Colombian army appears to the protest in a small town in Colombia and massacres the people of their own country. Everything stayed the same for United Fruit Company until in Guatemala, where United Fruit Company owned 50% of the land tax-free, they had elected a president named  Jacobo Arbenz  Guzman who wanted to give away land United Fruit was not using to poor Guatemalans in need similar to Robin Hood. The United Fruit Company did not like this and told the United States that Guatemala had a communist government and had elected a communist president. The United Fruit Company provided congress and the President with fake articles that were supposedly from Guatemala to try to get them to help get a new president in charge. The United States government sent in the CIA to stage a coup against the Guatemalan government by finding a rebellion and giving them money and training them, they also found a president who would be friendly with the United Fruit Company. They then invaded, blocking off Guatemalan shores with their navy and even bombing Guatemala cities; they were then able to take over the Guatemalan government and replace them with the president. This invasion has left scars in Guatemala and the rest of Central America that can still be seen today. The people who worked for United Fruit Company at the executive level during any of these periods weren't charged with anything and United Fruit still exists today under the name Chiquita. ​​​​​​​