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Bloody Bananas

 

 

 

Chiquita brand bananas were formerly known as the conglomerate United Fruit Company. Their history is one stained with blood bath, injustice, corruption, and abuse of power.

 

…Founded by two men- One borne into wealth from a family-owned railroad company and the other a self-made businessman, who expanded his small trading fruit company domestically and later found the refrigerated solution to export between the east and west coasts. 

 

Minor Keith took up the railroad business after his family. During the second Industrial Revolution, he planted banana fields along the rail path. Simultaneously, it  would not only serve as an economic tool to keep the workers fed, but to also gain profit from it. 

 

The railroad magnate lost almost all of his assets when his bank went bankrupt. Fatefully, he met Andrew Preston. In a desperate attempt to save the company, they struck a partnership deal and the United Fruit Company was born. 

 

So powerful did they grow, that their successful empire regime expanded its Banana Republic into Central America, where its economy depended on this single crop and company to thrive. Smaller competitors were bought out. Political influence and connections with U.S. counterparts and other officials enabled United Fruit to overthrow adversaries and have complete control of their own supply chains.

 

United Fruit exploited the Amazons, displaced populations to steal lands for cultivation and ravaged more when fields became infected. Thousands of workers died from disease outbreaks due to the heat and inhumane working conditions. In order to keep farmers working around the clock, with only Sundays off, houses near the plantations were built. Moreover, wages were measly on a bi-weekly basis- the majority of the time opting to pay its employees with vouchers they were forced to spend at staples within its compounds- essentially feeding the caged cyclone in its perpetual torture of the people. 

 

When a union in Columbia collectively formed to demand safer working conditions, wells for access to sanitary water, increased pay, weekly cash instead of vouchers, and other basic necessities, United Fruit chose to hire a militia group to silence them from the rooftops of a capital square during a peaceful protest, while awaiting to share their grievances with the governor scheduled to arrive after a peaceful day at church. Another incident took place when the Guatemalan president spoke out against the giants and return of land to natives.  A smear campaign to portray him as a communist sympathizer and ideologist already nerved the population. A military coup took advantage of this opportunity and made the hostile takeover of the government.

 

This ongoing corruption went undisclosed for many years, until a modern day civil suit was brought to rest with a disclosed monetary settlement. Legacy media never covered its dark history. The closest revelation was authored by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in the fictional book, “ One Hundred Years of Solitude ,” inspired by its events. Controversy also exists that the company allowed for illegal drug smuggling using their own shipment transports. 

 

To this day, it is unbeknownst to the public majority the violent history of the popular banana, without giving thought of its origins, before it is consumed. 

 

Author:  Nyvith