united fruit company

Latin American journalists sometimes referred to the company as el pulpo ("the octopus"), and leftist parties in Central and South America encouraged the Company's workers to strike. Our collection of more than 75 albums from the United Fruit Company includes more than 10,000 photographs, dating from 1891 to 1962, which illustrate the company’s operations. In 1884 he contracted with the Costa Rican government … The Company's pioneering work in eliminating malaria and other tropical diseases early in the twentieth century also demonstrated that Guatemala's sparsely inhabited coastal areas offered rich, previously unexploited agricultural zones. Harvard University Press, 1998. He bought 160 stems of unripe bananas there for $40 which he sold in Jersey City for $320. On February 3, 1975, Black committed suicide by jumping out of his office on the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building in New York City. Despite significant economic pressure on Cuba, the company was unable to recoup cost and compensation from the Cuban government. [11] Castro warned the U.S. that "Cuba is not another Guatemala" in one of many combative diplomatic exchanges before the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. For much of the 20th century, the American banana company United Fruit dominated portions of almost a dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to providing employment to tens of thousands of workers and paying them the nation's best rural wages, the Company also offered its employees excellent medical care, rent-free housing, and six years of free schooling for countless children. Explore photograph albums from the company known for making bananas a widely available product. In 1970 AMK merged with United Fruit Company, and adopted the name United Brands. Palmer became a permanent member of the executive committee and for long periods of time the director. Shoultz, Lars: "Beneath the United States", page 338. The company's expansion was facilitated by an environment friendly to foreign business in Central America. Thousands of images depict planting, spraying, irrigation, and harvesting, as well as construction and operation of the company’s departments and research laboratories, which in addition to fruit, produced palm oil, cattle, and mahogany. The United Fruit Company, now Chiquita Brands International, was an American corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The United Fruit Company was an American corporation that did business in South and Central America from 1899 until the 1970s, when it was merged with another company to create the United Brands Company. Telegram from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 5, 1928, Telegram from Bogotá Embassy to Secretary of State, date December 7, 1928, Dispatch from US Bogotá Embassy to the US Secretary of State, dated December 29, 1928, Dispatch from US Bogotá Embassy to the US Secretary of State, dated January 16, 1929, Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia: 1899-2000, The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in Guatemala, Enforcing Business Contracts in South America: The United Fruit Company and the Colombian Banana Planters in the Twentieth-Century, From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000, Banana Wars: Power, Production, and History in the Americas, Encyclopedia of American Business History, Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World, Banana Republic: The United Fruit Company, Financial Times Article on United Fruit's legacy in Latin America: "Rotten Fruit", From Arbenz to Zelaya: Chiquita in Latin America, https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=United_Fruit_Company&oldid=559316, Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007, Articles with invalid date parameter in template, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. United Fruit had far less cash than Black had counted on and Black's mismanagement led to United Brands becoming crippled with debt. The principal founder was Minor C. Keith, who had begun to acquire banana plantations and to build a railroad in Costa Rica as early as 1872. His brother Allen Dulles was the director of the CIA, and was a board member of United Fruit. Bucheli argues that the United Fruit Company was the American company that had established the most political and economic influence in the so-called ‘‘Banana Republics’’ (9). We are kept well supplied with this fruit, also orangee, although the latter are cot very p'entiful In this part of the Island. In Central America, the Company built extensive railroads and ports and provided employment and transportation. 1937: United Fruit merges with Minor Keith's International Railways of Central America (IRCA) 1939 In 1950, Gore Vidal published a novel (Dark Green, Bright Red), in which a thinly fictionalized version of United Fruit supports a military coup in a thinly fictionalized Guatemala. United Road is the industry leader in providing vehicle and heavy-haul transportation services. Harvard University Press, 1998. Preston's lawyer, Bradley Palmer, had devised a scheme for the solution of the participants' cash flow problems and was in the process of implementing it. According to her: Most accounts about the banana company have also failed to describe the significant contribution that United Fruit made to Guatemala's human and economic development. “I have the honor to report that the legal advisor of the United Fruit Company here in Bogotá stated yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military authorities during the recent disturbance reached between five and six hundred; while the number of soldiers killed was one.”[15], The Dispatch from US Bogotá Embassy to the US Secretary of State, dated January 16, 1929, stated: In 1930, Sam Zemurray (nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man") sold his Cuyamel Fruit Co. to United Fruit and retired from the fruit business. Ubico’s favorable attitude toward outside investment prompted UFCO to become thoroughly involved in Guatemala. “Situation outside Santa Marta City unquestionably very serious: outside zone is in revolt; military who have orders "not to spare ammunition" have already killed and wounded about fifty strikers. Its stock market value declined along with its profit margin. After a period of financial decline, United Fruit was merged with Eli M. Black's AMK in 1970 to become the United Brands Company. ... United States of America, including financial statements, sales and marketing contacts, top competitors, and firmographic insights. The United Fruit Company was one of the first of the multinational corporations with aspirations to colonial empire (although as the book points out, in fact that would actually be the British East India Company, of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame these days). It did not take him too long to see the success of his idea, but his ambition and greed led him to take advantage of the workers by paying them extremely low wages. Company holdings in Cuba, which included sugar mills in the Oriente region of the island, were expropriated by the 1959 revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro. In 1899, Keith lost $1.5 million when the New York City broker Hoadley and Co. went bankrupt. In 1984, Carl Lindner, Jr. transformed United Brands into the present-day Chiquita Brands International. Bradley Palmer overnight became a much-sought-after expert in business law, as well as a wealthy man. Zemurray moved the company's headquarters to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was based. Critics often accused the company of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the [8] U.S. officials had little proof to back their claims of a growing communist threat in Guatemala[9], however the relationship between the Eisenhower administration and UFCO demonstrated the influence of corporate interest on U.S. foreign policy. Before World War IIUnited Fruit counted on dictatorships that repressed labor unionism and gave generous concessions in terms of land grants and tax incentives. In 1901, the government of Guatemala hired the United Fruit Company to manage the country's postal service and in 1913 the United Fruit Company created the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company. The United Fruit Company (UFC) was a large, multinational American corporation that played a large role in the development of Latin America, particularly Central American nations such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica throughout the 20th century. Major Latin American writers sympathetic to more independence from foreign governments and corporations, such as Carlos Luis Fallas of Costa Rica, Ramón Amaya Amador of Honduras, Miguel Ángel Asturias of Guatemala, Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia, and Pablo Neruda of Chile, denounced the Company in their literature. Learn more. Clean and enrich company and contact data for your CRM and marketing automation platforms. Bringing fruit out to loading platform, Puerto Castilla, Honduras, circa 1920. In 1954, the democratically elected Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was toppled by U.S.- backed forces lead by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas[5] who invaded from Honduras. This page was last edited on 6 March 2012, at 19:32. [7] Keith brought his plantations and railroads in Central America and his market in the U.S. South and Southeast. The United Fruit Company was one of the first of the multinational corporations with aspirations to colonial empire (although as the book points out, in fact that would actually be the British East India Company, of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame these days). The United Fruit Company paid its full-time employees better than any other, built housing and schools for the children of its employees, built hospitals and research laboratories. United Fruit Company. All materials are available for use in Baker Library's de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room. Banana Republic---The Myth of the United Fruit Company Quiz. The overthrow of Arbenz, however, failed to benefit the Company. The United Fruit Company was frequently accused of bribing government officials in exchange for preferential treatment, exploiting its workers, paying little by way of taxes to the governments of the countries in which it operated, and working ruthlessly to consolidate monopolies. UFCO claimed that hurricanes, blight and other natural threats required them to hold extra land or reserve land. This was not exposed until years later, when the United Fruit Company took possession of almost all the lands in Guatemala.[1]. The United Fruit Company ultimately owned or leased property in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, and numerous other Central American, South American, and West Indian countries. Copy this to my account; E-mail to a friend; Find other activities The company catapulted into financial success. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Company and its successor, United Brands, created an Associated Producers Program that sought to transfer some of its land holdings to private growers whose produce it commercialized. UNITED Fruit, The cia, and counter-Revolution The United Fruit Company first became an institution in Guatemala under the reign of Gen. Jorge Ubico. Assigned by the Eisenhower administration, this military opposition was armed, trained and organized by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency[6] (see Operation PBSUCCESS). Though it competed with the Standard Fruit Company for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called Banana Republics.[1]. In fact, the heavy-handed involvement of the company in governments which often were or became corrupt created the term "Banana republic" representing a "servile dictatorship".[4]. Boston Fruit had been established by Lorenzo Dow Baker, a sailor who, in 1870, had bought his first bananas in Jamaica, and by Andrew W. Preston. Shoultz, Lars: "Beneath the United States", page 337 Harvard University Press, 1998. In August 1984, Lindner took control of the company and renamed it Chiquita Brands International. This position was strongly criticized in the Senate, especially by Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, who argued that those same bullets should have been used to stop the foreign invader.Template:Citation needed, The telegram from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 5, 1928, stated: At that time, United Fruit was importing about a third of all the bananas sold in the US and owned the Chiquita banana brand. "[3], The United Fruit Company (UFCO) owned vast tracts of land in the Caribbean lowlands. The collection includes evidence of hardships and damage suffered from floods, windstorms, and fire. The directors of United Fruit Company (UFCO) had lobbied to convince the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that Colonel Arbenz intended to align Guatemala with the Soviet Bloc. He later became a consultant to presidents and an adviser to congress. Harvard University Press, 1998. This New Orleans office building was constructed in 1920 for the United Fruit Company, one of the most controversial global companies of the 20th century. The military justified this action by claiming that the strike was subversive and its organizers were Communist revolutionaries. Many other services, tools, and collections can be accessed online. United Fruit Company is the only company known to have a CIA cryptonym. Ultimately, the taxes and salaries that the United Fruit Company paid, and the millions of dollars of foreign exchange earnings that it annually generated, impacted in an important way on Guatemala's economy. The railroad was completed in 1890 but the flow of passengers proved insufficient to finance Keith's debt. Meiggs was assisted in the project by his young nephew Minor C. Keith, who took over Meiggs's business concerns in Costa Rica after Meiggs's death in 1877. United Fruit Company was founded in 1899 in the merger of the Boston Fruit Company and other companies producing and marketing bananas grown in the Caribbean islands, Central America, and Colombia. Loading bananas, Puerto Castilla, Honduras, 1926. Diane K. Stanley, a former U.S. diplomat and the daughter of a Welsh-born employee of the United Fruit Co. in Guatemala, argues in the book For the Record: The United Fruit Company's Sixty-six Years in Guatemala, published in 1994, that the negative perception of the company's influence in Guatemala is largely undeserved, and could be due in part to the unwillingness of left-wing journalists and writers to critically examine the legacy of the administrations of Presidents Arévalo and Arbenz. Later that year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission exposed a scheme by United Brands (dubbed Bananagate) to bribe Honduran President Oswaldo López Arellano with $1.25 million, and the promise of another $1.25 million upon the reduction of certain export taxes. Harvard University Press, 1998. [10] Many individuals who directly influenced U.S. policy towards Guatemala in the 1950s also had direct ties to UFCO. That is unfortunate, from the American perspective, because United Fruit is a leading company, but it’s more unfortunate that it comes to be seen as influenced by the Communist party. Because he was looking for cheap food to give to his workers, Keith began planting bananas along the train route in 1873. By 1930, the Company had absorbed more than 20 rival firms, acquiring a capital of $215,000,000 and becoming the largest employer in Central America. The climax of García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is based on the events in Ciénaga, though the author himself has acknowledged that the death toll of 3,000 that he gives there is greatly inflated. Once the railroad was complete, he decided to transport bananas to his native country. Ed Whitman who was United Fruit’s principal lobbyist was married to President Eisenhower's personal secretary, Ann C. Besides the disputed issue of Arbenz's allegiance to Communism, UFCO was being threatened by the Arbenz government’s agrarian reform legislation and new Labor Code. Book pickup, Ask a Librarian, and on-demand scanning are available. The United Fruit Company Lyrics. Keith soon came to dominate the banana trade in Central America and along the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the so-called "banana republics" (a term coined by O. Henry). That shapes how generations of Latin Americans have regarded United States and American business. Ubico gave UFCO its two huge banana estates of Tiquisate and Bannanera, each covering hundreds of square miles, as a gift. Except where otherwise noted, this work is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows anyone to share and adapt our material as long as proper attribution is given. The company was formed in 1899 from the merger of Minor C. Keith's banana-trading concerns with Andrew W. Preston's Boston Fruit Company. Peloso from Work, Protest and Identity It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. In practice, what this meant was that UFCO was able to prevent the government from distributing banana lands to peasants who wanted a share of the banana trade. It flourished in the early and mid-20th century and came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, Ecuador, and the West Indies. On the other hand, it allowed vast tracts of land under its ownership to remain uncultivated and, in Guatemala and elsewhere, it discouraged the government from building highways, which would lessen the profitable transportation monopoly of the railroads under its control. cently by the United Fruit Company of Bosiou, and they have already started sev eral large banana plantations. The United Fruit Company paid contractors who then paid the workers. United Fruit went on to prosper under Zemurray's management; Zemurray resigned as president of the company in 1951. (UFCO) owned vast tracts of land in the Caribbean lowlands. Check out our united fruit company selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. [2], Stanley also argues that while the company did orchestrate "an effective media campaign against the Arbenz government, it is clear that the Eisenhower administration was intent on ousting what it considered to be a Communist beachhead that threatened U.S. national security. The business practices of United Fruit were also frequently criticized by journalists, politicians, and artists in the United States. In the instance of Guatemala, the American interest involved was primarily the United Fruit Company, a powerful business that exported bananas while ensuring low wages for its workers. These corporate records capture a way of life in company towns and villages — from construction and running of railroads and wharves to daily scenes in company-built schools, hospitals, worker homes, and recreational facilities. 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