The yellow fruit that saw red As late as 1870, few Americans had ever seen a banana, let alone tasted one. By 1898 they were eating 16 million bunches a year. In 1899, to capitalise on the popularity of the mellow yellow fruit, the Boston Fruit Company merged with the interests of the Brooklyn-born Central American railroad baron Minor C Keith to form the United Fruit Company. Their aim was to own and cultivate large areas of Central American land using well-organised, modern methods, providing predictable harvests of bananas which Keith, who controlled virtually all of Central America's railroads, could then carry to the coast for shipment to the USA.
By 1930, United Fruit was the largest employer in Central America, and its fleet of transport ships was one of the largest private navies in the world. By controlling the country's main port at Puerto Barrios, the company effectively controlled the country's international commerce: Guatemala had indeed become a banana republic.
As the company grew richer and the stakes grew higher, the company came to be known as `El Pulpo' (the Octopus). Local journalists accused it of corrupting government officials, exploiting workers and of generally exercising an influence far beyond its role as a foreign company. Although wages were higher than most, and they received housing and other benefits, workers were required to stoop to obsequious levels when dealing with Whites. The fact that the majority of the company's profits were taken out of the country was another cause of alarm.
The liberal military coup of 1944, followed by the country's first free elections, saw the clamour for better working conditions and almost constant actions against `la Frutera'. The government's demands for more equitable tax payments from the company and the return of unused land caused alarm bells to ring - both in the company's headquarters in Boston and in Washington. Personal financial interest in high places coupled with a general fear that Guatemala was on the brink of fully embracing communism led to the CIA-engineered coup of 1954. The tremendous power of the United Fruit Company had succeeded in setting back democratic development in Guatemala by at least half a century.

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