An Empire Gone Bananas!

The infamous story of the United Fruit Company and its reckless behavior in Central and South America has been well documented and available to consume for many decades. But to date, most Americans know nothing about this important historical event. While this isn't a surprise given our culture's habit of hiding imperial ugliness, it is an episode in time that warrants a closer study, especially when you evaluate the tactics of our past along side the current, oligarchic, economic system.

The story begins in the later years of the 19th century when Bananas became a big hit with the American public. At the time, a Boston based business named the United Fruit Company had been the primary supplier importing most of the fruit from Central and South America. To increase production and take greater control of the supply chain, the company began to purchase land in Guatemala. Their initial purchase ultimately morphed into ownership that absorbed almost half the country and with it, control of the airwaves, mail service and to a small degree, currency by paying workers in vouchers that had to be redeemed within company stores. As one can imagine, foreign ownership of half a country is neither healthy nor sustainable. Eventually, the people of Guatemala fought back by electing a president who campaigned and won on land reform and the sovereign rights of its citizens.

Unfortunately for the people of Guatemala, their new government did not sit well with the United Fruit Corporation who responded immediately by convinced policy makers in Washington DC that Communism was taking root in our back yard. Before long, a textbook CIA coup was initiated, implemented and successfully completed after Guatemala's democratically elected president (Jacobo Árbenz) was removed from office. This was accomplished through a scheme that involved sophisticated propaganda models developed by Edward Bernays (the nephew of Sigmund Freud, known as the Godfather of Public Relations) and the US military who oversaw the installation of Col. Carlos Castillo Armas - a US puppet and supporter of its business interests.

So much for democracy, freedom and liberty for all.

And that was just the beginning. As a result of the coup, Guatemala collapsed into a decades long civil war resulting in brutal attacks on the indigenous population and any faction attempting to rise up against the collective power supporting the U.S. imperialist, economic agenda. Of course, Guatemala is just one example of a playbook that was repeated for over half a century throughout all of Central and South America. Further, this model was fine tuned and engineered in all corners of the globe as a means to retain the rights and/or extract any natural resource wall street determined valuable. The most recent example, the 2019 coup of Evo Morales in Lithium rich Bolivia where gloried fan boy Elon Musk tweeted "We will Coup whoever we choose, deal with it." Well, at least he was honest!

So what have we learned from this gloomy chapter of American foreign policy and can we draw any parallels with our modern day political, economic system?

Let's take a look.

-In spite of laws to prevent it, monopoly power in the United States has never been greater. Fewer participating competitors means concentrated control, less choices, higher prices, lower wages and fewer worker protections. This is exactly how the United Fruit Company conducted business during their reign in Guatemala.

- An alarmingly close and growing, symbiotic relationship between big business, wall street and big government who work with each other to retain contracts and deter any form of meaningful competition.

-The corporate owned United States press continues to focus stories on dividing the populous in an effort to ensure they remain enraged with each other and not the perpetrators of a rigged economic system that purposely sold them down the river for the past forty years. Just as Edward Bernays had manufactured media propaganda in Guatemala to divide the populous and foment a Coup.

-The inclusion of a law within the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that codified and expanded a power that grants the military a right to hold U.S. citizens in military detention, indefinitely. This along with the NSA's practice of spying on all Americans should raise a major red flag for anyone concerned about their freedom and constitutional rights.

Granted, this final point might be appear extreme but given the hard line tactics and subsequent jailing of protestors at multiple protests around the United States during the previous decade, it's in the cards and worth monitoring.

Am I reaching here? Perhaps, but if you compare the tactics of the United Fruit Company in an effort to maintain their control for the purpose of profit and exploitation over a sovereign nation with those of our current corporate/state alliance that's produced record inequality and a level of division amongst its citizenry that's on par with that of the gilded age, one needs to take note and stay vigilant.

In the words of author and scholar John Ralston Saul from his Unconscious Civilization - "It's a Corporate Coup D’État in slow motion."

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” Smedley D. Butler General Smedley Darlington Butler was the youngest captain and the most decorated soldier in the history of the United States. The outstanding officer in Marine Corp history, and one of only two Marines to receive two Medals of Honor, his country's highest decoration, for heroism in combat. He was until his death in 1940, the most popular officer among the troops.