Banana republic
In 1904, American author O. Henry coined the term[1][2] to describe Guatemala and Honduras under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita).
[11] By the 1930s, the United Fruit Company owned 1,400,000 hectares (3.5 million acres) of land in Central America and the Caribbean and was the single largest landowner in Guatemala.
Such holdings gave it great power over the governments of small countries, one of the factors confirming the suitability of the phrase "banana republic".
To that end, the mercenary army of the Cuyamel Fruit Company, led by Christmas, effected a coup d'état against President Miguel R. Dávila (1907–1911) and installed Bonilla (1912–1913).
[12][15] The political instability consequent to the coup d'état stalled the Honduran economy, and the unpayable external debt (c. US$4 billion) of Honduras was excluded from access to international investment capital.
[17] Nonetheless, 23 years later, after much corporate intrigue among the American businessmen, by means of a hostile takeover of agricultural business interests, Zemurray assumed control of the rival United Fruit Company in 1933.
[13] Guatemala suffered the regional socio-economic legacy of a 'banana republic': inequitably distributed agricultural land and natural wealth, uneven economic development, and an economy dependent upon a few export crops—usually bananas, coffee, and sugarcane.
In the Cold War (1945–1991) context of the proactive anti-communist politics exemplified by U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy in the years 1947–1957, geo-political concerns about the security of the Western Hemisphere facilitated Eisenhower's ordering and authorising Operation Success, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état by means of which the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency deposed the democratically elected government of Árbenz and installed the pro-business government of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas (1954–1957), which lasted for three years until his assassination by a presidential guard.
However, in 1986, at the 26-year mark, the Guatemalan people promulgated a new political constitution, and elected Vinicio Cerezo (1986–1991) president; then Jorge Serrano Elías (1991–1993).
[22][23] Both the Dole Food Company and Chiquita Brands International have argued that their labourers and farmers are being treated much better in the 21st century than they were during the height of the banana republics.
Today, the governments of Guatemala and Honduras still have very little power, as drug cartels control much of the land and are allied with corrupt officials and law enforcement officers.
It rechristened its territories As the "Banana Republics", And over the sleeping dead, Over the restless heroes Who brought about the greatness, The liberty and the flags, It established a comic opera ...
The novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), by Gabriel García Márquez, depicts the imperialistic capitalism of foreign fruit companies as voracious socio-economic exploitation of natural resources of the fictional South American town of Macondo and its people.
Domestically, the corrupt national government of Macondo abets the business policies and labour practices of the foreign corporations, which brutally oppress the workers.
