Do you enjoy those Chiquita bananas everyone loves? Well after learning a little bit more about the company who brings them to you they might not taste so good. The time is the early 1950s. The place Guatemala. The United States is running a secret operation known as PBSUCCESS in order to eliminate the current government. But wait, this is the first democratic government in Guatemala so why would the United States be trying to sabotage it? We have always made our foreign policy about human rights and spreading democracy right? Currently Jacob Arbenz is a democratically elected leader who is fighting poverty and being successful at it. So doesn't this sound like someone the United States would want to ally with and try to help? Unfortunately this time US policy was not all about helping people and we did not follow the good old uncle Sam we are used to seeing.
Bocas Fruit Company
English: 1916 advertisement for the United Fruit C...
Entrance façade of old United Fruit Building on S...You see an American based company the United Fruit Company was mainly stationed in Guatemala. Most of there production came from exploiting workers. Also the United Fruit Company massive amounts of land and other necessities to the government. Naturally the good hearted president wanted to help his people but this would hurt the United Fruit Company's business and the big banks who backed the corporation didn't like that one bit. Eventually money became more important than human rights and the CIA plotted a military coup to get rid of Arbenz. It was successful and the United Fruit Company got a leader who supported their ways.