The Shocking & Shady Past of Bananas

[Music] hi friends I hope you're having a wonderful day today my name is Bailey sarian and I'd like to welcome you to the library of dark history darling hi welcome this is a safe space for all the Curious cats out there who think hey is history really as boring as it seemed in school this is where we learn together about all the dark mysterious dramatic stories that many of us did not learn in school so today's story is shocking it's wild it's insane what are we talking about bananas oh yeah bananas random right what comes to mind when I say bananas banana splits maybe Gwen Stefani that [ __ ] is bananas she taught me how to spell it b-a-n-a-n-a-s also why do people say whoa that's bananas have you ever heard that or wondered like where does that come from yeah where does that come from anywho when I think of bananas I think of migraines because bananas give me migraines so I decided to look up what's in bananas that might be making me feel so shitty if you've ever had a migraine or you've suffer from migraines I feel you you feel me it's the literal worst like shut the blinds don't talk to me my brain is exploding you know well it turns out that in addition to vitamins and fiber and like all the healthy stuff bananas have bananas also have a very shady past oh yeah bananas Shady remember the Nestle episode and all that like shady business with paramilitaries corrupt governments and murder well this story has all of that including a household name you may know this name Chiquita shout out to Chiquita that's right you know her she is world famous she's all cute posing on that blue sticker in the grocery store like oh you know banana but I'm getting ahead of myself so let's go back to them again oh my God I love Hilary Duff because let me tell you this [ __ ] is bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s literally let's open up our dark history book to the bananas chapter shall we oh my God there's a naked man I opened it to the Naked Man chapter my bad beep bop boop scoop doop here we go baby you ready you ready okay so it's said that the modern banana can trace its roots to about 4 000 years ago now some archaeologists claim that they found banana residue in the teeth of human skeletons I mean I'm pretty certain they didn't have floss back then so I mean that's pretty impressive detective work but the first officially documented evidence of bananas is from the 6th Century BCE there's some speculation about when Europeans had their first contact with the banana but what we know for sure is that in the 1500s during the Age of Exploration Ferdinand Magellan documented coming into contact with bananas in the Pacific while he was making his trip around the world now when he saw them Ferdinand describe them as quote figs span long end quote now what does that even mean because I don't know according to Merriam-Webster a span is the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger of a spread hand oh okay I see it so Mr Magellan thought a banana looked like a really long fig That's Unique that's different great wow and that's the history of bananas thank you come come back next week thank you so back to the story the Europeans were colonizing these tropical locations where bananas grew and bananas were becoming more and more popular because you know they're sweet they're delicious they're mushy um maybe they're giving you a migraine whatever but bananas still weren't a major export because no one had figured out how to transport them yet I mean imagine opening up the container of all the all the bananas and then they're all smushed and brown you know that gross but things begin to change at the turn of the 19th century steam ships railroads and Refrigeration became affordable and easily available this meant bananas a sexy luxury item at the time could be transported they are pretty sexy actually you know what I'm saying could be transported without going bad before they were sold so importing bananas went from being completely impossible to hugely profitable large corporations started forming in order to take advantage of the burgeoning banana import business when we think of bananas what's the first company you think of maybe I said it in my intro Chiquita perhaps and there's a reason for that it all starts with a man named Miner Cooper Keith Miner was born in Brooklyn New York in 1848 to a very comfy life you could say his dad was a lumber Merchant so he was slanging wood wink wink and his mom's family was connected to the railroad industry and money and this connection will become very important later on so just you know store that in your Noggin great minor attended private schools until he was 16 because money and then his dad bought him a cattle ranch in Texas and minor moved there to run it so it sounds super random but apparently it was a thing for rich people at the time so Miner had a pretty cushy existence but he still had bigger aspirations bigger dreams and when his uncle invited him to abandon life on the cattle ranch to help build a railroad through the jungle of Costa Rica Miner was like hell yeah let's do this so in 1871 he ditched his farm and his mumus to set off for Costa Rica with his two brothers even though he knew absolutely nothing about the place back then Central America didn't have much in the way of infrastructure going on I mean there were Villages connected by dirt roads and not much else to help you get from place to place the plan to build a railroad from the capitol which is in the middle of the country to the Caribbean coast was no small task it required navigating through all kinds of natural obstacles you have mountains rivers rainforests volcanoes you name it I mean you freaking name it that that was in the way but there was coffee minerals and maybe even gold to be found so the potential for making big money was enough inspiration to at least try what seemed like an impossible task to a lot of people besides the rough terrain there were lots of other hurdles to this project they were on for one there was a climate from extreme stream heat to torrential downpours Costa Rica had a little bit of everything to make construction extremely challenging there were also tropical diseases like yellow fever malaria dysentery you remember from the Oregon Trail everyone got dysentery oh and if that wasn't enough sometimes trees would fall over on workers and don't even get me started on the mosquitoes so between the mud the mosquitoes killer trees and diseases the Costa Ricans who were doing the labor were like enough they had enough and they walked off the job it's estimated that 5 000 men died during the railroads construction including Miner's uncle and his brothers and in 1874 Miner was left in charge of the railroad I'm kind of giggling because it's like there was no one left because they were all dying despite all the hardships and deaths and loss instead of calling it quits minor blindly pushed ahead with this little project so now the year is 1882 and it's eight years after minor took over the project and 11 years since he first arrived in Costa Rica 70 miles of the railroad had been built but he was still short of his goal of constructing a railroad from the capitol to the coast and the cherry on top Miner was out of cash to make things worse the government of Costa Rica had promised to help with the cost of the railroad but the money never came so minor is pretty much broke and he needs a way to feed the few remaining workers that he has right so what's the solution bananas as a guy from Brooklyn minor didn't have much exposure to bananas and at the time they were only available in tropical climates but minor did notice banana trees growing in the forest and every tree grew hundreds of bananas and then he learned that banana trees are actually really easy to grow so Miner decided to start planting banana trees near the railroad because it was cheap food for his workers now this led to minor having this like light bulb moment if bananas grow easily he could create plantations full of them Rose and rows of banana trees across the countryside and then maybe I don't know he could sell these bananas and start having lots of money roll in not a bad idea so minor shifted gears away from the railroad and instead started exporting bananas well he wants to get into exporting bananas let me just say that at first it was like kind of an experiment he exported the bananas from the tree he had planted to see if this plan could work and boy it sure did so since that was such a fruitful Venture Miner kept it going he realized that he had a railroad at his disposal remember because he's building a freaking Railroad and he used the train to get the bananas to the port Miner's banana experiment was so successful that by 1883 he had three banana export companies yeah no idea why he needed three but it's impressive and things always happen in three and by 1890 he started using the train exclusively for his banana export business because he really wasn't making any money off of it from passengers so I mean life was looking pretty good for minor he's got this whole banana business thriving I mean great but Miner wanted more than just money he wanted power and Prestige because he's a male yeah so he married Christina Castro the daughter of a former Costa Rican president he also helped the Costa Rican government negotiate their debt with English banks I know how did he meet the daughter I don't know and he became a very respectable guy in society I guess everyone just kind of forgot about all those people who died under his watch while he was building his train and not like one or two people not that one or two people doesn't matter but like it was 5 000 people and everyone just kind of forgot about it oh well I guess anyways the banana business was booming even when minor wasn't actually in Costa Rica he was still freaking Hossa Lane now one time he was in London he created the tropical trading and Transport company to help with operations and banana shipments to the United States now this new business venture also ran a chain of stores within Costa Rica on top of this minor made trade agreements with companies in Colombia and Boca Del Toro which is now like part of Panama so by the time 1899 rolled around minor had pretty much monopolized bananas in all of Central America but bummer for minor The Brokerage company that held all of his money went bankrupt so boom shakalaka minor was broke again even Miner's friends in high society and the Costa Rican government tried to bail him out but Miner was In Too Deep he couldn't be saved so he was forced to do the unthinkable grovel Miner set a meeting with his main rival his name was Andrew Preston he already sounds like a douche the president of the Boston fruit company I am president of the Boston fruit company oh I kind of like that because at this point the only way out of Miner's Financial mess was like for companies for their companies to merge so on March 30th 1899 the United Fruit Company was born Andrew headed up the new company and minor was the VP I guess when you lose 1.5 million dollars you're forced to play second fiddle and this new company really turned out to be the perfect match Miner had a railroad dominated Central America and he controlled the Southeast Market in the United States and Andrew had a steamship Fleet plantations in the West Indies and he controlled the Northeast Market in the United States so it seems like these two had it all figured out but Pop Quiz what have we learned about men with money and power on this show that they're super nice and do great things for this planet and I'm sorry you're incorrect if you guessed enough is Never Enough then you are correct what did they win Joan a toilet congratulations you want a toilet United Fruit Company went on to merge with and buy out other banana companies to the point where they were basically a monopoly now for those of you who don't know what a monopoly is it's not a game Monopoly is a company that has a complete ownership or control of the entire supply of goods of services and a certain Market Nestle is kind of Loki in Monopoly and here's where the trouble really begins the business of bananas had gone from zero profits in 1884 to a 10 million dollar industry in 1906. can you imagine 10 million dollars in 1906 that's about 300 million dollars today you are Rich banana Rich so we're talking like a [ __ ] ton of bananas a [ __ ] ton of money I mean wow any of you thought minor wasn't so good to his workers in the 1800s now wait until you see what he is in store for them now making more money I'm going to start treating my my workers like [ __ ] let's pause for an ad break go get yourself a banana have you ever had an acne breakout come at the worst possible time it always does right I mean it's so rude it's literally like your skin knows when you're going to a big event or maybe you have something important going on it's like boom hi I'm here break out like I'll be getting ready to film a video and then I look in the mirror and like it just grows it appears I get some planets on my chin you know hey it happens to all of us I'm sure a lot of us have had struggles with our skin and that's exactly why I'm always excited to partner with apostrophe the sponsor of this episode apostrophe if you don't know is a prescription skin care company that offers science-backed oral and topical medications that are clinically proven to help clear acne apostrophe connects you with a board-certified dermatologist who will create a personalized treatment plan that is perfectly tailored to your unique skin simply fill out apostrophes online quiz about your skin goals and medical history then you're going to snap a few selfies and your dermatologist will create your customized treatment plan based off of like what they see and analyze apostrophe treats all types of acne I'm talking from hormonal acne to facial 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plan for five dollars we hoo a big thank you to apostrophe for partnering with me on today's episode now let's get back to the story okay we're back so minor Andrew and their newly formed United Fruit Company we're monopolizing bananas in the Southern Hemisphere and they weren't just strategic they were creative Miner turned his attention to simplifying the production process and cutting cost because when you cut cost baby girl Lisa you make more moneys meanwhile Andrew focused on marketing to increase demand and to also make more money yeah let's say these stories aren't you Andrew went all out there were the regular things like magazine ads but he also had doctors encouraging people to give bananas to their babies and put out cookbooks featuring recipes that included bananas so they are secretly like pushing bananas on every like you want a banana don't you you want a [ __ ] banana you know Andrew was apparently very good at his job because the demand for bananas was soaring and Miner and Andrew decided they had to get their hands on more bananas it's like well how could how could we do that well the answer was more land now part of the reason United Fruit needed so much land was clearly greed but the other reason was the way they grew bananas really [ __ ] with the environment the type of a banana that the U.S consumers liked were highly susceptible to disease this is um because genetically bananas are identical clones also since plantations are just one crop it makes it easy for a single pathogen to wipe out everything and when their plantations were hit by a nasty fungus United Fruit Company didn't try to rehabilitate them they just knocked down more tropical forests to plant more Acres of the same cash crop on uninfested land so whatever the reasons minor and United Fruit needed land but they didn't want it to look like they were just trying to to take over even though like that's what they're doing they didn't want to look like the bad guys they're like we're not that bad so they scheme to get on the good side of local governments for example they would offer to build infrastructure in places that didn't have any and the government in these areas would offer them land rights and exclusive trade agreements in return and the local governments could rationalize their decisions by saying locals benefited in a lot of ways from this infrastructure but really United Fruit needed the infrastructure to be built in order to run their operations so was this dishonest or just good business your call United Fruit even built Central America's Telegraph Communications Network and the railroad that stretched from Mexico to Guatemala and Guatemala to El Salvador they had control of ports all over the Caribbean side of Central America and they even took over the Postal Service in Guatemala so it's no wonder that locals in the countries where United fruited business referred to the company as El pulpo I tried that means octopus in Spanish because they had their slimy little tentacles in everything that's how I imagine tentacle sound Miner himself was nicknamed the uncrowned king of Central America I mean that's gotta stroke his ego of course why not so while it might be debatable whether United fruits tactics were corrupt one thing that is not debatable is that the way they treated their workers girl we gotta talk about it okay look for starters workers were forced to live in small filthy dorms on the plantations and their salaries were paid in company coupons United Fruit paid workers with their own form of money not actual currency that they could use so that meant the money they earned could only be used at the United Fruit store so they're just getting free labor great for the business to make matters worse the actual working conditions themselves were horrific bananas grew in hot and humid weather including monsoon season and workers had to Wade through lots of rain and mud on a daily basis banana bunches I don't know if you know this but they're very heavy which meant people were carrying up to 100 pounds on their backs for up to 14 hours a day I mean can you imagine doing that and then not getting paid for it you get a coupon one free back scratching thanks you know I hate those when your partner gives you those for Valentine's Day I'll give you one foot rub those coupon books like let's not nobody wants that and when things got really crazy the workers were forced to work 24-hour shifts in order to keep up with the demand so um you know as you can probably tell there was lots of pressure to work super fast the conditions on the plantations were so shitty that the life expectancy of men Central America it started to drop not just men who worked on the plantations the life expectancy of the entire male population of all of Central America because of bananas like that's wild come on it might be the understatement of the year to say to the workers were um a little pissed so in 1918 the workers decided to go on strike which is great but they crashed and burned because United Fruit didn't even acknowledge their demands so the exploitation continued for 10 more years while tensions continue to simmer but things were about to boil over in Colombia with the banana Massacre yeah yeah you heard that right banana Massacre you better Buckle in [ __ ] we got a banana Massacre going on so United fruits business Empire was sprawling and their business practices including their exploitation of workers were pretty much the same wherever they went but the situation got especially ugly during what has come to be known as the banana massacre in Magdalena Colombia today Magdalena is a popular tourist region in the northern part of Colombia it's rich and natural resources and located along the Caribbean coast so it's no surprise that United Fruit chose it for one of their banana plantations by 1928 there was a whole lot of tension between the local workers and United Fruit in addition to their typical unfair labor practices there was abuse by Plantation managers and to make a hard left turn the workers wives and daughters were forced to be sex workers yeah and if these women didn't agree these large powerful Growers refused to pay their husbands they won't get their coupons their free back rub this was honestly a horrible situation all around right nobody's winning here except for the banana people and what made it even more heinous is that since United Fruit was a monopoly workers couldn't even find work at another banana Farm because there weren't any this one company owned them all so the workers got together and came up with a list of nine demands which they presented to the United Fruit on October 6 1928. now they're not asking for anything crazy it was like simple stuff like I don't know being paid a fair wage you know maybe they could get cash instead of a coupon maybe uh some sanitation little things like that I mean these demands made reference to the constitutional rights of the Colombian people in an effort to highlight the fact that United Fruit was running things as if they were the government which they absolutely were not but they were acting like it but United Fruit refused to meet with the person representing the workers they said that the workers were subcontractors not employees so there's nothing we can do sorry but that's a little ironic because one of the things the workers wanted to address was the subcontractor agreement how convenient for United Fruit right while at this point United fruits practice of cozing up to government leaders ultimately paid off because the Colombian government passed a law that not only limited workers ability to protest but also the government to spy on labor leaders oh they really are acting like their own government so on November 11th the workers called for a strike and the local government fearing what would happen asked the central government to send in backup and the very next day when the strike began General Carlos Cortez Vargas was made the military chief of what was known as the banana zone now by day two of the strike 700 troops were sent into quote unquote silence the 32 000 striking workers which is wild 32 000 striking workers now if they could all just Riot and rage I'm sure that they could win but you know they're doing things the right way and rumor has it that the Soldier's pay was enhanced by United Fruit to help to tier the working-class soldiers from feeling any allegiance to the workers on strike United Fruit reps also had regular contact with Carlos and according to State Department cables there was even talk of sending U.S warships to the area because of the strike people need their bananas do you understand now things were so stacked against the workers that when Colombia's labor inspector called the strike legitimate Carlos had him arrested but the workers did not give up in fact the strike turned into the biggest in the country's history Strikers were barred from using the railway so they sabotaged the rail raise in retaliation and good for them good for good for you now around 400 people were arrested okay many of the local authorities release the workers which really frustrated the military workers and their families including children would sit on the train tracks in order to disrupt banana distribution and Carlos arrested hundreds more people claiming they'd assaulted his soldiers now United Fruit even tried to hire strike Breakers which are people who are employed to do the work of the people striking so clearly things just kept escalating some say that local Planters and others got behind the workers so that it was no longer just a strike but a revolution of sorts which is great because it's like come on then on December 5th 1928 United Fruit told the workers they were finally ready to negotiate hundreds of people gathered in scionica the proposed meeting place the protesters arrived shouting slogans they're holding up signs they're waving Colombian Flags I mean this made Carlos very nervous as he should be maybe they really did tend to overthrow the government I mean Carlos he was not having none of that not under his watch so he got the government to Grant him a state of Siege Powers state of Siege is when the government puts restrictions on movement of the people within or out of the country so they're like hey you can't [ __ ] leave it's like North Korea well North Korea is very extreme but you get it like you're just you're not free about to move about the cabin the seatbelt sign is on in a state of Siege so you have to keep the seatbelt on you can't move about the cabin that's the state of Siege by 1 30 in the morning on December 6 Carlos had soldiers armed with machine guns perched in the building surrounding the Town Square where the unarmed workers were gathered now they were bugle calls and drums and orders to disperse but if you've ever been in in something like this and someone bangs a drum and yells at you to leave How likely are you to hear them I mean even if you do hear them there are hundreds maybe thousands of people surrounding you I mean you really can't go anywhere right but in the end none of that mattered because the protesters were given only one minute to disperse before the soldiers shouted open fire and then a swarm of bullets followed over bananas this is wild this is wild [ __ ] banana Chiquita we don't like you anymore Chiquita you can get your ass out of here chiquito fake ass smile yeah we see you accounts of what would come to be known as the banana Massacre they vary widely because you know people like to lie Carlos he was like oh there were only 47 victims that's it 40 people only died not a big deal but many others estimate that at as many as 3 000 people were slaughtered that day I mean that's a huge difference in numbers if you ask me but what do I know it said that the military left nine bodies in the village one for each of the workers demands so they're being kind of cute with The Killing we don't like this we don't like this at all like what the hell is wrong with you Carlos was then demoted because of this massacre he defended himself by saying he acted to prevent United States intervention in Colombia he's like no it wasn't me I'm just like I'm the good guy here you guys I'm helping you all well the conflict didn't end with the killings there have been many many more since the banana Massacre a lot of people believe the political tensions that still exist in Colombia today as well as the history of drug trafficking that created havoc in the region can be traced to United Fruit and their colonizing ways minor died a few months after the banana massacre at the age of 81. his obituary bragged about his high society goings on and so-called business achievements there was no mention of any of his I don't know shady undertakings I mean is that is it a but I don't think in an obituary is where you mention the Shady undertakings but it could have been nice to acknowledge it maybe oh but Miner's demise didn't mean the end of United Fruit it just signaled a new phase for the company one that was even more corrupt more destructive and things would get even worse when Sam the banana man takes the reins yeah it's never ending with the freaking banana drama but let's take an ad break first sometimes just the thought of cooking at home can be exhausting look sometimes it can be okay because it's not just cooking you have to maybe go to the store make sure you get all the ingredients wait in line then you gotta wash and prep every you know the drill come on but hello fresh cuts out stressful meal planning and grocery store trips so you can enjoy cooking and get dinner on the table in about 30 minutes or less how great is that we love that and there's something for everyone including weekly low calorie vegetarian and family friendly recipes my favorite part about hellofresh aside from the great tasting meals is that they make everything so easy and fast all the ingredients are pre-prepped and the recipe instructions are super easy to follow you can't mess it up my favorite meal is um oh I love the bulgogi Bowl sorry if I said that wrong bulgogi it's so freaking bomb let me tell you out with the rice and it's just like juicy it was so easy to make I can't believe I made it and it was good I mean come on being so fresh if you want to try America's number one meal kit go to hellofresh.com darkhistory16 and use code dark history 16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts that's hellofresh.com darkhistory16 and use code dark history 16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts they're like making it rain right here take it have it thanks hella fresh now let's get back to today's story so in the months following Miner's death United fruits are to face stiff competition from a man named Samuels Murray and his banana company in Honduras kuyamel fruit Sam was born in Russia on January 18 1877 but moved to Alabama when he was really young That's So Random could you imagine from going from Russia to Alabama Sam liked to hang out on the wharf and watch the banana boats in the harbor he's like wow cool you know and no one really knows why but uh it became an obsession of his just something he was really interested in he scoped out the whole scene and was especially enamored with what the industry calls ripes now these are the bananas that have been squeezed banged or damaged in any way that might cause them to ripen early and be worthless now in the early days before Refrigeration was mastered around 15 of each banana shipment landed in the pile of ripes but where others saw like lost income Sam saw an opportunity banana bread I'm just kidding so one day he approached one of the Slick banana company agents with a proposition he had a hundred and fifty dollars and knew it would go farther if he invested in the rapes but he also knew he only had about three to five days to unload them so we had to like act fast so after Sam bought 150 dollars worth of ripes he went to a local Western Union office and sweet talked the telegraph operator into calling all the other operators and offered them a cut of the profits now he asked them to let the local Merchants know he'd be passing through with Bargain Basement bananas now what does this mean exactly that they were cheap the next day Sam hopped on a train and when he got to the next town the customers were already waiting for him so his plan had worked great good for you Sam Sam was slanging his bananas literally threw the boxcar dorm and he did the same wheeling and dealing at the rest of the stops so when he got home six day days later he discovered he had turned his 150 dollars into one hundred and ninety dollars I mean that's not too shabby it's a profit so Sam got so good at this game that by the time he was 21 he had saved one hundred thousand dollars which is over three million dollars today and he had earned himself the nickname Sam the banana man I like that that's a good name it kind of like rolls off the tongue sham the banana I like that and in 1903 Sam the Banana Man aimed to deal with United Fruit and started Distributing their bananas in South and Central America now just two years later he began operating his own business the kuyamel banana company kuyamel was named after a river in Honduras in 1910 Sam the Banana Man bought 5 000 Acres there and his land grab just continued he borrowed money and he bought more land that was good for growing bananas and then he built plantations and railroads and infrastructure he needed to make his business a success but Sam didn't just make his money from hard work in in good business sense of course not nay nay no he also used bribery and questionable deals with the government of her duras to ensure even more income so things started to get dicey in 1910 when the Honduran government decided it needed to raise taxes to pay back money it owed to the United Kingdom at the same time the Honduran President also wanted to limit the amount of land foreigners could own which obviously really pissed off the banana man now this was not good for business so he did what any good businessman would do he decided you know what we got to overthrow the president of Honduras yeah what like it's hard okay get ready for this because everyone's got a little bit of a wild name here but this is a true story so Sam the banana man he found himself a Hired Gun named Lee Christmas yeah no no no no I'm not lying his Christmas yeah serious you can't you can't kill people with the name Christmas how dare you you're supposed to be working for Santa with that name you're supposed to be jolly you're supposed to have some reindeer not this guy okay so this Christmas guy he gathered up a hundred other Hired Guns out of New Orleans and together they headed to Honduras on a yacht called The Hornet this needs to be a movie someone get on it okay then Sam's team of mercenaries and some Honduran Rebels overthrew the democratically elected president of Honduras and replaced him with the exiled former president Manuel Bonilla on February 1st 1912. yeah I told you it's so easy everyone just do it now in return the new president of Honduras gave Sam the banana man land and no new taxes easy peasy banana squeezy so with the government out of the way yeah government we're good there Sam the Banana Man continue to grow and expand his company by the time 1929 rolled around his business dominated Honduras and Nicaragua and while the stock in his this company was going up the price of United Fruit stock was falling so United Fruit did what any good Monopoly would do they bought Sam's company this left Sam the banana man with over 30 million dollars including 330 000 shares in United Fruit stock and a spot on United fruits board of directors Sam headed back to New Orleans to retire and live the good life but the value of United's fruit stock continued to Fall by 1932 a share of United's fruit was worth only ten dollars but back in 1929 it was worth a hundred and fifty nine dollars this meant Sam's life savings had decreased to just two million dollars poor guy must be so hard to live on just two million dollars he's pretty much poor so Sam the Banana Man showed up at the board of directors meeting and told them look you gentlemen have been [ __ ] up this business I don't have money I'm poor okay and I'm gonna straighten it out so after that Sam became United's fruit managing director of operations it just sounds fake but I feel like back then things were so easy you could just walk in somewhere and be like I'm in charge now and everyone was like okay so after that Sam became United's fruits managing director of operations he just went in there and claimed it boom I'm in charge now he immediately made huge changes to the way that United Fruit ran now Sam was so successful at turning the company around that by 1938 he became the president of United Fruit during his tenure at United Fruit Sam the Banana Man used the same Playbook he had perfected in Honduras acquiring land and manipulating governments to maximize profits that's how you get ahead people and by the time 1951 came around Sam the banana man was ready to retire from United Fruit but he wasn't done overthrowing governments not yet let's pause for an ad really quick I just recently cleaned out my entire closet and it was such an amazing feeling but then I realized that I need to add in some new like I don't know seasonal pieces to help spruce up my wardrobe but finding great clothing can be such it's too much work sometimes I don't like shopping but that's where Stitch fix comes in oh yeah whether you need date night dresses or cozy loungewear Stitch fix can help refresh your look you can schedule a fix and a stylist will send you five pieces that fit your style size and price range with no subscription required keep what you like and return the rest 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wrong please forgive me thank you they knew that 72 percent of the land in Guatemala that could be used for farming was owned by only two percent of the landowners and he wanted to change that which is good for the people but not not good for companies like United Fruit so the Guatemalan government passed something called decree 900 and this allowed them to take land that wasn't being used to grow anything and redistribute it to the people at the time United Fruit owned about six hundred thousand acres in Guatemala and they weren't using most of it remember United Fruit abandoned plantations when they were hit by the fungus situation yeah so they just sit there the land and it was just sitting there except for grabs I guess so the government gave United Fruit 1.2 million dollars and took the land United Fruit and United States Department of State demanded that the Guatemala and government pay United Fruit 16 million dollars for the land and the funny thing about this is that the amount the Guatemalan government offered United Fruit was based on the tax value United Food itself had given the land well yakubo wasn't about to pay United fruit that much money no not so the Secretary of State and the CIA director who are brothers tell President Eisenhower they need to get rid of yakubo and coincidentally it turns out that the Secretary of State used to be a partner in United's fruits law firm and get this the CIA director owned United Fruit stock and used to be on their Board of Trustees very incestual isn't it huh interesting weird well Eisenhower gave a stamp of approval for something the CIA called operation success why would Eisenhower do that well after the Guatemalan government refused to pay United Fruit 16 million dollars for its own land the Secretary of State called the U.S ambassador in Guatemala to get some situational awareness you know they wanted to get like a little Vibe check and the Ambassador gave it to him straight there are Marxist tentacles a foot in Guatemala remember this is 1954 and anything that might even have the appearance of being related to Communism is more than enough to scare the [ __ ] out of everybody and Sam the banana man made sure to do his part too he helped get a book called report on Guatemala published and it said yakubo's Land Reform plan came right out of Moscow he even worked with an ad agency to to spread misinformation you know stay [ __ ] love to do that [ __ ] so when report on Guatemala was passed around in the halls of Congress operation success was pretty much a done deal what exactly was Operation success another name for it might be a coup that's right planning to overthrow the democratically elected president of Guatemala and replace him with someone I don't know a bit friendlier to United States interest the CIA hired a Guatemalan Colonel named Carlos Castillo armas to Stage an Insurrection this is wild now this isn't the same Carlos from the banana Massacre this Carlos he was born November 4th Scorpio 1914. November 4th Scorpios are they scare me do not come for me in the comments you guys scare me you win okay so Scorpio Carlos and he was born in a medium-sized town in the south of Guatemala now he was the son of a planter and he went to school at Guatemala's Military Academy which was which probably makes him a good choice to lead a coup so new Carlos heads to neighboring Honduras where the CIA trains and pays for his troops okay and on June 15th 1954 he invaded Guatemala in what was called The Liberation war against communism in case you're wondering about any conflict of interest you better believe there was the United States backed Rebels used boats supplied by United fruits for troops in any ammunition and new Carlos and his men had aerial support from Planes flown by CIA Pilots thousands of jacobos supporters were rounded up and just 12 days after the invasion yakubo himself fled the country a coup tends to be a like you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours type of situation so in exchange for getting rid of yakubo uh new Carlos made himself president of Guatemala because why not I'm in charge now they're just taking over [ __ ] you know the United States government quickly acknowledged his administration and sent lots of Aid which gave it legitimacy and in exchange for being made president of Guatemala Carlos gave United Fruit lots of land so democracy in Guatemala was officially over goodbye R.I.P it could be argued that Guatemala is still working to get itself out from under the political and economic upheaval an upheaval brought on by the coup orchestrated by United fruit with the cia's help but in the eyes of United Fruit the coup was a success so why not do it again why not plan a so in a bit of deja vu another adored charismatic leader came to power in another Latin American country in 1959. I'm talking about none other than Fidel Castro come on out now Fidel if you don't know he was born August 13 1927. so he's a Leo mm-hmm his father actually worked for United Fruit yeah before Fidel was born but his dad was a wealthy businessman by the time Fidel arrived mom his mom was born into the upper class and Fidel grew up like comfortably in I can't say this word rural rural Cuba you get it Cuba he was educated at the best schools which is likely where his revolutionary ideas took root Fidel wanted to reclaim Cuba for the Cuban people this is a bit of an involved story that we're going to speed through here so you know if you have some time and you're interested in it I would highly suggest you look into it do your own like deep dive maybe we could do a story on it in the future what you need to know for now is that Fidel led a revolution to overthrow Cuba's corrupt leader and he won and when he took over Fidel did what yakubo tried to do in Guatemala give control of the land back to the people Fidel's new policies meant that United Fruit lost control of 35 000 Acres of Cuban land and they were obviously not happy about it so you better believe that United Fruit immediately got in touch with the United States Secretary of State and the CIA director same brother team that had helped over throw the democratically elected president of Guatemala and United Fruit offered their support for getting rid of Fidel and United Fruit had plenty of support to give I mean by this time United Fruit had amassed 100 chips known as the Great White Fleet the ships were used for transporting bananas and tourists I mean that's right many people have fond memories of their rides on these ships which were lovingly referred to as banana boats that we now use as like suntan lotion which is super [ __ ] up United's fruits Great White Fleet was also used to transport soldiers weapons and ammunition have you ever heard of um the Bay of Pigs Invasion on April 14 1961 the United States Government tried to overthrow the Cuban government Cuba's an island high so it's no surprise that the attack came by sea whose boats did they ride in on well the fighters arrived aboard ships from United fruits very own Great White Fleet so the United States Invasion failed but it it was enough to Spook Fidel so he beep up Boop rang up the Soviet Union and said hey I need some backup you guys busy and the Soviets offered Fidel nuclear warheads not the candy like actual warheads and some other goodies for protection and I mean that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis oh this is too much which in case you didn't know was the closest the world ever got to a nuclear war because of bananas well that's how it started you know that's right United Fruit was involved in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and arguably brought the world to the brink of disaster and all of this fighting and destruction was over the price of bananas it's kind of impossible to list all of the underhanded dealings United Fruit was involved in throughout Central and South America but what happened in Cuba made them look slightly less Invincible still United Fruit continued to dominate Central America into the 1970s so the leaders of the region decided to join together and fight for what was rightfully theirs let's pause for an ad break really quick it's time for a break well this is technically an ad break but my partner's at com want you to focus on yourself for just a moment take a deep breath I have a deviated septum it's a little hard and then let it out great we did that relax wherever you're holding your tension it's important to tune in and re-center and calm can help today I'm partnering with calm the number one mental Wellness app to give you the tools that improve the way you feel now you can reduce stress and anxiety through guided meditations improve focus with curated music tracks and rest and recharge with columns imaginative sleep stories for children and also adults I love the amazing soundscapes to help me relax or fall asleep like cityscape or bamboo forest there's even new daily movement sessions designed to relax your body and uplift your mind if you go to comb.com dark history you'll get a special offer of 40 off a calm premium subscription and new content is added every week over 100 million people around the world use calm to take care of their minds calm is ready to help you stress less sleep more wow sounds amazing right and live a happier healthier life because you deserve it for listeners of the show column is offering an exclusive offer of 40 off a calm premium subscription at calm.com slash dark history go to calm c-a-l-m.com dark history for 40 off unlimited access to calm's entire Library that's calm.com dark history now let's get back to today's story by the time the 70s roll around many of the countries in Latin America were known as banana Republics so what's a Banana Republic is that a store it is it's an offensive term used to describe a country that is politically vulnerable has an unfair distribution of wealth and whose economy is run by colonizing multinationalists so why would a store name themselves Banana Republic why would why would that some [ __ ] issues you guys we have issues my God what's worse is the countries being labeled banana republics have hit hard times so in 1974 seven Latin American countries got together and formed the union of banana exporting countries upeb for short we really like acronyms so they're trying to take back economic control of their own countries now the main thing to know about this pact is that the members agreed to set the same export tax on bananas so this would be um a good point to introduce to you the man named Eli M black Eli he worked in finance and when he was only 33 he became the chair and chief executive officer of American Securities corporation which was later rebranded as amk so by 1967 amk was one of the biggest corporations in the United States if you're wondering where this is going let me just tell you in 1971 amk merged with United Fruit and became United Brands now Eli got to be chair president and CEO of the new company which sounds kind of cool right like yeah but the thing is it wasn't until Eli guy all these fancy titles that he found out that the company were short on money yeah pretty soon they were also high on debt which if you're not a money person high on debt it's not good not good okay and if that wasn't bad enough there was a huge hurricane talk about bad luck there was a huge hurricane in 1974 that wiped out a bunch of their banana plantations in Honduras oh yeah God was like nope that same year United Brands had 40 million dollars in losses in just the first three quarters now by the end of the year their losses were up to 70 million dollars Eli it's not looking good for you babe and then on February 3rd 1975 Eli who was known by his friends and family to be like this happy-go-lucky kind of guy he headed into his office right so he goes to his office and he goes to the 44th floor and at approximately 8 A.M Eastern Time Eli takes out his briefcase and smashes it into the window and then he jumps out banana drama banana drama Eli's briefcase was found on a nearby loading ramp with everything that was previously inside just like everywhere right drama now this would become revelant a few weeks later when the Securities and Exchange commissions discovered Eli Gabe the president of Honduras a 2.5 million dollar bribe so United Brands could get lower export taxes on bananas you guys these bananas [ __ ] wild so much for the uh u-p-e-b and they're and they're packed you know no one was allowed to trade United brand stock for almost a week and the president of Honduras was overthrown in a coup talk about history repeating itself all over again this whole ordeal uh came to be known as the banana gate yeah banana gate you guys this is some this is serious and fun fact it was totally legal in the United States at the time to bribe someone in a foreign government yeah but it wasn't legal to you know keep it a secret oopsie so United Fruit which was now running around calling itself United Brands would once again make its mark on history books because in 1977 the United States passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act this made it illegal for United States citizens and companies to bribe foreign officials to benefit their businesses but let's be honest here you know it doesn't stop there so the bad PR surrounding United Brands contained for many many years and it's going to continue now because we're talking about it but in 1990 United Brands they're like you know what we need to change our name we need to change our name so people don't know that we're the bad guys and guess what they changed their name to guess we need a drum roll Joan get it Chiquita Brands International I looked up to you I loved you Chiquita when I was a young girl I was like I love Chiquita I love Chiquita now I hate Chiquita anyways so they keep changing their name because you know no one will know about their past but we know about you Chiquita the company says it was because of the name recognition but honestly it's just because like they no longer want to be associated with the shady past of United Brands and United Fruit Company you know well the company didn't do much better under their new name and on November 28 2001 Chiquita Channel 5 bankruptcy now chiquitas don't bring portugita into this I feel really bad for Chiquita I think she's she's just a nice lady she dances she likes bananas let's leave her out of this Chiquita's troubles continued into the New Millennium in 2007 Chiquita was sued for 7.86 billion dollars some of the allegations which date back to the 1990s are so supporting terrorism by financing Guerrilla groups war crimes wrongful death and torture so Chiquita has pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them including violating counter-terrorism laws they even paid some fines but it's not likely any settlement money will make it to the families of victims destroyed by the company's actions now Chiquita's legal troubles continue and an appeal is currently awaiting trial in the 11th 11th circuit what a heavy chapter this is right [ __ ] you Chiquita before I get ahead of myself look it's not just Chiquita whose future lies in the balance bananas very existence is uncertain because of environmental um degradation largely due to the way companies like Chiquita exploited the land it isn't even clear if banana production is sustainable companies that grow bananas have been called out for using more pesticides and creating more waste than any anyone else in the agriculture world I mean there are also diseases ravaging banana plantations in addition to ruining the crops these infestations have led to deforestation and some say even malaria outbreaks you gotta [ __ ] a banana we don't need it anymore sorry this is also probably a result of the way bananas have been grown and cultivated in order to maximize profits and not just to be natural good bananas you know as you can see or maybe here there's lots going there's lots going on when it comes to bananas and that's why they give me a migraine for over a Century Latin Americans have known that Chiquita and companies like them have financed coups and supported dictators in order to maximize profits at the expense of the people many in the United States have blown off these truths as just conspiracy theories I mean I don't know about you guys but for me I had no idea the story this I had no idea about this I had no idea I have no idea who would have thought banana bananas I thought just like I don't know I think one question I have that is remaining unanswered here is why the [ __ ] that store is called Banana Republic we got some questions for you what is that about that's that's weird where's their money going I'll Circle back I got a lot of questions there well everyone this one was a little exhausting but I hope that you learned something new did you learn something next time you eat a banana remember what you're doing traitor I'm just kidding okay anyways thank you so much for learning with me today remember don't be free to ask questions be a curious cat because that's how you find out the truth and you deserve that we all deserve that I'd love to hear your guys's reactions to this story I'd love to know if you even knew about this because I didn't and I mean if I didn't I know someone else out there probably didn't very interesting so much more to it I would highly suggest you do a little Deep dive somebody make a movie about this please thank you Joan we should make a movie we could play all the parts it's just a one-man show two-man I'm sorry that could be fun anyways don't forget to use the hashtag darkhistory on social media so I can see what you guys are saying and I don't know just like chat join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs and don't forget to catch murder mystery makeup which drops on Mondays on my um YouTube I hope you have a great day today you make your choices and I'll be talking to you next week bye [ __ ] Chiquita [ __ ] that [ __ ] dark history is an audio boom original this podcast is executive produced by me Billy sarian Kim Jacobs Dunya McNeely from three Arts Justin Cummins and Claire Turner from wheelhouse DNA produced by Lexi Kevin research provided by Thomas messersmith writers Jed Bookout Joyce cavuzzo and Kim yeagen a big special thank you to our historical consultant Kevin Coleman associate professor of History University of Toronto and I'm your host hi Bailey sarian

Channel: Bailey Sarian

Views: 2,198,153

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Id: HA9UGvBxhBI

Length: 64min 14sec (3854 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022