UNITED FRUIT/CHIQUITA AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Virtual Truth Commission

History

"The yellow fruit that saw red." Traces United Fruit's background to Boston Fruit Company merged with the interests of Brooklyn-born Central American railroad baron Minor C. Kerith. "Their aim was to own and cultivate large areas of Central American land using well-organized, 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......"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....Personal financial interest in high places coupled with a general fear that Guatemala was on the brink of fullly 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."

"Under dictator Jorge Ubico (1931-1944), American-owned United Fruit Company gained control of 42% of Guatemela's land, and was exampted from taxes and import duties. The other two of Guatemala's three main enterprises -- International Railways of Central America and Empress Electrica -- were controlled by United Fruit.

1954 Involvement in the Coup against President Arbenz

In 1954, a CIA-orchestrated coup ended what Guatemalans call the "Ten Years of Spring," which began with the bloodless overthrow of military dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944. During this period, two democratically-elected civilian presidents governed Guatemala, trying to provide opportunities and raise the standard of living. Jacobo Arbenz, elected in 1950, began to push agrarian reforms more seriously than his predecessor. The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) (UFCo) protested when unused portions of its vast holdings were expropriated and distributed to land-less peasants. The Guatemalan government paid the US company the tax-declared value of the land, but UFCo protested to the highest levels of the US government. Two UFCo stockholders at the time were the Dulles brothers, Secretary of State and head of the CIA in the Eisenhower administration. © 1998, Piet van Lear, A War Called Peace

Following the coup, Colonel Castillo Armas became the new president. the U. S. Ambassador furnished Armas with lists of radical opponents to be eliminated, and the bloodletting promptly began. Under Armas, thousands were arrested and many were tortured and killed. A "killing field" in the Americas: U. S. policy in Guatemala

The coup unleashed one of the most brutal military regimes in the hemisphere. Some 140,000 people have been killed and another 45,000 disappeared in a U.S. backed scorched earth campaign to wipe out dissidents, rebels and activists for peace and social justice in Guatemala. The abuses by the Guatemalan military and its death squads were so horrific that even Amnesty International reported that they "strained credulity." But next week, the guerrillas of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity or UNRG, will sign a controversial peace accord with the government and formally end a generation of war. December 27, 1996 Democracy Now Broadcast,

Chiquita Today

Chiquita's web site, including Chiquita's description of their efforts to aid recovery from Hurricane Mitch.

Chiquita Banana Update by the Latin America Working Group, describing the May 1998 International Banana Conference in Brussels, the appearance of sympathy to the 20,000 workers directly emplyed by Chiquita, but of actual efforts to undermine the unions and to force new agreements which would weaken the union and roll back advances previously won. 4000 of Honduras' 7000 banana workers will not have work for the next 18 months until the plantations are rehabilitated, and it will take three years before the packing plants used in banana production will be ready for workers' return.

International Federation of Free Trade Unions and International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (ICFTU-IUF) has issued a statement on "The Forgotten Victims of the Banana War". [Contact: ICFTU-Press at: ++32-2 224.02.12 (Brussels) cited in an article by ICFTU Online, March 11, 1999. The article highlights a "dirty war" being carried on by multinationals against the banana workers' trade union, taking advantage of the effects of Hurricane Mitch. Offenses include:

Relocation has been threatened in Honduras by the other banana giant, Chiquita, which last February gave the banana workers' union an ultimatum, saying it would leave the country if workers refused to sign a new collective agreement in which some of the guarantees secured previously by their union had been removed. The international trade union pressure exerted by the IUF did serve to re-open negotiations however, although packers, mainly women, were informed that they could not expect their jobs back before the end of 1999.
In Costa Rica, the banana producers took advantage of the wave of migrations following Hurricane Mitch to hire Nicaraguan and Honduran workers on their plantations. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly "illegal", had no other choice than to accept insecure jobs and exploitative conditions, notes the ICFTU. A coalition of producers, members of the government and the Church is about to secure legal recognition from parliament for the solidarista organisations. These pro-employer organisations are virtually waging war on the trade union movement in Costa Rica, in their efforts to replace it. According to the ICFTU, despite the International Labour Organisation's repeated condemnation of the solidarista movement as an attack on the right to form trade unions, the Costa Rican parliament is preparing to open a debate on April 1 which could lead to its official recognition. IUF affiliates also report fresh attempts to set up solidarista organisations in Guatemala where the trade unions have previously been able to resist the spread of this form of anti-trade unionism.
In Panama police raided a plantation last January belonging to a subsidiary of Chiquita. Workers were ordered to produce their identity papers and six of them were taken away and beaten up. The Armuelles Fruit Company, a Chiquita subsidiary, was the subject of a complaint to the Labour Ministry about the unfair dismissals of 28 workers last December. The Armuelles Fruit Company is well- known to the labour inspectors, having been fined several times for refusing to cooperate with them. One of the charges against it concerns the death of a worker, a case which has yet to be clarified.

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Updated March 15, 1999

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