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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
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? Oh, nay, nay.
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 shit 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 suffered 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 effect.
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. Back to them again.
Oh my god, I love Hilary Duff. Because let me tell you, this shit 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 a doop. Here we go, baby. You ready? You're 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 described them as, quote,
Figs span long. 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 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. 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 bananas and then they're all smushed and brown. You know that, right?
It's gross. But things began to change at the turn of the 19th century. Steamships, 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 Minor 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 slinging 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 muumuu's 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 capital
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, rainforest, volcanoes, you name it. I mean, you freaking name it, 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 the climate. From extreme 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 railroad's 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, well, there was no one left 'cause they were all dying. Despite all the hardships and death and loss, instead of calling it quits, Miner 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 capital 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 Miner 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, Miner didn't have much exposure to bananas. And at the time, they were only available in tropical climates. But Miner 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 Miner having this light bulb moment. If bananas
If bananas grow easily, he could create plantations full of them, rows 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 Miner 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 trees 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 Miner. 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.
Yeah. So he married Cristina 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, and 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. Yeah.
Even when Miner wasn't actually in Costa Rica, he was still freaking hustling. 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, Miner made trade agreements with companies in Colombia, Ambocas del Toro, which is now like part of Panama. So by the time 1899 rolled around, Miner had pretty much monopolized bananas in all of Central America. But bummer for Miner, the brokerage company that held all of his money went bankrupt.
So boom shakalaka, Miner 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. Mm-hmm.
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 Miner was the VP. I guess when you lose $1.5 million, you're forced to play second fiddle. And this new company really turned out to be the perfect match.
Minor 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?
I'm sorry, you're incorrect. If you guessed enough is never enough, then you are correct. I mean, what did they win, Joan?
Congratulations. You won 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 low-key a monopoly. And here's where the trouble really begins.
The business of bananas had gone from zero profits in 1884 to a $10 million industry in 1906. Can you imagine $10 million in 1906? That's about $300 million today. You are crazy.
rich, banana rich. So we're talking like a shit ton of bananas, a shit ton of money. I mean, wow. And if 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 gonna start treating my workers like shit. Let's pause for an ad break. Go get yourself a banana.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. Now let's get back to the story.
Okay, we're back. So, Miner, Andrew and their newly formed United Fruit Company were 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 costs. Because when you cut costs, baby girl Lisa, you make more money. Meanwhile, Andrew focused on marketing to increase demand and to also
Yeah, I'm sick of 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 everything. You want a banana, don't you?
You want a fucking banana. 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 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 fucked with the environment. The type of banana that the US consumers liked were highly susceptible to disease. This is 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, Miner 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 wanna look like the bad guys. They were 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 Fruit did business referred to the company as El Popol. I tried. That means octopus in Spanish.
because they had their slimy little tentacles in everything. That's how I imagine tentacle sound. Minor 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 Fruit's 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. 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 like 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, 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 in 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 that the workers were 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 continued 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, bitch. We got a banana massacre going on. So United Fruit's 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 in 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 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?
Well, at this point, United Fruit's practice of cozying 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. 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 in to quote unquote silence the 32,000 striking workers, which is wow, 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 soldiers' pay was enhanced by United Fruit to help deter 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
the biggest in the country's history. Strikers were barred from using the railway, so they sabotaged the railways in retaliation and good for them. Good for you. Now around 400 people were arrested, okay? But many of the local authorities released 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 Cianaga, 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 fucking 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 a state of siege. By 1.30 in the morning on December 6th, Carlos had soldiers armed with machine guns perched in the building surrounding the town square where the unarmed workers were gathered. Now, there were
bugle calls and drums and orders to disperse. But if you've ever been 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. Fucking banana. Chiquita, we don't like you anymore, Chiquita. You can get your ass out of here, Chiquita. That 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 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's 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.
Miner 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, I don't think an obituary is where you mention the shady undertakings, but it could have been nice to acknowledge it maybe.
But Minor's demise didn't mean the end of United Fruit. Oh nay nay. 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 frickin' banana drama. But let's take an ad break first.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
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So in the months following Miner's death, United Fruit started to face stiff competition from a man named Samuel Zemuri and his banana company in Honduras, Cuyamel Fruit. Sam was born in Russia on January 18th, 1877, but moved to Alabama when he was really young. That's so random. Could you imagine 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." And no one really knows why, but 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.
Just kidding. So one day he approached one of the Slick Banana Company agents with a proposition. He had $150 and knew it would go farther if he invested in the ripes, but he also knew he only had about three to five days to unload them. So he had to like act fast.
So after Sam bought $150 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 slinging his bananas literally through the boxcar door. And he did the same wheeling and dealing at the rest of the stops. So when he got home six days later, he discovered he had turned his $150 into $190. 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 $100,000, which is over $3 million 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. Sam the Banana Man. I like that. And in 1903, Sam the Banana Man
the banana man, inked a 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 Cuyamel Banana Company. Cuyamel was named after a river in Honduras and 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, the banana man, didn't just make his money from hard work in good business sense. Of course, not Nae Nae, no. He also used bribery and questionable deals with the government of Hodoras 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 gotta 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 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, continued to grow and expand his company. By the time 1929 rolled around, his business dominated Honduras and Nicaragua. And while the stock in his 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, including 330,000 shares in United Fruit stock and a spot on United Fruit's 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 $10. But back in 1929, it was worth $159. This meant Sam's life savings had decreased to just $2 million. Poor guy must be so hard to live on just $2 million. He's pretty much dead.
So Sam, the banana man, showed up at the board of directors meeting and told them, look, you gentlemen have been fucking 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 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 Fruit's 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. Nay nay, not yet. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.
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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
So in 1951, Sam the Banana Man stepped down as president of United Fruit, but he stayed on as chair of the executive committee. Coincidentally, that same year, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was elected president of Guatemala.
Now, Jacobo knew, if I'm saying that wrong, please forgive me, thank you. They knew that 72% of the land in Guatemala that could be used for farming was owned by only 2% of the landowners. And he wanted to change that, which is good for the people, but 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 600,000 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 was just sitting there. It's up for grabs, I guess. So the government gave United Fruit $1.2 million and took the land. United Fruit and the United States Department of State demanded that the Guatemalan government pay United Fruit $16 million 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 Fruit itself had given the land.
Well, Jacobo wasn't about to pay United Fruit that much money. No, no. So the Secretary of State and the CIA director, who are brothers, tell President Eisenhower they need to get rid of Jacobo. And coincidentally, it turns out that the Secretary of State used to be a partner in United Fruit's 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 his 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 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 afoot 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 shit 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, "Yacobo's land reform plan came right out of Moscow."
He even worked with an ad agency to spread misinformation. You know, they fucking love to do that shit. 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 the United States' interests. 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, 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 a son of a planter and he went to school at Guatemala's Military Academy, 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 and ammunition. And New Carlos and his men had aerial support from planes flown by CIA pilots. Thousands of Jacobo's supporters were rounded up. And just 12 days after the invasion, Jacobo himself died.
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 Jacobo, new Carlos made himself president of Guatemala, because why not? I'm in charge now.
They're just taking over shit, 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, RIP. 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 13th, 1927. So he's a Leo.
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 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 Jacobo 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, the same brother team that had helped overthrow 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 ships 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 fucked up. United Fruit's Great White Fleet was also used to transport soldiers, weapons, and ammunition. Have you ever heard of...
The Bay of Pigs invasion? On April 14th, 1961, the United States government tried to overthrow the Cuban government. Cuba's an island, hi. 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 Fruit's very own Great White Fleet. So the United States invasion failed, but it was enough to spook Fidel. So he beep-bop-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.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory. 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 a banana republic? I want that.
We got some fucking 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 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 got all these fancy titles that he found out that the company was 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 in losses in just the first three quarters. Now, by the end of the year, their losses were up to $70 million. 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 relevant a few weeks later when the Securities and Exchange Commissions discovered Eli gave the president of Honduras a $2.5 million bribe so United Brands could get lower export taxes on bananas.
You guys, these bananas, fucking wild. So much for the UPEB and their pact, you know? No one was allowed to trade United Brands 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 came to be known as the Bananagate. Yeah, Bananagate, you guys, this is serious.
And fun fact, it was totally legal in the United States at the time to bribe someone in a foreign government. 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 continued 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. Fucking Chiquita. 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 they no longer want to be associated with the shady past of United Brands and United Fruit Company. Well, the company didn't do much better under their new name. And on November 28, 2001, Chiquita filed for bankruptcy. Don't bring poor Chiquita into this. I feel really bad for Chiquita. I think 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. Some of the allegations which date back to the 1990s are 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 counterterrorism 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 circuit. What a heavy chapter this is, right? Fuck you, Chiquita. Before I get ahead of myself, it's not just Chiquita whose future lies in the balance.
Bananas' very existence isn't certain because of environmental 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 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. Yeah, fuck 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 hear, 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 this story, this, I had no idea about this. I had no idea. I thought just like, oh, I think one question I have that is remaining unanswered here is why the fuck that store is called Banana Republic.
We got some questions for you. What is that about? 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.
Anyways, thank you so much for learning with me today. Remember, don't be afraid 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' 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 dark history 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 YouTube. I hope you have a great day today. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week.
Goodbye. Fucking Chiquita. Fuck that. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by me, Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs, Dunya McNeely from 3Arts, Justin Cummins, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven. Research provided by Thomas Messersmith.
Writers Jed Bookout, Joey Scaluzzo, and Kim Yegan. A big special thank you to our historical consultant, Kevin Coleman, Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto. And I'm your host, Ty Bailey-Sarian.
