The United Fruit Company was created in 1899 through a merger in Boston. The deal combined Minor C. Keith's Central American railroads with Lorenzo Dow Baker's Caribbean banana fleet.
Colombian Army troops opened fire on strikers in Ciénaga on the 6th of December 1928, killing between 47 and 3,000 people. General Cortés Vargas ordered the shooting to prevent U.S. invasion.
In 1954, the CIA deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz after he attempted to redistribute unused United Fruit land to peasants. John Foster Dulles represented United Fruit at his law firm Sullivan & Cromwell for thirty-eight years while his brother Allen Dulles served as head of the CIA.
Workers inhaled fungicidal dust and suffered skin contact with copper compounds used to treat fungal diseases like Panama disease starting in 1915. No specialized care existed for those who became gravely ill from these exposures, leading to long-term health risks including cancer and respiratory failure.
The Securities and Exchange Commission exposed Bananagate in 1975, revealing that United Brands bribed Honduran President Oswaldo López Arellano with $1.25 million. A second payment of another $1.25 million was promised if export taxes were reduced.