Banana Massacre December 6, 1928

The Banana massacre (Spanish: Matanza de las bananeras or Masacre de las bananeras) was a massacre of workers for the United Fruit Company that occurred on December 6, 1928 in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. An unknown number of workers died after the government decided to send the Colombian army to end a month-long strike organized by the workers' union in order to secure better working conditions. The government of the United States of America had threatened to invade with the US Marine Corps if the Colombian government did not act to protect United Fruit’s interests. Gabriel García Márquez depicted a fictional version of the massacre in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, as did Álvaro Cepeda Samudio in his La Casa Grande.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_massacre

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7 replies	Author	Time	Post
Banana Massacre December 6, 1928 (Original post)	Sherman A1	Dec 2012	OP
It seems like the United States believes that	avebury	Dec 2012	#1
The issue was protecting United Fruits plantations	dipsydoodle	Dec 2012	#2
Precisely	Sherman A1	Dec 2012	#4
off topic	dipsydoodle	Dec 2012	#5
Hardly off topic, just giving greater depth	Sherman A1	Dec 2012	#6
But it was in the name of profit, so it's all okay.	tclambert	Dec 2012	#3
"War is a Racket" /nt	Creideiki	Dec 2012	#7

Response to Sherman A1 (Original post)

Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:00 AM

avebury (2,937 posts)

1. It seems like the United States believes that

workers in other countries should have greater protection then the workers in our own country.

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Response to avebury (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:10 AM

dipsydoodle (32,617 posts)

2. The issue was protecting United Fruits plantations

not the workers.

Similar happened in Guatemala 1954 at the behest of the Dulles bros. both of whom had close associations with United Fruit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company includes reference to the Banana Massacre.

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Response to dipsydoodle (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:53 AM

Sherman A1 (11,539 posts)

4. Precisely

The workers were the last thing on the minds of United Fruit or the United States.

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Response to Sherman A1 (Reply #4)

Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:58 AM

dipsydoodle (32,617 posts)

5. off topic

Last edited Thu Dec 6, 2012, 07:06 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

In the case of Guatemala - take that situation away and Che Guevera wouldn't have skipped across the border to Mexico and the Castros would never have found him there. Funny old world.

I only know that because I've got this book :

In 1952, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a file on a young doctor from Argentina who was traversing the hemisphere and displaying suspiciously leftist sentiments at every stop. The passport of this man, whose proper name was Ernesto Guevara de la Cerna, was copied and stored by the FBI's office in Miami, where Guevara had briefly visited. An FBI bio sheet added to the file listed another name for this yet to be famous individual: he was "aka Che."

http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/1197/che.htm

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Response to dipsydoodle (Reply #5)

Thu Dec 6, 2012, 07:22 AM

Sherman A1 (11,539 posts)