Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In 1901, the government of Guatemala hired the United Fruit Company to manage the country's postal service, and in 1913 the United Fruit Company created the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company. By 1930, it had absorbed more than 20 rival firms, acquiring a capital of $215 million and becoming the largest employer in Central America.
In 1913, Zemurray bought back the portion of his company owned by United Fruit, a transaction that was made possible by increasing anti-trust pressure on United Fruit from the United States government. [2] Fully in control of the company, he expanded by buying 20 ships by 1915 that were outfitted with refrigerated holds.
By 1950, the United Fruit Company's (now Chiquita) annual profits were 65 million U.S. dollars, [b] twice as large as the revenue of the government of Guatemala. [54] The company was the largest landowner in Guatemala, [ 55 ] and virtually owned Puerto Barrios , Guatemala's only port to the Atlantic , allowing it to profit from the flow of ...
The United Fruit Company was formed on March 30, 1899, the result of a merger between the nearly bankrupt Tropical Trading and Transport Company and Boston Fruit. On its formation, United Fruit
Operation PBHistory was a covert operation carried out in Guatemala by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It followed Operation PBSuccess, which led to the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in June 1954 and ended the Guatemalan Revolution.
In May 1952, Árbenz enacted Decree 900, the official title of the Guatemalan agrarian reform law. [24] Approximately 500,000 people benefited from the decree. [25] The United Fruit Company lost several hundred thousand acres of its uncultivated land to this law, and the compensation it received was based on the undervalued price it had presented to the Guatemalan government for tax purposes. [17]
United Fruit Company had been in Guatemala since 1904 which was its largest domain with the main product being of the banana. The United Fruit Company started in 1899 with a merger between the Boston Fruit Company and a business man named Minor Keith. With a capital of $215 million, what was happening in Guatemala was a concern for the company ...
The result of the merger was the powerful United Fruit Company, of which Keith became vice-president. [6] In 1904, Keith signed a contract with the President of Guatemala , Manuel Estrada Cabrera , giving the company tax-exemptions, land grants, and control of all railroads on the Atlantic side of the country.