The Puppet Company

Many people are aware of the "Banana Republics in the bad old days of Latin America, countries in which international companies have so much power and influence than the government is a puppet for the interests of foreign companies. In 1954, the U.S. Army invaded Guatemala from what many saw as a decision by a U.S. company, a key player behind one of the largest banana republics in Central America.

One of the main culprits to meddle in Latin American government in the first half of the 20th century was the United Fruit Company. They were an American company founded in 1899 on the back of a railroad company in Costa Rica. An important part of the strategy of United Fruit Company was to take control of the distribution of land producing bananas. He did so by convincing governments that reserve land was needed to protect against the possibility of the destruction of crops by natural disasters or disease. Because these large percentages of land were owned by United Fruit Company, the law of land ownership has often been raped and concessions were needed from the government. This has led to political commitment, even if United Fruit Company was a foreign corporation operating abroad.

United Fruit Company
The "banana republics" which grew from these situations often seen major investments in infrastructure companies like United Fruit Company. Railways, ports and transportation systems have been established, and extent of employment was created. United Fruit Company has also established numerous schools in the country in which it operated. However, the Company has often left large tracts of uncultivated land and worked hard to block the development of infrastructure beyond its own operations by establishing its own network as a monopoly high. Employment under the United Fruit Company was not much fun, shows the extent of often violent strikes that took place among its workforce over such issues as pay rates and working conditions .

Guatemala
In the 1950s, things were looking promising for Guatemala. The dictator Jorge Ubico was overthrown in 1944 and two administrations of presidents democratically elected Guatemalan life before. The second administration of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, was widely reform the country, including the authorization of free expression, legalized unions, political parties and various social reforms and economic base. One of the agrarian reform aimed at reducing the suffering of the rural poor by redistribution of unused land. The basis of this reform is that all this land would be purchased by the government to the same value declared on tax forms of ownership. The property could then be resold to farmers' cooperatives low. Arbenz began by giving personal examples strong sales of its own land by the regime.

Arbenz's agrarian reform was offend some feathers in the meeting rooms United Fruit Company. From their 550,000 acres belonging to Guatemala, 85% have been grown, which means that the Company would lose a lot of weight in Guatemala. For the Government of the United States, United Fruit Company asked for more compensation than was offered by the Guatemalan government.

The U.S. invasion of Guatemala
In 1954, the United Fruit Company, concerns have been removed. United States fears of communism took root in Central America by a "domino effect" from Guatemala had caused the CIA to take action. Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas invaded from Honduras to overthrow the government Guzman. His forces were backed by U.S. troops, and trained, organized and equipped by the CIA through their hidden agenda "PB Success".

Various arguments exist as to the level of participation of the United Fruit Company to the decision by the U.S. government to sponsor an invasion of Gove democratically elected.