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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 ...
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.
The United Fruit company, a US company, had seized half a million acres of land in Guatemala, leaving little land for local Guatemalans for housing and other uses. Likewise, United Fruit also had great control over the railroads, the ports, and telecommunications. [23] The idea of assassinations was mentioned, but only at a general level.
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]
In addition to the lobbying of the United Fruit Company, several other factors also led the United States to launch the coup that toppled Árbenz in 1954. During the years of the Guatemalan Revolution, military coups occurred in several other Central American countries that brought firmly anti-communist governments to power.
The relationship between Árbenz and the United Fruit Company has been described by historians as a "critical turning point in US dominance in the hemisphere". [89] The United Fruit Company, formed in 1899, [90] had major holdings of land and railroads across Central America, which it used to support its business of exporting bananas. [91]
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
The railroad prospered until 1957. In 1954, United Fruit had to divest following an antitrust suit [4] and in 1959, a parallel highway caused a serious competitive pressure. In 1968, the company defaulted, was taken over by the government and renamed Ferrocarriles de Guatemala which was also known as FEGUA. [4]