Misplaced Pages

#613386

149-510: Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon , was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as the president of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944. A general in the Guatemalan military , he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where he was the only candidate. He continued his predecessors' policies of giving massive concessions to

298-513: A Senate and Council of State which were effectively nominated by the executive. The new constitution was approved by plebiscite on 7 February 1800. The official count was over three million in favour and 1,562 against. Lucien, however, had doubled the count of the "yes" vote to give the false impression that a majority of those eligible to vote had approved the constitution. Historians have variously described Bonaparte's new regime as "dictatorship by plebiscite," "absolutist rule decked out in

447-669: A hostile takeover . Zemurray moved the company's headquarters to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was based. United Fruit went on to prosper under Zemurray's management; Zemurray resigned as president of the company in 1951. In addition to many other labor actions, the company faced two major strikes of workers in South and Central America, in Colombia in 1928 and the Great Banana Strike of 1934 in Costa Rica. The latter

596-479: A 1% increase in probability of being poor in 2011 since 1973 compared to the 0.73% lower probability on a UFCo location. A strike by United Fruit workers broke out on 12 November 1928 near Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. On December 6, Colombian Army troops allegedly under the command of General Cortés Vargas opened fire on a crowd of strikers in the central square of Ciénaga . Estimates of

745-412: A Corsican accent and his French spelling was poor. In May, he transferred to the military academy at Brienne-le-Château where he was routinely bullied by his peers for his accent, birthplace, short stature, mannerisms, and poor French. He became reserved and melancholic, applying himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He

894-809: A French presence in the Middle East and join forces with Tipu Sultan , the Sultan of Mysore , an enemy of the British. Bonaparte assured the Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions". The Directory agreed in order to secure a trade route to the Indian subcontinent . In May 1798, Bonaparte

1043-504: A campaign of efficiency which included assuming dictatorial powers. Ubico's rule has been characterized as totalitarian; John Gunther , who visited the country during 1941, described Guatemala as "a country 100 per cent dominated by a single man." Added Gunther: "He [Ubico] has spies and agents everywhere, and knows everyone's private business to an amazing degree. Not a pin drops in Guatemala without his knowing it." Guatemala under Ubico

1192-705: A civil ceremony. Bonaparte now habitually styled himself "Napoleon Bonaparte" rather than using the Italian form "Napoleone di Buonaparte." Two days after the marriage, Bonaparte left Paris to take command of the Army of Italy. He went on the offensive, hoping to defeat the Kingdom of Sardinia in Piedmont before their Austrian allies could intervene. In a series of victories during the Montenotte campaign , he knocked

1341-540: A coastal battery. In July 1793, he published a pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire ), demonstrating his support for the National Convention which was now heavily influenced by the Jacobins. In September, with the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti , Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces sent to recapture the port of Toulon which

1490-430: A company's investment is largely self-contained for its employees and overseas investors and the benefits of the export earnings are not shared with the host country. One of the company's primary tactics for maintaining market dominance was to control the distribution of arable land. UFCO claimed that hurricanes, blight and other natural threats required them to hold extra land or reserve land. In practice, what this meant

1639-467: A contract with the government of Costa Rica to build a railroad connecting the capital city of San José to the port of Limón in the Caribbean . Meiggs was assisted in the project by his young nephew, Minor C. Keith , who took over Meiggs's business concerns in Costa Rica after his death in 1877. Keith began experimenting with the planting of bananas as a cheap source of food for his workers. When

SECTION 10

#1732779753614

1788-472: A coup that installed General José Orellana into the presidency, after the sitting president Carlos Herrera y Luna refused to ratify the concessions that Estrada Cabrera had made to the United Fruit Company . Under Orellana he was appointed Secretary of War in 1922, but quit a year later. In 1926, after the death of President Orellana, Ubico ran unsuccessfully for president as the candidate of

1937-517: A difficult crossing over the Alps, the French captured Milan on 2 June. The French confronted an Austrian army under Michael von Melas at Marengo on 14 June. The Austrians fielded about 30,000 soldiers while Bonaparte commanded 24,000 troops. The Austrians' initial attack surprised the French who were gradually driven back. Late in the afternoon, however, a full division under Desaix arrived on

2086-542: A hard life for a company "far away", and whose accompanying video depicted orange groves worked by peasants overseen by wealthy managers. The lyrics and scenery are generic, but United Fruit (or its successor Chiquita) was reputedly the target. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell negotiated land giveaways to the United Fruit Company in Guatemala and Honduras. John Foster Dulles's brother, Allen Dulles , who

2235-425: A peaceful demonstration on 25 June 1944 sparked an outcry that led to Ubico's resignation on 1 July 1944, amidst a general strike and nationwide protests. Initially, he had planned to hand over power to the former director of police, General Roderico Anzueto, whom he felt could control. But his advisors recognized that Anzueto's pro- Nazi sympathies had made him very unpopular, and that he would not be able to control

2384-502: A plot to overthrow president Ubico. In his book The paradox garden (Spanish: El Jardín de las Paradojas ), written in 1935, Guatemalan writer Efraín De los Ríos accused the police chief, General Roderico Anzueto Valencia, of making up the plot to get rid of the accused conspirators. According to De los Ríos, this is what really happened: In early September 1934, when Ubico announced a popular referendum to determine whether he should extend his presidential term for another six years,

2533-569: A position with the Bureau of Topography where he worked on military planning. On 15 September, Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in regular service for refusing to serve in the Vendée campaign. He sought a transfer to Constantinople to offer his services to Sultan Selim III . The request was eventually granted, but he never took up the post. On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared

2682-570: A promise to defend private property, raising taxes on tobacco, alcohol and salt, and extracting levies from France's satellite republics. Bonaparte believed that the best way to secure his regime was by a victorious peace. In May 1800, he led an army across the Swiss Alps into Italy, aiming to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula when Bonaparte was still in Egypt. After

2831-541: A promising host export-driven economy. The Agrarian Law would grant international, multinational companies leniency in tax regulations along with other financial incentives. Acquiring the first railroad concession from liberal President Miguel R. Dávila in 1910, the Vaccaro brothers and Company helped set the foundation on which the banana republic would struggle to balance and regulate the relationships between American capitalism and Honduran politics. Samuel Zemurray ,

2980-731: A rebellion against the National Convention. Paul Barras , a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction , knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and made him second in command of the forces defending the convention in the Tuileries Palace . Bonaparte had seen the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792 there three years earlier and realized that artillery would be

3129-464: A scheme for the solution of the participants' cash flow problems and was in the process of implementing it. The merger formed the United Fruit Company, based in Boston, with Preston as president and Keith as vice-president. Palmer became a permanent member of the executive committee and for long periods of time the director. From a business point of view, Bradley Palmer was United Fruit. Preston brought to

SECTION 20

#1732779753614

3278-625: A small-sized American banana entrepreneur, rose to be another contender looking to invest in the Honduran agricultural trade. In New Orleans , Zemurray found himself strategizing with the newly exiled General Manuel Bonilla (nationalist ex-president of Honduras 1903–1907, 1912–1913) and fomented a coup d'état against President Dávila. On Christmas Eve, December 1910, in clear opposition of the Dávila administration, Samuel Zemurray, U.S. General Lee Christmas , and Honduran General Manuel Bonilla boarded

3427-542: A substantial amount of U.S. capital to build a progressive infrastructure in Honduras. The granting of land ownership in exchange for the railroad concession started the first official competitive market for bananas and giving birth to the banana republic . Cuyamel Fruit Company and the Vaccaro Bros. and Co. would become known as being multinational enterprises. Bringing western modernization and industrialization to

3576-477: Is fairly well acquainted with history and geography ... This boy would make an excellent sailor". One story of Napoleon at the school is that he led junior students to victory against senior students in a snowball fight, which allegedly showed his leadership abilities. But the story was only told after Napoleon had become famous. In his later years at Brienne, Napoleon became an outspoken Corsican nationalist and admirer of Paoli. In September 1784, Napoleon

3725-402: Is in revolt; military who have orders 'not to spare ammunition' have already killed and wounded about fifty strikers. Government now talks of general offensive against strikers as soon as all troopships now on the way arrive early next week. The dispatch from U.S. Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 29, 1928, stated: I have the honor to report that the legal advisor of

3874-739: The Battle of Tarvis in March 1797. Alarmed by the French thrust that reached Leoben , about 100 km from Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace. The preliminary peace of Leoben , signed on 18 April, gave France control of most of northern Italy and the Low Countries , and promised to partition the Republic of Venice with Austria. Bonaparte marched on Venice and forced its surrender , ending 1,100 years of Venetian independence. He authorized

4023-532: The Constitution of the Year VIII , under which three consuls were appointed for 10 years. Real power lay with Bonaparte as First Consul, and his preferred candidates Cambacérès and Charles-François Lebrun were appointed as second and third consuls who only had an advisory role. The constitution also established a Legislative Body and Tribunate which were selected from indirectly elected candidates, and

4172-598: The Council of Five Hundred and Directory: Lucien Bonaparte, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès , Roger Ducos and Joseph Fouché to overthrow the government. On 9 November 1799 ( 18 Brumaire according to the revolutionary calendar), the conspirators launched a coup, and the following day, backed by grenadiers with fixed bayonets, forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory and appoint Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos provisional consuls. On 15 December, Bonaparte introduced

4321-807: The Coup of 18 Brumaire against the Directory , and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, which secured France's victory in the War of the Second Coalition , and in 1803 sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States . In December 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, further expanding his power. The breakdown of the Treaty of Amiens led to

4470-599: The Hornet to a Honduran straw buyer on the island to avoid falling foul of the Neutrality Act . After successfully attacking the port of Trujillo, the Hornet unexpectedly encountered the U.S. gunboat Tacoma and was towed back to New Orleans. The nascent revolution continued apace, Zemurray's media contacts having spread the word in advance. President Dávila was forced to step down, with Francisco Bertrand becoming interim president until General Bonilla handily won

4619-649: The Iberian Peninsula and installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain in 1808, provoking the Peninsular War . In 1809, the Austrians again challenged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition , in which Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after winning the Battle of Wagram . In summer 1812, he launched an invasion of Russia , which ended in the catastrophic retreat of his army that winter. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russia in

Jorge Ubico - Misplaced Pages Continue

4768-582: The Knights Hospitaller . Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim surrendered after token resistance, and Bonaparte captured an important naval base with the loss of only three men. Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal Navy and landed at Alexandria on 1 July. He fought the Battle of Shubra Khit against the Mamluks , Egypt's ruling military caste. This helped

4917-716: The Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise two months later, gave him a pretext to arrest about 100 suspected Jacobins and royalists, some of whom were shot and many others deported to penal colonies. After a decade of war, France and Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, bringing the Revolutionary Wars to an end. Under the treaty, Britain agreed to withdraw from most of the colonies it had recently captured from France and her allies, and France agreed to evacuate Naples. In April, Bonaparte publicly celebrated

5066-652: The Treaty of Campo Formio . Bonaparte returned to Paris on 5 December 1797 as a hero. He met Charles Maurice de Talleyrand , France's Foreign Minister, and took command of the Army of England for the planned invasion of Britain. After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided that France's naval strength was not yet sufficient to confront the British Royal Navy. He decided on a military expedition to seize Egypt and thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in India . Bonaparte wished to establish

5215-571: The Treaty of Lunéville in February 1801. The treaty reaffirmed and expanded earlier French gains at Campo Formio. Bonaparte's triumph at Marengo increased his popularity and political authority. However, he still faced royalist plots and feared Jacobin influence, especially in the army. Several assassination plots, including the Conspiration des poignards (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and

5364-609: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission exposed a scheme by United Brands (dubbed Bananagate ) to bribe Honduran President Oswaldo López Arellano with $ 1.25 million, plus the promise of another $ 1.25 million upon the reduction of certain export taxes. Trading in United Brands stock was halted, and López was ousted in a military coup. After Black's suicide, Cincinnati -based American Financial Group , one of billionaire Carl Lindner, Jr. 's companies, bought into United Brands. In August 1984, Lindner took control of

5513-687: The United Brands Company . United Fruit had far less cash than Black had counted on, and Black's mismanagement led to United Brands becoming crippled with debt. The company's losses were exacerbated by Hurricane Fifi in 1974, which destroyed many banana plantations in Honduras . On February 3, 1975, Black committed suicide by jumping out a window from the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building in New York City. Later that year,

5662-412: The United Fruit Company and wealthy landowners, as well as supporting their harsh labor practices. Ubico has been described as "one of the most oppressive tyrants Guatemala has ever known" who compared himself to Adolf Hitler . He was removed by a pro-democracy uprising in 1944, which led to the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution . Jorge Ubico was the son of Arturo Ubico Urruela, a lawyer and politician of

5811-720: The War of the Sixth Coalition , in which Napoleon was decisively defeated at the Battle of Leipzig . The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. They exiled him to the Mediterranean island of Elba and restored the Bourbons to power . Ten months later, Napoleon escaped from Elba on a brig, landed in France with a thousand men, and marched on Paris, again taking control of

5960-741: The War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered the coalition with a decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz , which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire . In the War of the Fourth Coalition , Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, marched his Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in 1807 at the Battle of Friedland . Seeking to extend his trade embargo against Britain , Napoleon invaded

6109-470: The wealth gap as well as the collusion between the profiting Honduran government officials and the U.S. fruit companies (United Fruit Co., Standard Fruit Co., Cuyamel Fruit Co.) versus the Honduran working and poor classes. Due to the exclusivity of the land concessions and lack of official ownership documentation, Honduran producers and experienced laborers were left with two options to regain these lands— dominio util or dominio pleno. Dominio util —meaning

Jorge Ubico - Misplaced Pages Continue

6258-565: The $ 200,000 he transferred to a personal bank account. On 14 June 1946, Ubico died of lung cancer at the age of 67. He was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in New Orleans. Efforts to repatriate his remains were denied by the government of Miguel Ydíogoras Fuentes . However, on 13 August 1963, his remains were repatriated to Guatemala after appropriate measures were taken by the government of Enrique Peralta Azurdia and

6407-501: The 1930s the company owned 3.5 million acres (14,000 km ) of land in Central America and the Caribbean and was the single largest land owner in Guatemala. Such holdings gave it great power over the governments of small countries. That was one of the factors that led to the coining of the phrase " banana republic ". In 1933, concerned that the company was mismanaged and that its market value had plunged, Zemurray staged

6556-717: The 1930s – was Secretary of State under Eisenhower; his brother Allen, who did legal work for the company and sat on its board of directors, was head of the CIA under Eisenhower; Henry Cabot Lodge , who was America's ambassador to the UN, was a large owner of United Fruit stock; Ed Whitman, the United Fruit PR man, was married to Ann Whitman, Dwight Eisenhower's personal secretary. You could not see these connections until you could – and then you could not stop seeing them. The United Fruit Company (UFCO) owned huge tracts of land in

6705-650: The Austrian position in Italy. At Rivoli, Austria lost 43% of its soldiers dead, wounded or taken prisoner. The French then invaded the heartlands of the House of Habsburg . French forces in Southern Germany had been defeated by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen in 1796, but Charles withdrew his forces to protect Vienna after learning of Bonaparte's assault. In their first encounter, Bonaparte pushed Charles back and advanced deep into Austrian territory after winning

6854-571: The Caribbean coast of Colombia . In 1899, Keith lost $ 1.5 million when Hoadley and Co., a New York City broker, went bankrupt. He then traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to participate in the merger of his banana trading company, Tropical Trading and Transport Company , with the rival Boston Fruit Company. Boston Fruit had been established by Lorenzo Dow Baker , a sailor who, in 1870, had bought his first bananas in Jamaica, and by Andrew W. Preston . Preston's lawyer, Bradley Palmer , had devised

7003-471: The Caribbean lowlands. It also dominated regional transportation networks through its International Railways of Central America and its Great White Fleet of steamships. In addition, UFCO branched out in 1913 by creating the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company. UFCO's policies of acquiring tax breaks and other benefits from host governments led to it building enclave economies in the regions, in which

7152-418: The Company built extensive railroads and ports, provided employment and transportation, and created numerous schools for the people who lived and worked on Company land. On the other hand, it allowed vast tracts of land under its ownership to remain uncultivated and, in Guatemala and elsewhere, it discouraged the government from building highways, which would have lessened the profitable transportation monopoly of

7301-406: The Costa Rican government defaulted on its payments in 1882, Keith had to borrow £ 1.2 million from London banks and from private investors to continue the difficult engineering project. In exchange for this and for renegotiating Costa Rica's own debt, in 1884, the administration of President Próspero Fernández Oreamuno agreed to give Keith 800,000 acres (3,200 km ) of tax-free land along

7450-557: The Council of State recommended a new plebiscite asking the French people to make "Napoleon Bonaparte" Consul for life. (It was the first time his first name was officially used by the regime.) About 3.6 million voted "yes" and 8,374 "no." 40%-60% of eligible Frenchmen voted, the highest turnout for a plebiscite since the Revolution. France had regained her overseas colonies under Amiens but did not control them all. The French National Convention had voted to abolish slavery in February 1794, but, in May 1802, Bonaparte reintroduced it in all

7599-411: The French National Convention outlawed him. In early June, Bonaparte and 400 French troops failed to capture Ajaccio from Corsican volunteers and the island was now controlled by Paoli's supporters. When Bonaparte learned that the Corsican assembly had condemned him and his family, the Buonapartes fled to Toulon on the French mainland. Bonaparte returned to his regiment in Nice and was made captain of

SECTION 50

#1732779753614

7748-477: The French fleet in the Battle of the Nile , preventing Bonaparte from strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean. His army had succeeded in a temporary increase of French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings. In early 1799, he moved an army into the Ottoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee ). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of Arish , Gaza , Jaffa , and Haifa . The attack on Jaffa

7897-436: The French governor Charles Louis de Marbeuf , who became his patron and godfather to Napoleon. With Mabeuf's support, Carlo was named Corsican representative to the court of Louis XVI and Napoleon obtained a royal bursary to a military academy in France. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child. Later in life, Napoleon said, "The future destiny of

8046-448: The French practise their defensive tactic for the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July, about 24 km (15 mi) from the pyramids . Bonaparte's forces of 25,000 roughly equalled those of the Mamluks' Egyptian cavalry. Twenty-nine French and approximately 2,000 Egyptians were killed. The victory boosted the French army's morale. On 1 August 1798, the British fleet under Sir Horatio Nelson captured or destroyed all but two vessels of

8195-468: The French revolutionary cause. Paoli returned to the island in July 1790, but he had no sympathy for Bonaparte, as he deemed his father a traitor for having deserted the cause of Corsican independence. Bonaparte plunged into a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. He became a supporter of the Jacobins and joined the pro-French Corsican Republicans who opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations to secede. He

8344-511: The French to loot treasures such as the Horses of Saint Mark . In this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners, 540 cannons, and 170 standards . The French army fought 67 actions and won 18 pitched battles through superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics. Bonaparte extracted an estimated 45 million French pounds from Italy during the campaign, another 12 million pounds in precious metals and jewels, and more than 300 paintings and sculptures. During

8493-415: The Guatemala operation. Company holdings in Cuba , which included sugar mills in the Oriente region of the island, were expropriated by the 1959 revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro . By April 1960 Castro was accusing the company of aiding Cuban exiles and supporters of former leader Fulgencio Batista in initiating a seaborne invasion of Cuba directed from the United States. Castro warned

8642-469: The Guatemalan Liberal Party . Ubico Urruela was a member of the legislature that wrote the Guatemalan Constitution of 1879, and was subsequently the president of the Guatemalan Congress during the government of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920). Jorge Ubico was privately tutored, and attended some of Guatemala 's most prestigious schools, as well as receiving further education in the United States and Europe . By 1897 Ubico received his commission into

8791-483: The Guatemalan army as a second lieutenant, a commission which was largely due to his political connections. He rapidly established himself in the army and rose through the ranks, and, after a military campaign against El Salvador, held the rank of colonel at the age of 28. A year later, he was made the governor ( jefe politico ) of the province of Alta Verapaz , followed four years later as governor of Retalhuleu . During his tenure, he oversaw improvements in public works,

8940-425: The Honduran declaration of independence in 1838 from the Central American Federation, Honduras was in a state of economic and political strife due to constant conflict with neighboring countries for territorial expansion and control. Liberal President Marco Aurelio Soto (1876–1883) saw instating the Agrarian Law of 1877 as a way to make Honduras more appealing to international companies looking to invest capital into

9089-402: The Honduran government or in some cases it was permitted by U.S. companies, such as United Fruit Co., to create long-term contracts with independent producers on devastatingly diseased infested districts. Even once granted land concessions, many were so severely contaminated with either the Panaman, moko, or sigatoka, that it would have to reduce the acreage used and the amount produced or changed

SECTION 60

#1732779753614

9238-410: The National Palace, in what later became known as the "October Revolution". Ponce was defeated and driven into exile. Árbenz, Arana, and a lawyer named Jorge Toriello established a junta which held democratic elections before the end of the year, and were won by a professor named Juan José Arévalo . Ubico went into exile to New Orleans in the United States where he rented a small house and lived off

9387-479: The November 1911 Honduran presidential elections. In 1912, General Bonilla quickly granted the second railroad concession to the newly incorporated Cuyamel Fruit Company owned by Zemurray. The period of some of these exclusive railroad land concessions was up to 99 years. The first railroad concession leased the national railroad of Honduras to the Vaccaro Bros. and Co. (once Standard Fruit Company and currently Dole Food Company ). Zemurray granted his concession to

9536-412: The Piedmontese out of the war in two weeks. The French then focused on the Austrians, laying siege to Mantua . The Austrians launched offensives against the French to break the siege, but Bonaparte defeated every relief effort, winning the Battle of Castiglione , the Battle of Bassano , the Battle of Arcole , and the Battle of Rivoli . The French triumph at Rivoli in January 1797 led to the collapse of

9685-439: The Political Progressive Party. He temporarily retired to his farm until the next election. In December 1930, President Lazaro Chacón was forced to resign after having a stroke. By that time, Guatemala was in the midst of the Great Depression and bankrupt; Chacón's successor, Baudilio Palma , was deposed by a coup d'état after only four days in office and was replaced by Gral. Manuel María Orellana . The United States opposed

9834-425: The Ponce regime unconstitutional. Among the military officers in the opposition were Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán and Major Francisco Javier Arana . Ubico had fired Árbenz from his teaching post at the Escuela Politécnica (Politechnic School), and since then Árbenz had been in El Salvador organizing a band of revolutionary exiles. On 19 October 1944, a small group of soldiers and students led by Árbenz and Arana attacked

9983-440: The Ramolinos, descended from a noble family from Lombardy . Napoleon's parents, Carlo Maria Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino , lived in the Maison Bonaparte home in Ajaccio , where Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769. He had an elder brother, Joseph , and, later, six younger siblings: Lucien , Elisa , Louis , Pauline , Caroline , and Jérôme . Five more siblings were stillborn or did not survive infancy. Napoleon

10132-452: The Republic's future was in doubt, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, despite the fact that he had received no explicit orders from Paris. The army was left in the charge of Jean-Baptiste Kléber . Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return from Egypt with his army to ward off a possible invasion of France, but these messages never arrived. By

10281-405: The Spanish Main – via Boston and New Orleans written and illustrated by Henry R. Blaney. The travel book featured landscapes and portraits of the inhabitants pertaining to the regions where the United Fruit Company possessed land. It also described the voyage of the United Fruit Company's steamer, and Blaney's descriptions and encounters of his travels. In 1901, the government of Guatemala hired

10430-429: The Tela Railroad Company—another division within his own company. Cuyamel Fruit Company's concession would also be awarded to the Tela Railroad Company. United Fruit Company (currently Chiquita Brands International ) would partner with President Bonilla in the exchange of access and control of Honduran natural resources plus tax and financial incentives. In return, President Bonilla would receive cooperation, protection and

10579-427: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (see Operation PBSuccess ). The directors of United Fruit Company (UFCO) had lobbied to convince the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that Colonel Árbenz intended to align Guatemala with the Eastern Bloc . Besides the disputed issue of Árbenz's allegiance to communism, UFCO was being threatened by the Árbenz government's agrarian reform legislation and new Labor Code. UFCO

10728-457: The U.S. that "Cuba is not another Guatemala" in one of many combative diplomatic exchanges before the U.S. organized the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. In the 20th century, many parts of Latin America were not positively operated and invested in compared to the region of Costa Rica. The United Fruit Company, according to researchers, made positive impacts in the region that continued past

10877-514: The UFCo. According to Yale Insights, the impact of the infrastructure still persists today in astonishing numbers. In 1973, households living within the boundaries of UFCo were 26% less likely to be poor compared to outside households. A most recent research statistic in 2011, states that only 63% of the poverty gap had closed by 2011. The impact of the UFCo investment in capital among families had statistically paid off as outside work options had around

11026-521: The United Fruit Company here in Bogotá stated yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military authorities during the recent disturbance reached between five and six hundred; while the number of soldiers killed was one. The dispatch from the U.S. embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated January 16, 1929, stated: I have the honor to report that the Bogotá representative of

11175-544: 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 1930, Sam Zemurray (nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man") sold his Cuyamel Fruit Company to United Fruit and retired from

11324-472: The United Fruit Company told me yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded one thousand. The Banana massacre is said to be one of the main events that preceded the Bogotazo , the subsequent era of violence known as La Violencia , and the guerrillas who developed in the bipartisan National Front period, creating the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia . Following

11473-661: The United States government. direct central rule, 1826–27 Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte ; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I , was a French military officer and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He

11622-429: The archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the so-called banana republics. After a period of financial decline, United Fruit merged with Eli M. Black 's AMK in 1970 to become the United Brands Company . In 1984, Carl Lindner, Jr. transformed United Brands into the present-day Chiquita Brands International . In 1871, U.S. railroad entrepreneur Henry Meiggs signed

11771-484: The author himself grew up in close proximity to the incident. The climax of García Márquez 's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is based on the events in Ciénaga. General Cortés Vargas issued the order to shoot, arguing later that he had done so because of information that US boats were poised to land troops on Colombian coasts to defend American personnel and the interests of the United Fruit Company. Vargas issued

11920-569: The banana and the effects of these practices created noticeable environmental degradation when it was a thriving company. Infrastructure built by the company was constructed by clearing out forests, filling in low, swampy areas, and installing sewage, drainage, and water systems. Ecosystems that existed on these lands were destroyed, devastating biodiversity. With a loss in biodiversity, other natural processes within nature necessary for plant and animal survival are shut down. Techniques used for farming were at fault for loss of biodiversity and harm to

12069-513: The banana import business in the United States, then their main source of income. The company catapulted into financial success. Bradley Palmer overnight became a much-sought-after expert in business law, as well as a wealthy man. He later became a consultant to presidents and an adviser to Congress. In 1900, the United Fruit Company produced The Golden Caribbean: A Winter Visit to the Republics of Colombia, Costa Rica, Spanish Honduras, Belize and

12218-519: The bankruptcy and ceasing of production in 1984. Since 1880 with the first initial U.S investment in 4% of the country's territory, the UFCO grew in Costa Rica to develop around 7% of their labor force. With a growing labor force and plantations expanding, camps for farmers and families emerged. With the emergence of the workforce came the construction of commissaries, schools, electric plants, sewage systems, hospitals, and recreation facilities all funded by

12367-427: The bass population greatly impacted the native fish population, and continued to grow. The 55-gallon drums imported by the UFCO has led this American export to grow and become genetically superior in the warmer and longer growing seasons. Although UFCO sometimes promoted the development of the nations where it operated, its long-term effects on their economy and infrastructure were often devastating. In Central America,

12516-569: The campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He founded two newspapers: one for the troops in his army and one for circulation in France. The royalists attacked him for looting Italy and warned that he might become a dictator. Bonaparte sent General Pierre Augereau to Paris to support a coup d'état that purged royalists from the legislative councils on 4 September—the Coup of 18 Fructidor . This left Barras and his republican allies in control again but more dependent upon Bonaparte who finalized peace terms with Austria by

12665-558: The child is always the work of the mother." Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. In January 1779, at age 9, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun to improve his French (his mother tongue was the Corsican dialect of Italian). Although he eventually became fluent in French, he spoke with

12814-408: The closest ally of the United States in Central America. Adopting a pro-USA stance to promote economic development and recovery from depression, the United Fruit Company under Ubico became the most important company in Guatemala. It received import duty and real estate tax exemptions from the government and controlled more land than any other group or individual. It also controlled the sole railroad in

12963-743: The company and renamed it Chiquita Brands International. The headquarters was moved to Cincinnati in 1985. By 2019, the company's main offices left the United States and relocated to Switzerland. Throughout most of its history, United Fruit's main competitor was the Standard Fruit Company , now the Dole Food Company . The United Fruit Company is reported to have been involved in bribing government officials in exchange for preferential treatment and working to consolidate monopolies. Latin American journalists sometimes referred to

13112-725: The company as el pulpo ("the octopus"), and leftist parties in Latin America encouraged the company's workers to strike. Criticism of the United Fruit Company became a staple of the discourse of the communist parties in several Latin American countries, where its activities were often interpreted as illustrating Vladimir Lenin 's theory of capitalist imperialism . Major far-left writers in Latin America, such as Carlos Luis Fallas of Costa Rica, Ramón Amaya Amador of Honduras, Miguel Ángel Asturias and Augusto Monterroso of Guatemala, Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia, Carmen Lyra of Costa Rica, and Pablo Neruda of Chile, denounced

13261-408: The company had to be politically involved in the region even though it was an American company. In fact, the heavy-handed involvement of the company in often-corrupt governments created the term " banana republic ", which represents a servile dictatorship. The term "Banana Republic" was coined by American writer O. Henry . The United Fruit Company's entire process of creating a plantation to farming

13410-444: The company in their literature: The Fruit Company, Inc. reserved for itself the most succulent piece, the central coast of my own land, the delicate waist of America. It rechristened its territories 'Banana Republics', and over the sleeping dead, over the restless heroes who brought about the greatness, the liberty, and the flags, it established the comic opera: it abolished free will, gave out imperial crowns, encouraged envy, attracted

13559-419: The company sold off the last of its Guatemalan holdings after over a decade of decline. Even as the Árbenz government was being overthrown, in 1954 a general strike against the company organized by workers in Honduras rapidly paralyzed that country, and, due to the United States' concern about the events in Guatemala, was settled more favorably for the workers in order for the United States to gain leverage for

13708-642: The country, the sole facilities capable of producing electricity, and the port facilities at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast. As part of a goodwill worldwide tour promoting the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics , in January of that year the German light cruiser Emden arrived to Guatemala. Its crew travelled by train to Guatemala City where they paraded in front of Ubico's Army staff and the general public. While

13857-557: The country. His opponents responded by forming a Seventh Coalition , which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821, aged 51. Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and Napoleonic tactics are still studied at military schools worldwide. His legacy endures through

14006-455: The democratically elected government of Guatemala and installed a pro-business military dictatorship. In 1967, it acquired the A&;W Restaurants . Corporate raider Eli M. Black bought 733,000 shares of United Fruit in 1968, becoming the company's largest shareholder. In June 1970, Black merged United Fruit with his own public company, AMK (owner of meat packer John Morrell ), to create

14155-405: The dictatorship of flies ... flies sticky with submissive blood and marmalade, drunken flies that buzz over the tombs of the people, circus flies, wise flies expert at tyranny. The business practices of United Fruit were also frequently criticized by journalists, politicians, and artists in the United States. Little Steven released a song in 1987 called "Bitter Fruit", with lyrics that referred to

14304-478: The entry of blacks and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children in France, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility, and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule. Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a minor Tuscan noble family who emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century and his maternal ancestors,

14453-476: The expense of religious authorities. His conquests acted as a catalyst for political change and the development of nation states . However, he is controversial due to his role in wars which devastated Europe, his looting of conquered territories, and his mixed record on civil rights. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and jailed critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in France's colonies except for Haiti , banned

14602-580: The field and reversed the tide of the battle. The Austrian army fled leaving behind 14,000 casualties. The following day, the Austrians signed an armistice and agreed to abandon Northern Italy. When peace negotiations with Austria stalled, Bonaparte reopened hostilities in November. A French army under General Moreau swept through Bavaria and scored an overwhelming victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden in December. The Austrians capitulated and signed

14751-701: The first Corsican to graduate from the École militaire . Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère artillery regiment . He served in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, but spent long periods of leave in Corsica which fed his Corsican nationalism. In September 1789, he returned to Corsica and promoted

14900-493: The fortress of Acre , so he marched his army back to Egypt in May. Bonaparte was alleged to have ordered plague-stricken men to be poisoned with opium to speed the retreat. Back in Egypt on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir . Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs. He learned that France had suffered a series of defeats in the War of the Second Coalition . On 24 August 1799, fearing that

15049-410: The front man and the real owner was Ubico himself. In the following weeks, Anzueto Valencia made up a list of people involved in a false plot to murder Ubico Castañeda, and among the people in the list he included Aguilar Fuentes. All the people on the list were imprisoned, tortured and forced to confess. Their "confessions" appeared in the semi-official newspaper El Liberal Progresista . De los Ríos

15198-478: The fruit business. By then, the company held a major role in the national economies of several countries and eventually became a symbol of the exploitative export economy. This led to serious labor disputes by the Costa Rican peasants, involving more than 30 separate unions and 100,000 workers, in the 1934 Great Banana Strike , one of the most significant actions of the era by trade unions in Costa Rica . By

15347-492: The key to its defence. He ordered a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat , to seize cannons and Bonaparte deployed them in key positions. On 5 October 1795— 13 Vendémiaire An IV in the French Republican calendar —he fired on the rebels with canister rounds (later called: "a whiff of grapeshot "). About 300 to 1,400 rebels died in the uprising. Bonaparte's role in defeating the rebellion earned him and his family

15496-485: The land as well. To create farmland, the United Fruit Company would either clear forests (as mentioned) or would drain marshlands to reduce avian habitats and to create "good" soil for banana plant growth. The most common practice in farming was called the "shifting plantation agriculture" . This is done by using produced soil fertility and hydrological resources in the most intense manner, then relocating when yields fell, and pathogens followed banana plants. In addition to

15645-410: The land was intended to be developed for the greater good of the public with a possibility of being the granted "full private ownership" versus dominio pleno was the immediate granting of full private ownership with the right to sell . Based on the 1898 Honduran agrarian law, without being sanctioned the right their communal lands, Honduran villages and towns could only regain these lands if granted by

15794-473: The lawyer Efraín Aguilar Fuentes, the Property Registry director, sternly declined to be in favor of the president. When Ubico summoned him to the presidential office to chastise him, Fuentes coldly replied he was aware Police Chief Anzueto Valencia had embezzled up to twenty eight properties and therefore he, Aguilar, was not going to support the president. But he did not know that Anzueto was only

15943-507: The loss of biodiversity, many new species were introduced into the environment including the largemouth bass. Largemouth Bass, a popular fish in the United States has made it all over the globe through exports. Lake Yojoa in Honduras was home to many largemouth bass not native to the region. Stemming from a United Fruit Company social club event, a group of North American employees wanting to indulge in their love for fishing, introduced 1,800 largemouth bass from Florida. From 1954-55 to about 1970,

16092-502: The middle class grew substantially during Ubico's regime, the basic character of the regime remained oligarchical and his regime primarily benefited the landowning class. The country's middle class, resentful of its exclusion from the government, later spearheaded the democratic revolution that removed Ubico from power. Ubico considered himself to be "another Napoleon ". He admired Napoleon Bonaparte extravagantly and preferred to have his photograph taken in his general's uniform. Although he

16241-418: The military. Instead, Ubico chose to select a triumvirate composed of Major General Buenaventura Piñeda, Major General Eduardo Villagrán Ariza, and General Federico Ponce Vaides . The three generals promised to convene the national assembly to hold an election for a provisional president, but when congress met on 3 July, soldiers held everyone at gunpoint and forced them to vote for General Ponce, rather than

16390-547: The modernizing legal and administrative reforms he enacted in France and Western Europe, embodied in the Napoleonic Code . He established a system of public education, abolished the vestiges of feudalism , emancipated Jews and other religious minorities, abolished the Spanish Inquisition , enacted the principle of equality before the law for an emerging middle class, and centralized state power at

16539-410: The most severe violence was directed at workers on the plantations of the United Fruit Company. Despite UFCO's government connections and conflicts of interest, the overthrow of Árbenz failed to benefit the company. Its stock market value declined along with its profit margin. The Eisenhower administration proceeded with antitrust action against the company, which forced it to divest in 1958. In 1972,

16688-636: The mountains. From Ormea, it headed west to outflank the Austro-Sardinian positions around Saorge . After this campaign, Augustin Robespierre sent Bonaparte on a mission to the Republic of Genoa to determine the country's intentions towards France. After the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, Bonaparte's association with leading Jacobins made him politically suspect to the new regime. He

16837-490: The new government and demanded Orellana resign; he was forced to leave the presidency in favor of José María Reina Andrade . The Liberal Party allied with the Progressives to nominate Ubico as Andrade's successor, in an election where Ubico was the only candidate on the ballot. In February 1931 he was elected with 305,841 votes. In his inaugural address, he pledged a "march toward civilization". Once in office, he began

16986-465: The new laws. In 1952, the government of Guatemala began expropriating unused United Fruit Company land to landless peasants. The company responded by intensively lobbying the U.S. government to intervene and mounting a misinformation campaign to portray the Guatemalan government as communist . In 1954, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency armed, funded, and trained a military force that deposed

17135-569: The number of casualties vary from 47 to 3,000. The military justified this action stating that the strike was subversive, and its organizers were Communist revolutionaries. Congressman Jorge Eliécer Gaitán claimed that the army had acted under instructions from the United Fruit Company. The ensuing scandal contributed to President Miguel Abadía Méndez 's Conservative Party being voted out of office in 1930, putting an end to 44 years of Conservative rule in Colombia. The first novel of Álvaro Cepeda Samudio , La Casa Grande , focuses on this event, and

17284-688: The order so the United States would not invade Colombia. The telegram from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 5, 1928, stated: I have been following Santa Marta fruit strike through United Fruit Company representative here; also through Minister of Foreign Affairs who on Saturday told me government would send additional troops and would arrest all strike leaders and transport them to prison at Cartagena ; that government would give adequate protection to American interests involved. The telegram from Bogotá Embassy to Secretary of State, date December 7, 1928, stated: Situation outside Santa Marta City unquestionably very serious: outside zone

17433-465: The partnership his plantations in the West Indies , a fleet of steamships, and his market in the U.S. Northeast. Keith brought his plantations and railroads in Central America and his market in the U.S. South and Southeast. At its founding, United Fruit was capitalized at $ 11.23 million. The company at Palmer's direction proceeded to buy, or buy a share in, 14 competitors, assuring them of 80% of

17582-755: The patronage of the new government, the French Directory . On 26 October, he was promoted to commander of the Army of the Interior, and in January 1796 he was appointed head of the Army of Italy. Within weeks of the Vendémiaire uprising , Bonaparte was romantically involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais , the former mistress of Barras. Josephine had been born in the French colonies in the Lesser Antilles , and her family owned slaves on sugar plantations The couple married on 9 March 1796 in

17731-532: The peace and his controversial Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII under which the Pope recognized Bonaparte's regime and the regime recognized Catholicism as the majority religion of France. In a further step towards national reconciliation (known as "fusion"), Bonaparte offered an amnesty to most émigrés who wished to return to France. With Europe at peace and the economy recovering, Bonaparte became increasingly popular, both domestically and abroad. In May 1802,

17880-455: The popular civilian candidate Ramón Calderón. Ponce, who had previously retired from military service due to alcoholism, took orders from Ubico and kept many of the officials who had worked in the Ubico administration. The repressive policies of the Ubico administration continued. Opposition groups began organizing again, this time joined by many prominent political and military leaders who deemed

18029-406: The railroad, plus a 99-year lease on the operation of the train route. The railroad was completed in 1890, but the flow of passengers proved insufficient to finance Keith's debt. However, the sale of bananas grown in his lands and transported first by train to Limón, then by ship to the United States, proved very lucrative. Keith eventually came to dominate the banana trade in Central America and along

18178-460: The railroads under its control. UFCO also destroyed at least one of those railroads upon leaving its area of operation. In 1954, the Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Árbenz , elected in 1950, was toppled by forces led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas who invaded from Honduras . Commissioned by the Eisenhower administration, this military operation was armed, trained and organized by

18327-575: The ranks after winning the siege of Toulon in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795. In 1796, Napoleon commanded a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in the War of the First Coalition , scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798 which served as a springboard to political power. In November 1799, Napoleon engineered

18476-489: The recovered colonies except Saint-Domingue and Guadeloupe which were under the control of rebel generals. A French military expedition under Antoine Richepanse regained control of Guadeloupe and slavery was reintroduced there on 16 July. United Fruit Company United Fruit had a deep and long-lasting effect on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism , and they described it as

18625-559: The school system, public health, and youth organizations. In 1918, he drained swamps, ordered fumigation and distributed free medicine to combat a yellow fever epidemic, and won the praise of Major General William C. Gorgas , who had done the same in Panama. However, most of his reputation came from his harsh but effective punishment of banditry and smuggling across the Mexican border . He returned to Guatemala City in 1921 to participate in

18774-470: The spirit of the age," and "soft despotism." Local and regional administration was reformed to concentrate power in the central government, censorship was introduced, and most opposition newspapers were closed down to stifle dissent. Royalist and regional revolts were dealt with by a combination of amnesties for those who lay down their arms and brutal repression of those who continued to resist. Bonaparte also improved state finances by securing loans under

18923-407: The time that he reached Paris in October, France's situation had been improved by a series of victories. The Republic, however, was bankrupt and the ineffective Directory was unpopular. Despite the failures in Egypt, Bonaparte returned to a hero's welcome. The Directory discussed Bonaparte's desertion but was too weak to punish him. Bonaparte formed an alliance with Talleyrand and leading members of

19072-405: The welcoming Honduran nation. All the while Honduran bureaucrats would continue to take away the indigenous communal lands to trade for capital investment contracts as well as neglect the fair rights of Honduran laborers. After the peak of the banana republic era, resistance eventually began to grown on the part of small-scale producers and production laborers, due to the exponential rate in growth of

19221-544: The yacht "Hornet", formerly known as the USS Hornet and recently purchased by Zemurray in New Orleans. With a gang of New Orleans mercenaries and plenty of arms and ammunition, they sailed to Roatan to attack, then seize the northern Honduran ports of Trujillo and La Ceiba . Unbeknownst to Zemurray, he was being watched by the US Secret Service . Having captured the aging fort at Roatan, he quickly sold

19370-484: The younger brother of Maximilien Robespierre , a leading Jacobin. He was promoted to brigadier general and put in charge of defences on the Mediterranean coast. In February 1794, he was made artillery commander of the Army of Italy and devised plans to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia. The French army carried out Bonaparte's plan in the Second Battle of Saorgio in April 1794, and then advanced to seize Ormea in

19519-536: Was "instantly" and "severely" punished. The so-called Probity Law mandated that all public officials publicly declare their assets before taking office and upon leaving it – and the law was rigorously enforced. On 18 September 1934, Efraín Aguilar Fuentes, Juventino Sánchez, Humberto Molina Santiago, Rafael Estrada Guilles, and Colonel Luis Ortiz Guzmán were tortured and executed inside the Guatemala National Penitenciary, accused of planning

19668-451: Was United Fruit's principal lobbyist, was married to President Eisenhower's personal secretary, Ann C. Whitman . Many individuals who directly influenced U.S. policy towards Guatemala in the 1950s also had direct ties to UFCO. After the overthrow of Árbenz, a military dictatorship was established under Carlos Castillo Armas. Soon after coming to power, the new government launched a concerted campaign against trade unionists, in which some of

19817-427: Was admitted to the École militaire in Paris where he trained to become an artillery officer. He excelled at mathematics, and read widely in geography, history and literature. However, he was poor at French and German. His father's death in February 1785 cut the family income and forced him to complete the two-year course in one year. In September he was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace and became

19966-483: Was also a member of the law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell , which had represented United Fruit. His brother Allen Dulles , director of the CIA, was also a board member of United Fruit. United Fruit Company is the only company known to have a CIA cryptonym . The brother of the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs, John Moors Cabot , had once been president of United Fruit. Ed Whitman, who

20115-447: Was an important step that would eventually lead to the formation of effective trade unions in Costa Rica since the company was required to sign a collective agreement with its workers in 1938. Labor laws in most banana production countries began to be tightened in the 1930s. United Fruit Company saw itself as being specifically targeted by the reforms, and often refused to negotiate with strikers, despite frequently being in violation of

20264-465: Was arrested on 9 August but released two weeks later. He was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions as part of France's war with Austria and, in March 1795, he took part in an expedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the French were repulsed by the Royal Navy. From 1794, Bonaparte was in a romantic relationship with Désirée Clary whose sister Julie Clary had married Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph. In April 1795, Bonaparte

20413-615: Was assigned to the Army of the West , which was engaged in the War in the Vendée —a civil war and royalist counter-revolution in the Vendée region. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery general and he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting. During this period, he wrote the romantic novella Clisson et Eugénie , about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Clary. In August, he obtained

20562-532: Was baptized as a Catholic , under the name Napoleone di Buonaparte . In his youth, his name was also spelled as Nabulione , Nabulio , Napolionne , and Napulione . Napoleon was born one year after the Republic of Genoa ceded Corsica to France. His father fought alongside Pasquale Paoli during the Corsican war of independence against France. After the Corsican defeat at the Battle of Ponte Novu in 1769 and Paoli's exile in Britain, Carlo became friends with

20711-587: Was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences . His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists, with mathematicians, naturalists, chemists, and geodesists among them. Their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone , and their work was published in the Description de l'Égypte in 1809. En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Hospitaller Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by

20860-477: Was given command over a battalion of Corsican volunteers and promoted to captain in the regular army in 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and a dispute between his volunteers and the French garrison in Ajaccio. In February 1793, Bonaparte took part in the failed French expedition to Sardinia . Following allegations that Paoli had sabotaged the expedition and that his regime was corrupt and incompetent,

21009-549: Was head of the CIA under Eisenhower, also did legal work for United Fruit. The Dulles brothers and Sullivan & Cromwell were on the United Fruit payroll for thirty-eight years. Recent research has uncovered the names of multiple other government officials who received benefits from United Fruit: John Foster Dulles, who represented United Fruit while he was a law partner at Sullivan & Cromwell – he negotiated that crucial United Fruit deal with Guatemalan officials in

21158-651: Was incarcerated once the government learned about these strong accusations. He remained in the National Penitenciary for most of the rest of Ubico's presidency. In 1940, the Guatemalan Congress gave Ubico a gift of US$ 200,000. Nearly 90 people were jailed for criticizing the gift. Ubico's repressive policies and arrogant demeanor led to a widespread popular insurrection led by middle-class intellectuals, professionals, and junior army officers. School teacher María Chinchilla Recinos' death during

21307-435: Was likened to "a modern jail." He militarized numerous political and social institutions—including the post office, schools, and symphony orchestras—and placed military officers in charge of many government posts. He frequently traveled around the country performing "inspections" in dress uniform followed by a military escort, a mobile radio station, an official biographer, and cabinet members. Ubico considered Guatemala to be

21456-632: Was much taller and weighed more than his hero, Ubico believed that he resembled Bonaparte, and his nickname was "the Little Napoleon of the Tropics". He dressed ostentatiously and surrounded himself with statues and paintings of Napoleon, regularly commenting on the similarities between their appearances. Despite his dictatorship, Ubico was commended by both his defenders and his detractors for his personal integrity and for virtually eliminating corruption in Guatemala; anyone found guilty of corruption

21605-406: Was occupied by British and allied forces. He quickly increased the available artillery and proposed a plan to capture a hill fort where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British to evacuate. The successful assault on the position on 16–17 December led to the capture of the city. Toulon brought Bonaparte to the attention of powerful men including Augustin Robespierre ,

21754-470: Was particularly brutal. Bonaparte discovered that many of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, so he ordered the garrison and some 1,500–5,000 prisoners to be executed by bayonet or drowning. Men, women, and children were robbed and murdered for three days. Bonaparte began with an army of 13,000 men. 1,500 were reported missing, 1,200 died in combat, and thousands perished from disease—mostly bubonic plague . He failed to reduce

21903-414: Was that UFCO was able to prevent the government from distributing land to peasants who wanted a share of the banana trade. The fact that the UFCO relied so heavily on manipulating land use rights to maintain their market dominance had a number of long-term consequences for the region. For the company to maintain its unequal land holdings it often required government concessions. And this in turn meant that

22052-484: Was the largest landowner and employer in Guatemala, and the Árbenz government's land reform program included the expropriation of 40% of UFCO land. U.S. officials had little proof to back their claims of a growing communist threat in Guatemala; however, the relationship between the Eisenhower administration and UFCO demonstrated the influence of corporate interest on U.S. foreign policy. United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles , an avowed opponent of communism,

22201-651: Was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815. Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789, and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through

#613386