Banana republic
Encyclopedia
In political science
, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions (e.g. banana
s), which is ruled by a plutocracy
, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy
. The term banana republic originally denoted the fictional “Republic of Anchuria”, a “servile dictatorship” that abetted (or supported for kickbacks) the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation. In U.S. politics, the term banana republic was a political descriptor first used by the American writer O. Henry
in Cabbages and Kings (1904), a book of thematically related short stories derived from his 1896–97 residence in Honduras
, where he was hiding from U.S. law for bank embezzlement
.
In practice, a banana republic is a country operated as a commercial enterprise for private
profit
, effected by the collusion between the State and favoured monopolies
, whereby the profits derived from private exploitation of public lands is private property, and the debts incurred are public responsibility. Such an imbalanced economy
reduces the national currency
to devalued paper-money, hence, the country is ineligible for international development credit and remains limited by the uneven economic development
of town and country. Kleptocracy
, government by thieves, features influential government employees exploiting their posts for personal gain (embezzlement, fraud, bribery, etc.), with the resultant deficit repaid by the native working people
who “earn money”, rather than “make money”. Because of foreign (corporate) manipulation, the government is unaccountable to its nation, the country’s private sector–public sector corruption operates the banana republic, thus, the national legislature usually are for sale, and function mostly as ceremonial government.
The concept of the banana republic originated with the introduction of the banana
fruit to Europe in 1870, by Captain Lorenzo D. Baker, of the ship The Telegraph, who initially bought bananas in Jamaica
and sold them in Boston
at a 1,000 percent profit. Yet, the banana business was incidentally established by the American railroad tycoon Henry Meigs
and Minor C. Keith
, his nephew, who, in 1873, started banana plantation
s, initially along the railroads, to feed the workers, and, upon grasping the potential profit of bananas sold in the U.S., also began exporting the fruit to the Southeastern United States
. In the event, Keith founded the Tropical Trading and Transport Company, the future half of the corporate merger that established the United Fruit Company
in 1899; and of which Minor C. Keith later became vice president.
The banana
proved popular with Americans, because it was a tropical fruit cheaper than local U.S. fruits, such as the apple
; in 1913 a dozen bananas sold for twenty-five cents, whilst the same money bought only two apples. The exporters profited from such low prices because the banana companies, via manipulation of the national land use
laws, could cheaply buy large tracts of agricultural land for plantations in the Caribbean, Central American, and South American countries, whilst employing the native peoples as cheap manual labourers, having rendered them land-less. In 1899, the largest banana company, the United Fruit Company
(Chiquita Brands International
), resulted from a merger between Andrew Preston
's Boston Fruit Company
and Minor C. Keith's Tropical Trading and Transport Company; by the 1930s, its international politico-economic influence granted it control of 80–90 per cent of the U.S. banana trade. Moreover, in 1924, the Vaccaro Brothers established the Standard Fruit Company
(Dole Food Company
), to export Honduran bananas to New Orleans.
In Honduras, the United Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company, and Sam Zemurray
's Cuyamel Fruit Company dominated the economy's key banana export sector, and the national infrastructure, such as the railroads and the ports. Moreover, the United Fruit Company's nickname was El Pulpo (The Octopus), because it freely interfered — sometimes violently — with Honduran national politics. In 1910, Zemurray hired mercenaries
, led by “General” Lee Christmas
, an American soldier of fortune
from New Orleans, to effect a coup d’état
in Honduras and install a government friendlier to the Cuyamel Fruit Company's business interests. In 1933, twenty-three years later, with a hostile takeover
Sam Zemurray assumed control of the rival United Fruit Company.
In the 1950s, the United Fruit Company convinced the administrations of presidents Harry Truman
(1945–53) and Dwight Eisenhower
(1953–61) that the popular government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
in Guatemala
was secretly pro-Soviet
, for expropriating unused “fruit company lands” to land-less peasants. In the Cold War
(1945–91) context of the pro-active anti-Communism of the McCarthy
era of U.S. national politics, said geopolitical
consideration facilitated President Eisenhower's ordering the CIA
's Guatemalan coup d’état (1954) deposing
the elected government of President–Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
, and installing the pro-business government of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas
. After the event, Pablo Neruda
denounced foreign banana companies' political dominance of Latin America
n countries with the poem La United Fruit Co.
Guatemala
suffers the regional socio-economic legacy of the banana republic: inequitably distributed agricultural land and natural wealth, uneven economic development
, and an economy dependent upon a few export crops, usually bananas, coffee, sugar cane. The inequitable land distribution is the principal cause of national poverty and the low quality of Guatemalan life, and the concomitant socio-political discontent and insurrection
. Almost 90 per cent of the country's farms are too small to yield adequate subsistence harvests to the farmers, whilst two per cent of the country's farms occupy 65 per cent of the arable land, property of the local oligarchy
.
Initially, short-story writer O. Henry’s coinage, “servile dictatorship”, bore a civil government face — a white-collar businessman president — yet when he proved an administrative incompetent, the military, usually the army, assumed government, and ruled as juntas
(military government
by committee) during the thirty-six-year Guatemalan Civil War
(1960–96); nonetheless, in 1986, the Guatemalans promulgated a new political constitution, and elected Vinicio Cerezo
(1986–91) president, then Jorge Serrano Elías
(1991–93) five years later.
The long history of political discontent and insurrection
in Honduras
derives from commercial and political competition between banana exporters, e.g. the United Fruit Company and the Cuyamel Banana Company, for control of Honduran agricultural land and workers. In 1911 Sam Zemurray, owner of the Cuyamel Company hired mercenaries
, led by “General” Lee Christmas
, to effect a coup d’état to depose the liberal
President Miguel R. Dávila
(1907–11), with whom the United Fruit Company was colluding for a banana monopoly in exchange for brokering U.S. Government loans for Dávila's government; the Cuyamel Banana Company deposed President Dávila and installed President Gen. Manuel Bonilla
(1912–13) in his stead. Contemporarily, internal political instability and a great foreign debt
— more than $4 billion — have excluded Honduras from capital investment
, thereby continuing its economic stagnation, and reinforcing its banana republic status.
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions (e.g. banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s), which is ruled by a plutocracy
Plutocracy
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...
, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
. The term banana republic originally denoted the fictional “Republic of Anchuria”, a “servile dictatorship” that abetted (or supported for kickbacks) the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation. In U.S. politics, the term banana republic was a political descriptor first used by the American writer O. Henry
O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
in Cabbages and Kings (1904), a book of thematically related short stories derived from his 1896–97 residence in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, where he was hiding from U.S. law for bank embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
.
In practice, a banana republic is a country operated as a commercial enterprise for private
Private property
Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
, effected by the collusion between the State and favoured monopolies
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
, whereby the profits derived from private exploitation of public lands is private property, and the debts incurred are public responsibility. Such an imbalanced economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
reduces the national currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
to devalued paper-money, hence, the country is ineligible for international development credit and remains limited by the uneven economic development
Uneven and combined development
Uneven and combined development is a Marxist concept to describe the overall dynamics of human history. It was originally used by the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky around the turn of the 20th century, when he was analyzing the developmental possibilities that existed for the economy and...
of town and country. Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest...
, government by thieves, features influential government employees exploiting their posts for personal gain (embezzlement, fraud, bribery, etc.), with the resultant deficit repaid by the native working people
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
who “earn money”, rather than “make money”. Because of foreign (corporate) manipulation, the government is unaccountable to its nation, the country’s private sector–public sector corruption operates the banana republic, thus, the national legislature usually are for sale, and function mostly as ceremonial government.
Background
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
fruit to Europe in 1870, by Captain Lorenzo D. Baker, of the ship The Telegraph, who initially bought bananas in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and sold them in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
at a 1,000 percent profit. Yet, the banana business was incidentally established by the American railroad tycoon Henry Meigs
Henry Meigs
Henry Meigs was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Josiah Meigs and Clara Meigs, Meigs attended the common schools.He was graduated from Yale College in 1799....
and Minor C. Keith
Minor C. Keith
Minor Cooper Keith was a U.S. railroad, fruit, and shipping magnate whose business activities had a profound impact in Central America and in Colombia.- Early life :...
, his nephew, who, in 1873, started banana plantation
Banana plantation
A banana plantation is a commercial agricultural facility found in tropical climates where bananas are grown. -Geographic distribution of banana plantations:...
s, initially along the railroads, to feed the workers, and, upon grasping the potential profit of bananas sold in the U.S., also began exporting the fruit to the Southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
. In the event, Keith founded the Tropical Trading and Transport Company, the future half of the corporate merger that established the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
in 1899; and of which Minor C. Keith later became vice president.
The banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
proved popular with Americans, because it was a tropical fruit cheaper than local U.S. fruits, such as the apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
; in 1913 a dozen bananas sold for twenty-five cents, whilst the same money bought only two apples. The exporters profited from such low prices because the banana companies, via manipulation of the national land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
laws, could cheaply buy large tracts of agricultural land for plantations in the Caribbean, Central American, and South American countries, whilst employing the native peoples as cheap manual labourers, having rendered them land-less. In 1899, the largest banana company, the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
(Chiquita Brands International
Chiquita Brands International
Chiquita Brands International Inc. is an American producer and distributor of bananas and other produce, under a variety of subsidiary brand names, collectively known as Chiquita. Other brands include Fresh Express salads, which it purchased from Performance Food Group in 2005...
), resulted from a merger between Andrew Preston
Andrew Preston
Andrew Woodbury Preston was a prominent American businessman at the turn of the 20th century. In 1884, Preston and nine others formed the Boston Fruit Company, the birth of the modern banana business. Later, in 1899, Preston and Minor C. Keith combined ventures to form the United Fruit Company...
's Boston Fruit Company
Boston Fruit Company
The Boston Fruit Company was a fruit production and import business based in the port of Boston, Massachusetts. Andrew W. Preston and nine others established the firm to ship bananas and other fruit from the West Indes to north-eastern America. At the time, the banana was "considered a rare and...
and Minor C. Keith's Tropical Trading and Transport Company; by the 1930s, its international politico-economic influence granted it control of 80–90 per cent of the U.S. banana trade. Moreover, in 1924, the Vaccaro Brothers established the Standard Fruit Company
Standard Fruit Company
Standard Fruit Company was established in the United States in 1924 by The Vaccaro Brothers. Its forerunner was started in 1899, when Sicilian immigrants Joseph, Luca and Felix Vaccaro, together with Salvador D'Antoni, began importing bananas to New Orleans from La Ceiba, Honduras...
(Dole Food Company
Dole Food Company
Dole Food Company, Inc. is an American-based agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Westlake Village, California. The company is the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, operating with 74,300 full-time and seasonal employees who are responsible for over 300...
), to export Honduran bananas to New Orleans.
In Honduras, the United Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company, and Sam Zemurray
Sam Zemurray
Samuel Zemurray was a U.S. businessman who made his fortune in the banana trade...
's Cuyamel Fruit Company dominated the economy's key banana export sector, and the national infrastructure, such as the railroads and the ports. Moreover, the United Fruit Company's nickname was El Pulpo (The Octopus), because it freely interfered — sometimes violently — with Honduran national politics. In 1910, Zemurray hired mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, led by “General” Lee Christmas
Lee Christmas
Lee Christmas was an American mercenary in Central America.-Early life and career:...
, an American soldier of fortune
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
from New Orleans, to effect a coup d’état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in Honduras and install a government friendlier to the Cuyamel Fruit Company's business interests. In 1933, twenty-three years later, with a hostile takeover
Takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another . In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.- Friendly takeovers :Before a bidder makes an offer for another...
Sam Zemurray assumed control of the rival United Fruit Company.
In the 1950s, the United Fruit Company convinced the administrations of presidents Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
(1945–53) and Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
(1953–61) that the popular government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....
in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
was secretly pro-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, for expropriating unused “fruit company lands” to land-less peasants. In the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1945–91) context of the pro-active anti-Communism of the McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
era of U.S. national politics, said geopolitical
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
consideration facilitated President Eisenhower's ordering the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's Guatemalan coup d’état (1954) deposing
Deposition (politics)
Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch. It may be done by coup, impeachment, invasion or forced abdication...
the elected government of President–Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....
, and installing the pro-business government of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas
Carlos Castillo Armas
Carlos Castillo Armas was a Guatemalan Colonel who came to power in a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954. He held the title of President of Guatemala from July 8, 1954 until his assassination in 1957.-The coup:...
. After the event, Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
denounced foreign banana companies' political dominance of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries with the poem La United Fruit Co.
Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
suffers the regional socio-economic legacy of the banana republic: inequitably distributed agricultural land and natural wealth, uneven economic development
Uneven and combined development
Uneven and combined development is a Marxist concept to describe the overall dynamics of human history. It was originally used by the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky around the turn of the 20th century, when he was analyzing the developmental possibilities that existed for the economy and...
, and an economy dependent upon a few export crops, usually bananas, coffee, sugar cane. The inequitable land distribution is the principal cause of national poverty and the low quality of Guatemalan life, and the concomitant socio-political discontent and insurrection
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. Almost 90 per cent of the country's farms are too small to yield adequate subsistence harvests to the farmers, whilst two per cent of the country's farms occupy 65 per cent of the arable land, property of the local oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
.
Initially, short-story writer O. Henry’s coinage, “servile dictatorship”, bore a civil government face — a white-collar businessman president — yet when he proved an administrative incompetent, the military, usually the army, assumed government, and ruled as juntas
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
(military government
Military government
Military government can refer to conditions under either Military occupation, or Military dictatorship.-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...
by committee) during the thirty-six-year Guatemalan Civil War
Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
(1960–96); nonetheless, in 1986, the Guatemalans promulgated a new political constitution, and elected Vinicio Cerezo
Vinicio Cerezo
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo is a Guatemalan politician. He served as President of Guatemala from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991 and currently sits in Congress.-Career:...
(1986–91) president, then Jorge Serrano Elías
Jorge Serrano Elías
Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was President of Guatemala from January 14, 1991 to May 31, 1993.-Career:Serrano was born April 26, 1945 in Guatemala City as the son of Jorge Adán Serrano and Rosa Elías...
(1991–93) five years later.
Honduras
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
derives from commercial and political competition between banana exporters, e.g. the United Fruit Company and the Cuyamel Banana Company, for control of Honduran agricultural land and workers. In 1911 Sam Zemurray, owner of the Cuyamel Company hired mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, led by “General” Lee Christmas
Lee Christmas
Lee Christmas was an American mercenary in Central America.-Early life and career:...
, to effect a coup d’état to depose the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
President Miguel R. Dávila
Miguel R. Dávila
General Miguel Rafael Dávila Cuellar was President of Honduras between 18 April 1907 and 28 March 1911. He occupied various posts in the government of Policarpo Bonilla, before becoming President himself. He died in Honduras on 11 October 1927....
(1907–11), with whom the United Fruit Company was colluding for a banana monopoly in exchange for brokering U.S. Government loans for Dávila's government; the Cuyamel Banana Company deposed President Dávila and installed President Gen. Manuel Bonilla
Manuel Bonilla
General Manuel Bonilla Chirinos was President of Honduras from 13 April 1903 to 25 February 1907, and again from 1 February 1912 till 21 March 1913....
(1912–13) in his stead. Contemporarily, internal political instability and a great foreign debt
External debt
External debt is that part of the total debt in a country that is owed to creditors outside the country. The debtors can be the government, corporations or private households. The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, other governments, or international financial institutions such...
— more than $4 billion — have excluded Honduras from capital investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
, thereby continuing its economic stagnation, and reinforcing its banana republic status.
See also
- AbsurdistanAbsurdistanAbsurdistan is a 2006 novel by Gary Shteyngart. It chronicles the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325-pound son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, as he struggles to return to his true love in the South Bronx.-Plot:...
- Dictator novelDictator novelThe dictator novel is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society. The theme of caudillismo—the régime of a charismatic caudillo, a political strongman—is addressed by examining the relationships between power, dictatorship,...
- Failed stateFailed stateThe term failed state is often used by political commentators and journalists to describe a state perceived as having failed at some of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government...
- Kangaroo courtKangaroo courtA kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...
- McOndoMcOndoMcOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks from the dominant Magical Realism mode of narration, and counters it with the strong, ideologic associations of the cultural and narrative languages of the mass communications media, and with the modernity of urban living; the experience of...
- RuritaniaRuritaniaRuritania is a fictional country in central Europe which forms the setting for three books by Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda , The Heart of Princess Osra , and Rupert of Hentzau...
External links
- From Arbenz to Zelaya: Chiquita in Latin America - video report by Democracy Now!
- Cabbages and Kings - O. Henry novel which coined the term