![]() | Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899-2000 Subjects: United Fruit Company -- History; Banana trade -- Colombia -- Magdalena (Dept.) -- History -- 20th century; Banana trade -- Colombia -- Urabá Gulf of Region -- History -- 20th century; For well over a century, the United Fruit Company (UFCO) has been the most vilified multinational corporation operating in Latin America. Criticism of the UFCO has been widespread, ranging from politicians to consumer activists, and from labor leaders to historians, all portraying it as an overwhelmingly powerful corporation that shaped and often exploited its host countries. In this first history of the UFCO in Colombia, Marcelo Bucheli argues that the UFCO's image as an all-powerful force in determining national politics needs to be reconsidered. Using a previously unexplored source--the internal archives of Colombia's UFCO operation--Bucheli reveals that before 1930, the UFCO worked alongside a business-friendly government that granted it generous concessions and repressed labor unionism. After 1930, however, the country experienced dramatic transformations including growing nationalism, a stronger labor movement, and increasing demands by local elites for higher stakes in the banana export business. Bucheli Marcelo : Marcelo Bucheli is Newcomen Fellow in business history at Harvard Business School. |
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