Chiquita Brands International and its founder, Samuel Zemurray, are responsible for creating and perpetuating what we now know as “banana republics”. Especially in Honduras, which is known as the first banana republic. “Samuel Zemurray and the Cuyamel Fruit Company shaped the original "banana republic" and launched the American banana craze.  Never heard of Cuyamel? It was one of the ancestors of Chiquita Brands International, which still sells bananas today. Zemurray, its founder, was later the head of the United Fruit Company. Huge companies like United Fruit moved in and built infrastructure in exchange for land. With close ties to a country’s railways and ports came ties to the government. In Honduras, Zemurray was deeply involved in politics, as he had been since the Zemurray-Hubbard Steam Ship Company first started working in the country in 1903. Zemurray's company Cuyamel even supplied weapons to the 1911 coup that brought in a more Cuyamel-friendly president” (Eschner, 2017)

At this point you might be wondering, what is United Fruit Company? The United Fruit Company (UFC) was in charge of exporting fruit products into the United States. In her essay “The Dark Side of Bananas: Imperialism, Non-State Actors, and Power”, Mariana Ramirez Cabal talks about how UFC grew so much to the point where they had political influence in the countries where they operated. “The UFC ultimately became known as “El Pulpo” (“the octopus”) due to its ubiquitous nature; it had connections everywhere, from telecommunication companies to the governments of the countries where it operated. A demonstration of El Pulpo’s power happened in 1954 as a response to a threat to said power. Guatemala’s democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz acted upon his interest in limiting the UFC’s scope of influence in the country, by encouraging the Guatemalan Congress to pass Decree 900, which ordered the expropriation of land larger than 600 acres that wasn’t being used for cultivation. The goal was to have these lands be divided among the landless; compensating the previous owners through government bonds. This move prompted the UFC to engineer a coup in Guatemala, with the support of the United States—a coup that ignited a thirty year long period of military dictatorship and civil war, with a legacy of 200,000 civilian deaths.” (Ramirez Cabal, 2023)

Basically, UFC took advantage of politically unstable countries to commercialize their products in exchange of favors with the government. UFC got to obtain their products while the government got to stay in power. All of this at the expense of underpaid workers and terrible working conditions.

Despite many efforts of eradicating practices from the times of banana republics like the International Labour Standards or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, there unfortunately, many modern day practices that resemble the ones from the times of banana republics. For example, the previously mentioned example of banned pesticides being used in Costa Rican soil to meet the demand of the “perfect” fruit standard at the expense of Costa Rican workers and residents whose health has been affected as a consequence of these pesticides. Chiquita and other exporting groups are involved. (Manisera, 2024)

The main issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible is the use of mancozeb and paraquat, the pesticides that have been banned in the European Union but that are still used in Costa Rica. There is already a precedent set by the Costa Rican government where in the past they banned another pesticide (chlorothalonil) due to other environmental and health concerns. (Tico Times, 2023) However, the Costa Rican workers and residents of the area have been overlooked when it comes to the concerns regarding mancozeb, paraquat and other pesticides despite the proven health threats that the use of these involve. Not only that, but it also affects the environment and there have already been several incidents in local schools caused by the use of the pesticide. (Manisera, 2024)

There is a clear power imbalance surrounding the issue that mainly affects the plantation workers. The stakeholder that clearly holds more power is the fruit exporting companies. They have the ability to manage their business and they are also the main source of income for a lot of the plantation workers and even the income surrounding the government.

One would think that the government is the stakeholder that holds more power as they can implement legal actions; however, they are also extremely dependent on the fruit exporting companies and the economical activity they create inside the country. The government clearly has the power to ban the use of mancozeb and other pesticides however, they are probably scared of the consequences this could have on the relationship with the fruit exporting companies. All of this at the expense of the plantation workers who are the ones doing all the work but paying all the tolls. Just as oil and agriculture have become tools of modern imperialism, the mining of cobalt and coltan in the DRC reveals another dimension of the same global system. 

One of the saddest things about corporate greed and modern day imperialism is not only the toll that it takes on the workers that are directly affected but also the toll that it takes on the people around them. Sometimes we might think that the only people who are affected by a particular issue, are the people who are directly involved in it; however, there are other people who are also affected without being directly involved. These effects can range from physical, emotional or psychological trauma. That’s why, when analyzing a conflict situation, it’s vital that we identify who the main actors and stakeholders are so we can have a better understanding of who is involved and what is the best way to proceed if we are trying to come up with an action plan. While this statement can be used with all the examples we have discussed in this paper, we’ll take the example of the use of pesticides in Costa Rica. 

First of all, we have the plantation workers. These plantation workers who work at sites like ‘Dole’s Finca Banadosmil Dos’ or ‘Limofrut Plantations’ are the main people who are affected by the use of the pesticides because they are directly exposed to them. In this case we could identify German Jimenez as one of many examples. Secondly, we have the members of the community who live close to plantations. In this case for example, we can identify Lidieth Gomez and her son, Daniel who live in Matina, Costa Rica. In here, there are constantly planes spraying pesticides on the banana plantations. Thanks to this exposure for more than 20 years, pesticides like mancozeb and chlorothalonil were found in the blood of Lidieth and Daniel. (Manisera, 2024)

Not only residents but also local schools from diverse communities in Costa Rica have been affected by the use of pesticides. For example, on June 23 of 2023, at a school in Santa Rita, they had to evacuate the children from their classroom due to the heavy presence of pesticides and chemical smells inside the classroom. After a second incident, it was determined by the health ministry that they found agrochemicals inside the classroom that are banned in Europe. (Manisera, 2024)

Furthermore, we have the local government from Costa Rica. The government clearly has the agency to take legal actions regarding the pesticides, like they did with chlorothalonil however, there are still many other pesticides that are being used which affect the health of workers and residents like mancozeb, paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos. Last but not least we have the fruit exporting companies like Chiquita, Grupo Acon, Del Monte, Dole, Fyffes, etc…. Despite the fact that they bring important income to the country, it is also true that they do it at the expense of the health of the workers and local communities. Thanks to their greediness to satisfy their economic needs by supplying customers in the West, they give no importance to the environmental and physical harms they are creating for the people in Costa Rica.