The Democracy Now radio program interviewed Nicholas Kozloff, who argued that there’s a Chiquita connection in the current Honduran political crisis, which saw President Manuel Zelaya deposed in either a coup or a constitutional emergency, or both, depending on which side you’re on, in June. The banana industry once made Honduras its largest exporting nation; that changed with Hurricane Mitch, in 1986, which devastated the crop, but there’s still a huge plantation network there. Here’s what Kozloff had to say:
“…there’s this revolving door of Washington insiders that are supporting companies like Chiquita banana. I just wrote an article about Chiquita, formerly known as the United Fruit Company. And, you know, throughout history, Chiquita banana has had enormous sway and power over Central American nations.
And we know that prior to the coup d’état in Honduras, Chiquita was very unhappy about President Zelaya’s minimum wage decrees, because they said that this would cut into their profits and make it more expensive for them to export bananas and pineapple. And we know that they appealed to the Honduran Business Association, which was also opposed to Zelaya’s minimum wage provisions.
And we also—and what I find really interesting is that Chiquita is allied to a Washington law firm called Covington, which advises multinational corporations. And who is the vice chairman of Covington? None other than John Negroponte, who your previous guest mentioned in regards to the rampant human rights abuses that went on in Honduras throughout the 1980s. So I think that’s a really interesting connection.”
via “From Arbenz to Zelaya: Chiquita in Latin America”. (Here’s a link to Kozloff’s article that the interview was based on.)
As I’ve pointed out earlier, assertions like this have fundamental credibility, because the banana industry’s business model absolutely mandates cheaply-produced product. Chiquita and Dole would collapse if they couldn’t sell this perishable fruit, transported from thousands of miles away, for less than any other fruit – even locally grown apples – in the supermarket. That’s why Dole sues filmmakers whose work might rally support for lawsuits brought by injured workers; and why the banana industry has been involved – time and again – in coups, bribery, payoffs, and general skullduggery (tons documented in my book and this site. Here’s a link to one of the more recent incidents.
