Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Source: Adapted from Life Magazine, 1951
of President Jacobo Árbenz in 1951, UFC became
concerned about the incoming president's
proposed reforms. At the heart of these reforms
was a plan to redistribute uncultivated lands,
which were in the possession of large MNCs like
UFC, to individual families. Guatemala's banana
plantations accounted for a quarter of all of
UFC landholdings in South America (Striffler and
Moberg, 2003). UFC consequently utilized its
connections with the CIA in order to orchestrate
a coup d'état in Guatemala. In 1954 Árbenz was
ousted from power and his government replaced
with a military junta that was much more
sympathetic to the needs of UFC (see Chapman,
2007: 127-141).
5.4.2 Banana republics and socio-
environmental injustice
In many ways the case of UFC's operations in
Guatemala reflects a kind of extreme expression
of the levels of political influence that global
corporations can have over the states within which
they operate. In order to be free from the social and
environmental restrictions that may be placed
upon them within their countries of origin, MNCs
seek out weaker, less-powerful states, and exploit
the favourable economic conditions they find
there. Indeed, the very phrase 'banana republic' -
a pejorative term used to describe a weak and
possibly corrupt state that becomes the servant of
narrow corporate interests - was developed to
