In the 1950’s, the United States was the most powerful country in the world and tended to believe an American investment in any country needed to be protected. This has always been a strange idea, because it does not say the investment needs to be protected because it represents the best of the country, just an investment. In the Central American country of Guatemala, United Fruit had an investment in over 500,000 acres of land to grow bananas, as well it owned the railroad, ran the ports, and telegraph. The story of how the rest of the story plays out is outlined in the book Bitter Fruit by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer published by Doubleday, NY, 1982

In the mid 1950s a new government came to Guatemala and they wanted to change things. They wanted United Fruit to pay more taxes, they wanted to take over some lands, they wanted lower rates on the railroads for shippers other than United Fruit, they wanted pay to be increased for workers. All very different priorities from the past governments. It is interesting to look at the compensation for land issue – similar to most large owners the value of the land is kept at a low value. The government offered $2.99 an acre; the company had paid $1.48 and the State Department expected $ 75 acre. Why the state department was involved, rather than going through courts underlines the very close relationship the US government had with the company. One might ask if the US government is negotiating for compensation, what else are they doing or be prepared to do?

For the company, United Fruit hired lobbyists and talented publicists to create a public and private climate in the United States to consider and then act on changing the government. To return to the conditions and attitudes from before. The rest of the book is about how the CIA and the US military invaded the country to remove the government to put into place someone who was favorable to US interests.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as shareholders we want and need government to help the companies – either to do as stock market does – offer a higher price and we sell out shares or let the world continue as it was or has been doing to gain our return on investment.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.