United Fruit Company (UFCO)

United Fruit Company (UFCO) was an American banana company operating in Central American countries, for example Guatemala. UFCO owned large parts of Guatemalan land 85% of which was uncultivated and 15% was cultivated for the production and distribution of bananas.

In 1952 newly elected president Arbenz passed a law that would redistribute foreign owned land and sell it back to the Guatemalan people. UFCO was offered compensation for each hectare of land that was being taken from them. The compensation was proportional to the amount of taxes the land was taxed with. However the UFCO had for years been undervaluing the worth of their land to be able to pay lower taxes, so the compensation they were offered was less than the land was actually worth due to UFCO's tax cheating (karma's a bitch).

UFCO had prominent board members who had political connections in the United States Federal Government. Allan Dulles, who worked for both UFCO and the CIA, was brother with Secretary of State of the time John Dulles. Allan took his complaints about Guatemalans new law and how it would affect his company to his brother.

This later led to the Guatemalan Truman Doctrine situation where the CIA with support from the United States went into Guatemala to secure their economic interest under the guise of protecting Guatemala from Communism via the Truman Doctrine.

United Fruit Company eventually left Guatemala and re-branded after years of decline. They are now known as the Chiquita Company.