Did you know GHWB's Zapata Oil owned United Fruit when Arbenz was deposed

[1932]

in Guatemala in 1954 by US/CIA-supported coup?

I can't believe I didn't know that.

Arbenz was a progressive Guatemlan leader who engaged in land reform, which United Fruit didn't like.

John Perkins writes about this in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. He and Panama's leader, General Torrijos talk about this. Torrijos was also a progressive leader who cared most about alleviating poverty. He died in a plane crash.

[seemunkee]

1. Did not know that. bought the book this weekend though

Is there any injustice that has occured in the last 50 years that the * family hasn't been involved with.

[Village Idiot]

2. It is a truly bizarre story...

First they stage a coup to overthrow a democratically elected leader, then they overthrow the guy they originally put in power....

[Old and In the Way]

3. I believe the Bush family had sugar holdings in pre-Castro Cuba.

Nice to have the CIA available to look after the family interests.

[JHB]

4. Be a little more specific...

..."owned" as in "controlled" or "owned" as in "owned shares of", and if the latter, how much?

[1932]

7. The quote in the book is, paraphrasing:

Torrijos asks Perkins if he know who owns UF, and tells him it's Zapata Oil.

I assume (but am only guessing) that the ownership was probably not apparent, like, Zapata owned a holding company that owned controlling shares in UF.

[KansDem]

5. United Fruit? Where have I seen that name before? Ahhh, here...

War Is a Racket

Originally printed in 1935, War Is a Racket is General Smedley Butler's frank speech describing his role as a soldier as nothing more than serving as a puppet for big-business interests. In addition to photos from the notorious 1932 anti-war book The Horror of It by Frederick A. Barber, this book includes two never-before-published anti-interventionist essays by General Butler. The introduction discusses why General Butler went against the corporate war machine and how he exposed a fascist coup d'etat plot against President Franklin Roosevelt. Widely appreciated and referenced by left- and right-wingers alike, this is an extraordinary argument against war - more relevant now than ever.

And, of course, his classic statement:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

I believe "United Fruit" is one of the "American fruit companies" mentioned by Butler.

[JHB]

8. Don't stop there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit

United Fruit was established on March 30, 1899 in Boston, Massachusetts, by the merger of two banana companies. The Boston Fruit Company was established by Lorenzo Dow Baker, a sailor who in 1870 had bought his first bananas in Jamaica, and Andrew W. Preston. The other company was founded by Minor C. Keith, who had built railroads in Costa Rica and then went into the fruit business.

In 1899 railroad entrepreneur Henry Meiggs won a contract in Costa Rica to lay track along the Caribbean coast in exchange for land. Meiggs had two nephews, Minor Keith and Henry Keith. Minor Keith had already begun his own business shipping bananas to New Orleans in 1878, so when Meiggs decided to give his nephews the railroad contract the decision was made to make one company out of the two ventures and call it the United Fruit Company.
...
The Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was toppled by covert action by the United States government in 1954 at the behest of United Fruit because of Arbenz Guzman's plans to redistribute uncultivated land owned by the United Fruit Company among Native American peasants. The UFC and the bankers that supported it convinced the CIA and President Dwight Eisenhower that this was the first sign of a Communist takeover in Central America. The American Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, was an avowed opponent of Communism whose law firm had represented United Fruit. His brother Allen Dulles was the director of the CIA. The brother of the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs, John Moors Cabot, had once been president of United Fruit. Guzman's government was overthrown by Guatemalan army officers invading from Honduras. As many as 100,000 people may have died in the ensuing civil war.

Thus my questioning the claim that Zapata "owned" UFC. UFC predated Zapata, and was a bigger concern. Zapata may have owned stock or otherwise had a piece of its action, but the claim that Zapata "owned" UFC needs a bit more proof than one man's say-so.

[1932]

9. How about via Google, Democracy Now!, et al's word?

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. The conversation you had with Omar Torrijos as he goes through history, your conversation in the early 1970s. But talking about what happened in Guatemala, the overthrow of the democratically elected leader Arbenz by United Fruit and the C.I.A-backed coup there in 1954, and you reconstruct this conversation about George Bush's company Zapata Oil eventually taking over United Brands, which was United Fruit, and then he talks about giving your company the business, Omar Torrijos, saying that he believed the Japanese would finance the canal that would be built, though turning to your company. And he says "They provide the money, they will do the construction." And you write, "It struck me, Bechtel will be out in the cold." The biggest construction job in recent history. Omar Torrijos paused. Bechtel's President is George Schultz, Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury. You can imagine the clout he's got and the notorious temper. Bechtel is loaded with Nixon, Ford, and Bush cronies. I've been told that the Bechtel family pulls the strings of the Republican Party. You talk about the corporatocracy, the bringing together of government and corporate power.

http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=05/05/17/1420232

Gomez does not cover the corporate intrigues that connect United Fruit to Zapata Oil and Zapata Offshore, properties of the Bush family founded with money from the banking firm of Brown Brothers Harriman: the largest private banking institution in the world.

In 1969, Zapata bought the United Fruit Company of Boston...
In 1981, all Securities and Exchange Commission filings for Zapata Off-Shore between 1960 and 1966 were destroyed. In other words, the year Bush became vice president, important records detailing his years at his drilling company disappeared.

The youngest member of this group of incestuous corporations that enjoy the full protection of the US "intelligence community" is Arbusto Energy, founded by the current president of the United States: George W. Bush. His partners in this dubious venture include James R. Bath of BCCI infamy, and Salem Bin Laden.

http://electromagnet.us/dogspot/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=322

[JHB]

10. OK. See, that's the little bit extra that clarifies things...

n/t

[KansDem]

11. Point taken...

I was responding more to the fact that a decorated general of the Marine Corps would make this statement, and lamenting that Bush Family, among others, has had its tentacles in much of the day-to-day operations in this country. For example, it seems the Bush Family is a real stickler about secrecy. In addition to the scrubbing of W's Texas state records prior to his becoming governor, we have this (Poppy):

In 1953, Bush got money from Brown Brothers Harriman and, with partners Hugh and Bill Liedtke, formed Zapata Petroleum. By the late 1950s they were millionaires. Bush bought subsidiary Zapata Off-Shore from his partners and went into business on his own in 1954. By 1958, the new company was drilling on the Cay Sal Bank in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. These islands had been leased to Nixon supporter and CIA contractor Howard Hughes the previous year and were later used as a base for CIA raids on Cuba. The CIA was using companies like Zapata to stage and supply secret missions attacking Fidel Castro’s Cuban government in advance of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA’s codename for that invasion was “Operation Zapata.” In 1981, all Securities and Exchange Commission filings for Zapata Off-Shore between 1960 and 1966 were destroyed. In other words, the year Bush became vice president, important records detailing his years at his drilling company disappeared. In 1969, Zapata bought the United Fruit Company of Boston, another company with strong CIA connections.
http://www.famoustexans.com/georgebush.htm

Makes one wonder what was in these records...;)

Granted, although Zapata could not have owned United Fruit during Gen. Butler's tenure as indicated by this source, one wonders just how much influence the Bush Family has had in its operations, either directly or indirectly, particularly when viewing this statement "Zapata bought the United Fruit Company of Boston, another company with strong CIA connections" considering George HW Bush's involvement in both Zapata and the CIA...

[RethugAssKicker]

6. Torrijos was murdered by CIA Jackals

This according to John Perkins in EHM.... BTW, excellent book.. I just started reading it.