The Military Coup in Honduras - Part III

[Carlos Marentes]

THE BANANA REPUBLIC

Banana workers strike against United Fruit. Photo LIFE, 1954.

NOT TOO long ago Honduras was known as “The Banana Republic.” This was before foreign capitalists invaded the country to covert it into a maquiladora heaven. Banana was the most important (if not the only one) export, representing a multimillion dollar business, but it was controlled by United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company.

United Fruit Company is now Chiquita Brands International while the old Standard Fruit Company changed to Dole Food Company after a merge between Castle & Cooke Corporation and James Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company. These two corporations alone dominated the whole banana production in Central America.

Despite the enormous profits made by these corporations, the country was the poorest country and the banana plantation laborers where the worst paid farm workers in the Central America region. Until the late 90's, the salary paid to these workers was about three dollars a day. The banana corporations always gave a miserable treatment to the workers, especially against those workers of African descent who not only suffered unjust economic conditions, but also a brutal racist oppression.

Aside of a pool of desperate laborers, the banana industry required vast amounts of the most productive land. Therefore, United Fruit Company and other banana companies, caused an impressive concentration of land for large plantations, converting many poor peasants and indigenous in landless people. The plunder of their land and the exploitation in the plantations moved landless people and farm laborers to fight back. The most active where the plantation laborers who attempted to improve their conditions in many occasions by striking against the banana corporations.

The last most important strike of the banana workers was in 1990 against Chiquita Brands International, formerly United Fruit Company. About 10,000 workers stroke the banana fields to demand a salary increase. The company responded by recruiting strikebreakers and ordering government intervention. President Rafael Callejas sent the national police and army troops to crush the strike. Many strikers were injured and arrested. In a report by an American newspaper, one of the strikers, Horacio Cruz, 61 years old and veteran of another labor stoppage, in 1954, declared: “We work for a foreign company making millions of dollars, and all we're asking for is small change...” and “the government is still on the side of the rich.” (Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1990.) According to the same note: “The government backed the company after banana union leaders asked other workers to support them with a nationwide strike this week. To muffle that appeal, Callejas orderer radio stations to limit news to official communiques.” With no other alternative but to face bloody repression and lose their jobs by being replaced by scabs, the strikers returned to the banana fields with only minor gains.

But the most important struggle by the Honduran banana workers took place in May 1954. More than 30,000 laborers stroked against the then United Fruit Company not only to improve their wages and working conditions, but also to gain collective bargaining rights and union recognition. Collective bargaining rights for farm laborers was absent in the national legislation. The company refused to accept the demands and the government moved to repress the strikers. In a few days, the strike spread across the country and against other corporations like Standard Fruit Company. Banana production was shut down by the strikers. The strike leaders were arrested and sent to jail, and many strikers were killed, beaten, disappeared or arrested.

The strike lasted 69 days and ended in July with minor concessions related to salaries and working conditions. However, the most important accomplishment was the recognition of their union and national legislation to give them collective bargaining rights.

It was during the years of the “Banana Republic,” that the Honduran working people acquired their spirit of non-violent struggle against oppression. The non-violent feature of the popular struggle was dictated by a right-wing state supported by hard-line military sector. It was also during these years that the military, under the guidance of the US military sector headquartered in this country, acquired its experience on violence and repression against any social movement, as well as its historic vocation as coup plotters to protect the interests of a small privileged oligarchy and powerful foreign economic interests. Between 1956 and 1978, at least four military coups took place in Honduras. One military, colonel Osvaldo López Arellano, lead the military coup of 1963, and stayed in power for 11 years. In every occasion, the military acted to defend the oligarchic economic elite. Since 1956, no president has governed Honduras without the approval of the military sector. The coup against Zelaya is a living proof.

THE CARDINAL OF THE OLIGARCHY

BESIDES the greedy economic forces and the military sector, another sector become involved in the conspiracy to get rid of president Zelaya; the Catholic hierarchy.

I met Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Madariaga, on January, 2002, in Washington, D.C., during a conference called “Humanizing the Global Economy.” Three Episcopal Conferences (Canada, US and Latin America) had convened the conference to address the issue of growing poverty and inequality as a result of globalization. Many persons participated in the sessions, plenaries and a roundtable, from the director of the International Monetary Fund to the president of the AFL-CIO to the director of Cargill.

I remember that one of the participants was Jeffrey M. Zalla, vice-president of Chiquita International. He had a really nice full color high-quality brochure about the corporate responsibility ethics of Chiquita Brands International and gave a fantastic talk during the session on “The Moral and Human Dimensions of Work and Workers in the Global Economy.”

I also remember that during one of the mass celebrations held every day of the conference, in the early morning, before the sessions and activities, Cardinal Rodríguez was the one who gave me the holy host. I did not know much about the cardinal then.

But during my visit to Central America I learned a lot. I learned that Cardinal Rodríguez was not only very close to the oligarchy who masterminded the coup, but that he was also supporting the military coup and that he has been in the payroll of the state for many years. By a presidential decree, the cardinal was receiving a payment of 100 thousand Lempiras (more than five thousand dollars) every month. In a country where the monthly income is about 75 dollars and thousands of poor families lack food, the salary of the cardinal don't look too Christian to me. But the point is that the Cardinal is part of that 10 percent of the Honduran population who gets almost 50 per cent of the national income. This 10 per cent of the privileged fear that the policies of Zelaya, like increasing the minimum wage 60 per cent, one day may end their opulent lifestyle.

In the days following the coup, the protest movement grew so much that the coup mongers decided to put in motion the machinery of repression. The army and the National Police started to attack the mass demonstrations. At this point, Cardinal Rodríguez decided to publicly express the support of the Catholic hierarchy for Micheletti and the other members of the coup. On July 4, 2009, Cardinal Rodríguez released a statement stating “that we the bishops have concluded that we are still living under a democracy in Honduras.” Then, the Cardinal warned president Zelaya that his obstinacy in returning to Honduras will unleash a blood-bath. But the Cardinal did not mention that it was the coup that created the civil unrest and that Micheletti and the rest of the “golpistas” where the ones threatening the people with a blood-bath.

Luckily, I also learned that many bishops did not agree with Cardinal Rodríguez and that along with many priests and nuns, some bishops were ready to accompany the people in their struggle against the coup. You can find more about this subject in a great blog: Hermano Juancito

(TO BE CONTINUED)

[MariaElena]

thanks for sharing!!!

[buggs]

Very interesting and informative. A lot of detail I did not know. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.