Premium Episode 135 - United Fruit Company, Blood Bananas and the Guatemalan Genocide pt. 2: Sam the Banana Man

Programmed to Chill

[originally published on Patreon February 15, 2024]

Today I discuss more criminals involved in the banana trade, introducing the Vaccaro Brothers and Sam the Banana Man Zemurray. I discuss that intersection between organized crime and Wall Street that intersected precisely in the banana trade through these figures.

I go through Zemurray's career, from his start in Alabama, his Cuyamel Fruit Company, the Honduran coup of 1911 and the concurrent takeover of Honduran national debt by JP Morgan bank, and the ensuing takeover of Honduras by United Fruit Company. Then, I discuss Zemurray's takeover of United Fruit Company (brokered by Sullivan & Cromwell) as well as the decisions Zemurray took at the helm of the company.

After that, I discuss Zemurray's role in the creation of the modern state of Israel, especially regarding the multiple votes at the United Nations for the Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947. Then, I cannot avoid discussing Zemurray's children who just so happened to have become scholars of Central American studies.

[note: at the time I wrote and recorded this episode, I had not purchased The Heritage of the Conquistadors: Ruling Classes in Central America from Conquest to the Sandinistas by "Samuel Z. Stone", but I subsequently purchased the book and confirmed that it does not mention Samuel Zemurray or Cuyamel whatsoever. The book does mention United Fruit Company, though the author does not see fit to mention that his grandfather at one time ran said company.] Finally, I end the episode mentioning the Melville Collective's guerrilla actions against UFC offices in 1969. Songs: Osbie's Banana Song by the Thomas Pynchon Fake Book Yes, We Have No Bananas by Louis Prima