The Controversial History of United Fruit

Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones, an expert in business history, discusses the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 in a U.S.-backed coup in support of the United Fruit Co. (now Chiquita Brands International). Jones examines the impact and role of the company in the Guatemalan economy in his case, “The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in Guatemala” (co-author: Marcelo Bucheli).