Banana Massacre Carla Cruz Aya

Banana Massacre – Carla Cruz Aya

How would you react if the place where you work did not treat you as it should be, and

when you decide to speak up to say how you feel, they kill you? Well, this is what happened to

the workers of the multinational United Fruit Company in 1928 in Ciénaga-Colombia, they

decided to protest their treatment. However, their protest for a change in working conditions

resulted in a great massacre. Colombia is a country that has been characterized by the mistakes of

its leaders, and this massacre was no exception. Thousands of inhabitants died at the hands of the

national army trying to change an unjust system, so why did the government make such an

unpleasant decision to kill its citizens?

Perhaps you have already heard of Magdalena, one of the departments of Colombia full of

nature, although this was the bananera zone where all the misfortune occurred.

In the first half of the 20th century, the bananera zone occupied more than 40,000 hectares of

surface; it was in Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta. The production of this area occupied an

important place in the world market since bananas were traded with foreign countries. The United

Fruit Company started with the commercialization of bananas; it exploited the land investing in

infrastructure to convert certain land into urban centers. Due to all the production and

exploitation of bananas, The United Fruit Company managed to be a multinational company,

managing to obtain money with all the actions that it carried out, therefore it had great socio-

economic power.

This company provided several job opportunities; however, the company did not treat the

workers with dignity. For this reason, on November 12, 1928, the plantation workers called a

strike which was attended by more than 25,000 who were there for the same reason, demand the

company to comply the Colombian laws “They wanted to pressure the United Fruit Company to

formalize the contractual conditions of the workers" (Elias & Vidal, 2011, p. 24). Since in 1915

there were some labor laws approved by the government. However, the UFC did not agree with

them because they did not want to give benefits to their workers. Which generated displeasure in

the workers, because by 1920 the UFC already had 35,000 cultivated hectares, which represented

57% of the exports of the Colombian Caribbean. All this generated profit that only the owners of

this company enjoyed.

On December 5, 1928, the day of misfortune, the workers met again, organized a peaceful

protest as the UFC did not make any changes with the previous strike.

Despite this, the dispersal of this protest was ordered by Governor Núñez Roca, but the workers

did not obey, because they wanted to be heard. Therefore, the army gave them 15 minutes to

disperse, but the workers refused. And so, the tragedy began, because the colonel ordered to

shoot up, and after a moment the rifles stopped ringing, only the corpses of the workers

remained. After this, both the inhabitants and the families who lost someone were affected. That

is why the press intervened in this event, assuming that there was still uncertainty, why did the

government call the army? Nonetheless, any type of meeting of this style was prohibited, since

the government assured that they questioned the legitimacy and stability of the state.

Evidently, the banana massacre was an event that defined a before and after both in

Colombia and in other countries, thanks to this event and other labor movements that have

occurred around the world, today there are labor rights. On the other hand, the massacre

continues to be remembered to this day, because many people have been in charge of informing

and maintaining the memory of this event, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who aside from

dignifying the Latin American culture and tradition, named the banana massacre in one of his

literary works called Cien Años de Soledad, describing it a bit in order to commemorate it. This is

something very valuable, as this book became well known, taking into account that it won a

Nobel Prize, so many people from other continents can find out what has happened in Colombia.

To summarize, the banana massacre was a constant struggle by UFC workers at the time,

resulting in an unpleasant event that we remember today as it made a transcendental change. We

may have to go through these types of events to be able to change some injustices that we face

every day, even if it is not in the best way, because in this case thousands of people died for no

legitimate reason, the government should not have called the army, and the company should not

have allowed the intervention of the state, since the problem was between the workers and the

company. I think this situation got out of hand for the UFC and the political and social power that

they had acquired let the government intervene creating so much injustice and such distasteful

days.

Bibliography

Elias, J. E., Vidal A. (2011). The worker’s massacre of 1928 in the Magdalena Zona Bananera -

Colombia, revista Andes de la Universidad de Salta, p. 22 - 54.

Prabha D., Kalvikkarasi G. (2018). Gabriel Garcia Marquez's one hundred years of solute.

Deconstructing the decade of a golden period in Colombia and Latin America (RJELAL).

185 - 187.