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Tiananmen Square after the first shots, Beijing, China, 1989 (media.piefed.social)
submitted 1 month ago by [M] to c/historyphotos@piefed.social
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[–] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

I personally count the Banana's massacre, which resulted in an estimated 2000 protesters dead. While the shooting was made by Colombian soldiers instead of US soldiers, it was a direct result of the US Goverment's threat of invading Colombia if the protest done by United Fruit Company workers was not inmediately put to a stop.

EDIT: I think the above comment is a misleading. A better description of the massacre is that it was done to serve US economical interests, aided by US's military pressure (like US officials asking US army forces to send a warship into the zone) and a possible risk of invasion from US into Colombia's mainland. I also think a possibly more accurate number of protestors dead is ~1500. I do stand on the opinion that the massacre was a direct consequence of US Government, simply perpetrated by Colombian soldiers.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    U.S. officials in Colombia and United Fruit representatives portrayed the workers' strike as "communist" with a "subversive tendency" in telegrams to Frank B. Kellogg, the United States Secretary of State.[3] The Colombian government was also compelled to work for the interests of the company, considering they could cut off trade of Colombian bananas with significant markets such as the United States and Europe.[4]

    General Carlos Cortés Vargas, who commanded the troops during the massacre, took responsibility for 47 casualties. In reality, the exact number of casualties has never been confirmed. Herrera Soto, co-author of a comprehensive and detailed study of the 1928 strike, has put together various estimates given by contemporaries and historians, ranging from 47 to as high as 2,000. According to Congressman Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the killed strikers were thrown into the sea.[1] Other sources claim that the bodies were buried in mass graves.[2]

    Banana Massacre

    Two thousand was the extreme high estimate for the dead by the Colombian government but do you have a source for the ‘it was a direct result of the US Goverment's threat of invading Colombia if the protest done by United Fruit Company workers was not inmediately put to a stop’ because all I can find is that Colombia’s bananas could no longer be exported?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Note that some estimates also put the number on 5000. This letter to the US Goverment from the Colombian embassy puts the number, sourced from the United Fruit Company, in the 1000+ range. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán also puts the number in the thousands. I think ~1500 sounds like a reasonable estimate. (unrelated trivia fact: Gaitán is an incredibly important character in Colombia history, as he was murdered when running for president, which turned Bogotá into a complete chaos/warzone in 1948, in something called the Bogotazo).

    do you have a source for the ‘it was a direct result of the US Goverment’s threat of invading Colombia if the protest done by United Fruit Company workers was not inmediately put to a stop’ because all I can find is that Colombia’s bananas could no longer be exported?

    Wikipedia in Spanish has the following (translated):

    [...] The clashes between the United Fruit Company and the army on one side and the workers on the other, over the breaking of the strike on December 3 and 4, gave General Carlos Cortés Vargas yet another justification for repression. In his memoirs of the strike, he states that he became convinced that if public order was not restored immediately, the U.S. government would send Marines. Rumors of U.S. warships were rife.[...]

    This letter from an US counsul in Santa Marta also asks the US Goverment for warship support, which support Cortés Vargas story. I also found the following letters, which show US offered "unofficial support" to the Company. This article says that Carlos Cortés got reinforcements from the center of the country, as to minimize the sympathy that the protestors would receive from the soldiers; IMO, this indicates the hard tackle down was not simply an irresponsible act from Cortés who wrongly guessed US had intentions to land marine soldiers, but it shows it was a clear coordinated effort from the Colombian Goverment.

    I do regret the use of the word "inmediately" and 2000 number from my comment. Will edit my previous comment to amend that.

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