Forgotten Continent Quotes

“In the event, in Guatemala the US crushed democracy, not communism. Castillo Armas swiftly reversed the agrarian reform, reached agreement with United Fruit, and restored the old order of corrupt dictatorship.”
― Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America

“Not for the last time in Latin America, the critics argue, the United States failed to distinguish between a nationalist reformer and a communist.”
― Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America

“Eisenhower administration was acting as enforcer for United Fruit? Since the days of Arévalo, the company had conducted an effective propaganda campaign in the United States, painting Guatemala as being in the grip of communists.”
― Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America

“Árbenz ordered the expropriation of 380,000 acres (154,000ha) of United Fruit land – a substantial chunk of its holdings, of which 85 per cent was left fallow, supposedly in case of banana diseases”
― Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America

“On both counts, that meant a confrontation with the United Fruit Company, an American firm based in Boston. Known to Central Americans as el pulpo (the octopus) because of its all-encompassing tentacles, in 1899 United Fruit had obtained a 99-year concession over a vast tract of jungle from Guatemala’s then dictator – and with it, the right to finish and operate a railway to the Caribbean coast.”
― Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America