1928 mass killing of striking United Fruit Company workers in Ciénaga, Colombia
The Banana Massacre () was a massacre of workers of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) that occurred between December 5 and 6, 1928, in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. A strike began on November 12, 1928, when the workers ceased to work until the company would reach an agreement with them to grant them dignified working conditions. After several weeks with no agreement, in which the United Fruit Company refused to negotiate with the workers, the government of Miguel Abadía Méndez assigned Cortés Vargas as military chief in the Magdalena department and sent 700 men from the Colombian Army to quell the strikers, resulting in the massacre of 47–2000 people (the range owing to the insufficiency of detailed historical records).
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. 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.
Gabriel García Márquez depicted a fictional version of the massacre in his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude", as did Álvaro Cepeda Samudio in his "La Casa Grande". Although García Márquez references the number of dead as around three thousand, the actual number of dead workers is unknown.
Strike.
A decade before the massacre, workers had gone on strike but had seen little change. The workers made nine demands from the United Fruit Company in October 1928:
The workers of the banana plantations in Colombia went on strike on November 12, 1928.
The strike turned into the largest labor movement ever witnessed in the country until then, as 25,000 workers, at the minimum, from the United Fruit Company participated. Radical members of the Liberal Party, as well as members of the Socialist and Communist Parties, participated.
The workers wanted to be recognized as employees, and demanded the implementation of the Colombian legal framework of the 1920s.
Massacre.
An army regiment from Bogotá was dispatched by the government to deal with the strikers, which it deemed to be subversive. Whether these troops were sent in at the behest of the United Fruit Company did not at first clearly emerge.
Three hundred soldiers were sent from Antioquia to Magdalena. There were no soldiers from Magdalena involved because General Cortés Vargas, the army-appointed military chief of the banana zone in charge of controlling the situation, did not believe they would be able to take effective actions, as they might be related to the plantation workers.
On the day of the massacre, December 5, 1928, about 1500 banana workers along with their families camped out in the town square of Ciénaga. While this was happening, the troops set up their machine guns on the roofs of the low buildings at the corners of the main square, closed off the access streets,
and, after issuing a five-minute warning that people should leave, opened fire into a dense Sunday crowd of workers and their families, including children. The people had gathered after Sunday Mass to wait for an anticipated address from the governor.
Number of people dead.
General 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. Other sources claim that the bodies were buried in mass graves.
Among the survivors was Luis Vicente Gámez, later a famous local figure, who survived by hiding under a bridge for three days. Every year after the massacre he delivered a memorial service over the radio.
The press has reported different numbers of deaths and different opinions about the events that took place that night. The conclusion is that there is no agreed-on story, but rather diverse variations depending on the source they come from. The American press provided biased information on the strike. The Colombian press was also biased depending on the political alignment of the publication. For example, the Bogotá-based newspaper "El Tiempo" stated that the workers were within their rights in wanting to improve their conditions. However, since the newspaper was politically conservative, they also noted that they did not agree with the strike.
Official United States telegrams.
Telegram from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, dated December 5, 1928, stated:
Telegram from Santa Marta Consulate to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 6, 1928, stated:
Telegram from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 7, 1928, stated:
Telegram from the U.S. Department of State to Santa Marta Consulate, dated December 8, 1928, stated:
Telegram from Santa Marta Consulate to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 9, 1928, stated:
Dispatch from Santa Marta Consulate to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 11, 1928, stated:
Dispatch from Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 11, 1928, stated:
Dispatch from U.S. Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 29, 1928, stated:
Dispatch from U.S. Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated January 16, 1929, stated:
In popular culture.
Gabriel García Márquez depicted a fictional version of the massacre in his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude", as did Álvaro Cepeda Samudio in his "La Casa Grande". Although García Márquez references the number of dead as around 3000, the actual number of dead workers is unknown.
The event also inspired Italian singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori's song "Ninetto e la colonia", released with his 1976 album "Bufalo Bill". Before the soldiers start shooting on the frightened and praying crowd, only Ninetto "scemo", a silly little child, due to his innocence, is able to ask the relevant question, though in vain: "Who are those who sent you?" The soldier replies that the answer does not matter, as those who sent him do not speak their language and live far away.
Notes.
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