![]() ![]() The rivals jockeyed for power in the 1920s and the much smaller but better-run Cayumel locked in a “banana war’’ with United in Honduras. When the Honduran government tried to impose taxes on Cayumel’s land, Zemurray engineered a regime change in 1911 that shook up the State Department.Īs the upstart company’s fortunes rose, United Fruit fixed its sights on Cayumel. Zemurray also kept Central American dictators in his hip pocket. In billowing khakis and a pith helmet, he cleared fields with a machete, drank with workers, planted banana trees, and brought innovations that improved yield and produced fatter fruit. He spent much of his time in Honduras finessing his image as the banana man who crossed the country by mule. ![]() Where the patrician officers of the United Fruit counted their earnings in Boston, Zemurray was on the ground in Latin America. He also forged a new model of the chief executive. By 1905, Zemurray followed the banana import action and moved to New Orleans where he established the Cayumel Fruit Co. ![]()
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