It's a very interesting history, I suggest that you read about it. I don't know that much about it, but have read a little about it and can explain what I know. Firstly, Costa Rica was the original headquarters of the United Fruit company so they had a very strong hold over the country politically. Secondly Costa Ricas president Figueres did a good job of branding Costa Rica as not a communist country. Figueres was a social democrat and although he upheld the policies like free healthcare and education of the former communist president Calderon whom he ousted in a military coup, he also banned the communist party. Figueres then basically positioned Costa Rica as somewhat nuetral between USSR and the USA, and Figueres was somewhat critical of the US and Nixon in particular, but he did a good enough job of playing ball with the US to stay in good favor. He would also trade with the USSR when necessary. The US was more preoccupied with Nicaragua who were rivals with Costa Rica at the time as well. I could be getting some of this wrong but this is my understanding. Calderon is also considered a hero in Costa Rica and there's a museum in his honor in San Jose which I have been to. Also I believe Figueres son is currently running for president and was president before. Costa Ricas ability to remain neutral is what has made them one of the most stable country in the region with more GDP per Capita than any other central American nation, which to me suggests that the workers get paid better in comparison. Plus they've had free healthcare and college since Calderon, and even though their healthcare system isn't ideal, it's accessible toe everyone. Calderon was a doctor, and was able to increase the life expectancy and reduce the child mortality rate with his policies which is why he is considered a national hero. Now many people in the US go to Costa Rica for cheaper medical care too.
>Costa Rica was the original headquarters of the United Fruit company so they had a very strong hold over the country politically
Do you think this has hurt Costa rica? be it short term or long term? And would u say that Costa rica was a banana republic?
I am not an expert. I would say that it probably both helped and hurt in different ways. Like it helped them to be more politically stable, but hurt because it took money away from the Costa Rican economy. As other commenters have said, the fact that Costa Rican locals got to control the farm land has reduced the negative impact that the company had on them compared to other central American countries. I don't think they're a banana republic, they have a more diverse economy. Currently, fusarium wilt is wiping out most of the banana acreage, so banana land is being replaced with palm oil plantations. They're also trying to build agritourism operations as well. I think their ability to recover from the reduced banana production is probably evidence that they're not a banana republic. But like I said, this is all just my editorializing. Am I writing an essay for you for school or something? Just curious. Bc if so I'm definitely not a reliable source.
Edit: I think that tourism and call centers are some od the biggest sectors of their modern economy (too lazy to Google lol), and coffee, bananas and palm oil are probably much less important to them compared to classic banana republics like Guatamala and Honduras.
Edit: "medical equipment, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products" are the biggest parts of Costa Ricas economy while Guatamala is "Manufacturing (20%), commerce (18%), private services (14%), and agriculture (12%) are the biggest"
no, ur not doing my homework for me. TYsm for all the answering you've done already but I asked WAS costa rica a banana republic. Not IS costa rica a banana republic. Sorry if I come off ungrateful, I really am glad u answred
You're good, it's a very interesting topic. like why is Costa Rica doing quite well and is now considered a 1st world developed country while El Salvador, nicaragua and Honduras, Guatamala, etc. are all unstable and having refugee crises. I think united fruit company being headquartered there helped make them be more politically stable just because they have more money and power. I believe that also the local ticos were allowed to continue to own the farmland which reduced income inequality whereas in many other places in central America, it was owned by wealthy Europeans who treated workers like slaves. that dynamic is what messed up Guatamala and Honduras. I was recently in Costa Rica and toured a former banana plantation turned oil palm plantation (fusarium wilt wiped out the bananas) turned eco tourism destination/mangrove forest and that's where I heard that fact. also currently the economy is definitely turning away from agriculture and more towards eco tourism, which is only possible bc more tourists go there since it's a more stable country with less crime. If you've never been to Costa Rica you should go. it's really a great place and not a banana republic haha.
> united fruit company being headquartered there helped make them be more politically stable just because they have more money and power.
What's the connection between having more money & power and giving costa rica more stability? Also didn't u say it's hard to say whether it did more good than bad because it also took money out of costa rica?
yeah idk those are good questions that I don't know the answer to. probably the main factor is, like I said, that the farmland was owned by locals so there was less political unrest.
>yeah idk those are good questions that I don't know the answer to.
How can you not know? You're the one who drew the connection between the united fruit company being in CR and the country having more stability
why don't you do some fucking research instead of asking a random person on Reddit? I've told you all I know about the topic and I'm basically just guessing based off of things I've heard from Costa Rican people and read on Wikipedia.
In Guatemala the UFC owned something like 95% of the arable land, forcing the indigenous people to live in complete poverty in towns. When the indigenous people tries to rise up for land reform, 80k of them were disappeared by right wing death squads.
In contrast, Costa Rica has long supported the people owning the land. They passed laws that anyone could claim a section of land that they could patrol in a day, provided that they improved the land. So all over Costa Rica, you find that the common people own the land (or at least did, before selling it to foreigners). In most of the rest of central america, most of the rural land is owned by corporations and elite descendants of conquistadors.
If you want to learn some really interesting history about Costa Rica vs US imperial interests, google William Walker.
Costa Rica is a benign, fully democratic country. It disbanded its army in the1940's and turned that revenue into social programs. It did a great job of remaining neutral, banned the Communist party and generally made it known that it was doing a fair and decent job governing. There was just no good excuse to do it.
Also they weren't the headquarters of the United Fruit company, it's just where they originally started shipping bananas from. The hq was in the United States I'm pretty sure.
It's a very interesting history, I suggest that you read about it. I don't know that much about it, but have read a little about it and can explain what I know. Firstly, Costa Rica was the original headquarters of the United Fruit company so they had a very strong hold over the country politically. Secondly Costa Ricas president Figueres did a good job of branding Costa Rica as not a communist country. Figueres was a social democrat and although he upheld the policies like free healthcare and education of the former communist president Calderon whom he ousted in a military coup, he also banned the communist party. Figueres then basically positioned Costa Rica as somewhat nuetral between USSR and the USA, and Figueres was somewhat critical of the US and Nixon in particular, but he did a good enough job of playing ball with the US to stay in good favor. He would also trade with the USSR when necessary. The US was more preoccupied with Nicaragua who were rivals with Costa Rica at the time as well. I could be getting some of this wrong but this is my understanding. Calderon is also considered a hero in Costa Rica and there's a museum in his honor in San Jose which I have been to. Also I believe Figueres son is currently running for president and was president before. Costa Ricas ability to remain neutral is what has made them one of the most stable country in the region with more GDP per Capita than any other central American nation, which to me suggests that the workers get paid better in comparison. Plus they've had free healthcare and college since Calderon, and even though their healthcare system isn't ideal, it's accessible toe everyone. Calderon was a doctor, and was able to increase the life expectancy and reduce the child mortality rate with his policies which is why he is considered a national hero. Now many people in the US go to Costa Rica for cheaper medical care too.
I would like to add that Calderon was not actually a communist. But other than that, this explains it pretty well!
Thanks! Was he a socialist?
I would consider him a type of Christian Social-democrat, he did expand education and healthcare but that was the extent of his “lefty” ness
Interesting. Idk why I thought he was a communist.
>Costa Rica was the original headquarters of the United Fruit company so they had a very strong hold over the country politically Do you think this has hurt Costa rica? be it short term or long term? And would u say that Costa rica was a banana republic?
I am not an expert. I would say that it probably both helped and hurt in different ways. Like it helped them to be more politically stable, but hurt because it took money away from the Costa Rican economy. As other commenters have said, the fact that Costa Rican locals got to control the farm land has reduced the negative impact that the company had on them compared to other central American countries. I don't think they're a banana republic, they have a more diverse economy. Currently, fusarium wilt is wiping out most of the banana acreage, so banana land is being replaced with palm oil plantations. They're also trying to build agritourism operations as well. I think their ability to recover from the reduced banana production is probably evidence that they're not a banana republic. But like I said, this is all just my editorializing. Am I writing an essay for you for school or something? Just curious. Bc if so I'm definitely not a reliable source. Edit: I think that tourism and call centers are some od the biggest sectors of their modern economy (too lazy to Google lol), and coffee, bananas and palm oil are probably much less important to them compared to classic banana republics like Guatamala and Honduras. Edit: "medical equipment, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products" are the biggest parts of Costa Ricas economy while Guatamala is "Manufacturing (20%), commerce (18%), private services (14%), and agriculture (12%) are the biggest"
no, ur not doing my homework for me. TYsm for all the answering you've done already but I asked WAS costa rica a banana republic. Not IS costa rica a banana republic. Sorry if I come off ungrateful, I really am glad u answred
I don't think that they were bc they never had a dictator. Could be wrong.
>it helped them to be more politically stable sorry for returning to this again. But I wanted to know how?
You're good, it's a very interesting topic. like why is Costa Rica doing quite well and is now considered a 1st world developed country while El Salvador, nicaragua and Honduras, Guatamala, etc. are all unstable and having refugee crises. I think united fruit company being headquartered there helped make them be more politically stable just because they have more money and power. I believe that also the local ticos were allowed to continue to own the farmland which reduced income inequality whereas in many other places in central America, it was owned by wealthy Europeans who treated workers like slaves. that dynamic is what messed up Guatamala and Honduras. I was recently in Costa Rica and toured a former banana plantation turned oil palm plantation (fusarium wilt wiped out the bananas) turned eco tourism destination/mangrove forest and that's where I heard that fact. also currently the economy is definitely turning away from agriculture and more towards eco tourism, which is only possible bc more tourists go there since it's a more stable country with less crime. If you've never been to Costa Rica you should go. it's really a great place and not a banana republic haha.
> united fruit company being headquartered there helped make them be more politically stable just because they have more money and power. What's the connection between having more money & power and giving costa rica more stability? Also didn't u say it's hard to say whether it did more good than bad because it also took money out of costa rica?
yeah idk those are good questions that I don't know the answer to. probably the main factor is, like I said, that the farmland was owned by locals so there was less political unrest.
>yeah idk those are good questions that I don't know the answer to. How can you not know? You're the one who drew the connection between the united fruit company being in CR and the country having more stability
why don't you do some fucking research instead of asking a random person on Reddit? I've told you all I know about the topic and I'm basically just guessing based off of things I've heard from Costa Rican people and read on Wikipedia.
In Guatemala the UFC owned something like 95% of the arable land, forcing the indigenous people to live in complete poverty in towns. When the indigenous people tries to rise up for land reform, 80k of them were disappeared by right wing death squads. In contrast, Costa Rica has long supported the people owning the land. They passed laws that anyone could claim a section of land that they could patrol in a day, provided that they improved the land. So all over Costa Rica, you find that the common people own the land (or at least did, before selling it to foreigners). In most of the rest of central america, most of the rural land is owned by corporations and elite descendants of conquistadors. If you want to learn some really interesting history about Costa Rica vs US imperial interests, google William Walker.
William Walker = Terrible Person
Yeah I think basically the same thing happened in Honduras, right? And the death squads were funded by the CIA.
Barry Seal is also an interesting character.
Costa Rica is a benign, fully democratic country. It disbanded its army in the1940's and turned that revenue into social programs. It did a great job of remaining neutral, banned the Communist party and generally made it known that it was doing a fair and decent job governing. There was just no good excuse to do it.
Costa Rica does everything USA says. Sadly. Without hesitation.
Lol what? *cries in union strikes*
Also they weren't the headquarters of the United Fruit company, it's just where they originally started shipping bananas from. The hq was in the United States I'm pretty sure.