I oktober 1928 går ca 32.000 arbetare på United Fruits bananplantage i Colombia ut i strejk, deras krav är bland annat att få betalt i kontanter istället för i krediter som bara kan användas i United Fruits egna affärer. Staten skickar in militären som ockuperar Magdalena regionen där plantagen ligger men strejken fortsätter.
United Fruit uttalar sig i New York Times om strejken och säger bland annat att det inte handlar om en strejk för bättre villkor utan om en "subversive movement" och att "no complaints have been received by our employees".
Militären upphäver yttrandefriheten och samlingsfriheten med anledning av strejken och 5 december utlyses undantagstillstånd.
USAs ambassadör Jefferson Caffery rapporterade hem 5 december:
I have been following Santa Marta fruit strike through United Fruit Company representative here; also through Minister of Foreign Affairs who on Saturday told me government would send additional troops and would arrest all strike leaders and transport them to a prison in Cartagena; that government would give adequate protection to American interests involved.
- (http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/caffery5dec1928.jpg)
General Cortés Vargas som var ansvarig för regionen hävdade senare att han beordrade attacken för att förhindra en amerikansk invasion, han order till trupperna löd bland annat:On December 6, in the town of Ciénaga [...] banana workers gathered in the town square. [...] The workers were not there, specifically, to protest. December 6 was a Sunday; they'd attended mass and were waiting to hear a speech by the regional governor. Because the address would follow church services, the workers were accompanied by their wives and families
[...]
Four machine gun positions surrounded the square, on rooftops, one at each corner.
An order was given. The area was to be cleared in five minutes. The countdown had begun. The didn't - and couldn't packed into the square as they were - disperse. The troops opened fire.
USAs ambassadör Jefferson Caffery rapporterade hem 11 december 1928:Prepare your mind to face the crown of rebels [...] and kill before foreign troops tread upon our soil.
The opposition press, that is, the press of the Liberal Party, is conducting a violent campaign against the Government for the methods used in breaking up the strike, and is bandying ugly words about, especially referring to the Minister of War and the military forces, words such as murderer and assassin being used. Although the thinking people of the country realize that it was only the Government's prompt action that diverted a disaster, this insidious campaign of the Liberal press will undoubtedly work up a great deal of feeling against the Government and will tend to inculcate in the popular mind a belief that the Government was unduly hasty in protecting the interests of the United Fruit Company.
- (http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/caffery14dec1928.htm)
- (http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/caffery14dec1928.htm)
I have the honor to report that the Bogotá representative of the United Fruit Company told me yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded one thousand.
- (http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/colombia/caffery16jan1929.jpg)
/Marcus