Where was the first banana republic?
Answer: Honduras
Everyone always says, while wringing their hands at politics: “We are just going to become another banana republic.”
But what does that even mean?
It means that politicians are for sale.
If that is the case, maybe we already are a banana republic?
Maybe every country always has been?
“When it comes to corruption in the public sector, Honduras has a track record that few can rival. It was the original “banana republic,” so called because its politicians were so easily bribed and bossed around by the foreign fruit companies that arrived in the nineteenth century. The president of the day was ousted in 1974 after it emerged that he had accepted $ 1.25 million from the United Fruit Company in return for lowering certain export tariffs.”
–Tom Wainwright, How To Run A Drug Cartel
