What event in 1928 involved a massacre of banana workers in Colombia?

The event in 1928 was the Banana Massacre, in which Colombian troops killed striking banana workers in the town of Ciénaga. It is also known in Spanish as the Masacre de las Bananeras.

The workers were striking in Colombia’s Magdalena banana zone against labor conditions connected with the United Fruit Company. Their demands included direct employment rather than subcontracting, regular wages, compensation for workplace accidents, better housing and sanitation, and improved medical services. The strike began in November 1928 and drew thousands of workers.

On December 5 and 6, Colombian Army forces under General Carlos Cortés Vargas confronted strikers and their supporters in Ciénaga. Troops opened fire after crowds gathered in the central square. The exact death toll remains disputed because records were incomplete and later accounts varied widely; estimates range from dozens to several thousand.

The massacre became a defining symbol of foreign corporate influence, labor repression, and the “banana republic” era. It also entered Colombian cultural memory through Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is sometimes mistakenly called a banana war or uprising, but Banana Massacre is the established name for the event.