For a long time now it’s commonplace to name “Banana republic” any country in the political South that has its political-economic stability shaken by a coup d'état [whether it is a civilian, military, or judicial coup], and whose economy depends on monocultural exports of bananas, oranges, coffee, sugar cane, or minerals and oil. In that state of the republic, the social-economic abyss between the proletarian and plutocrats [businessmen, politicians of inherited careers, and high-rank military] is endless. Within this social-political context, economic oligarchy carries on with its internal and external affairs associated with multinationals, controlling primary production, and embellishing themselves with indigenous and maroon lands.

With access to inside information, they know beforehand which way to turn to draw minerals [iron, gold, bauxite, niobium, or oil], and manipulate recent laws or their own national constitution to come close to indigenous lands causing deforestation, growing soy, sugar-cane, corn, or letting the oxen trample the soil. Oil and banana is one single thing: a pretext for the stackin’ loot machine.