Last night, we told you about the seismic shift for businessman John Zabaneh, who got the good news that the US Government no longer considers him a drug kingpin who worked for "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel.
That's the end of a very troubling saga of suffering that Zabaneh, his family, and his employees weathered after the US State Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned him with the kingpin designation 5 years ago.
And yesterday, with just the stroke of the pen, they ended it. But, for Zabaneh his reputation and his family's business interests are up in ruin, and they have to start from scratch to grow their banana empire to what it was before 2012.
He told us via text, yesterday, quote, "They have my whole family down to poverty, no joke." And back in October 2015, it certainly was no joke when they saw the foreshadowing of things to come. That's when Fyffes cut ties fearing any proximity to John Zabaneh and the kingpin designation, and it dealt a death blow to the agro business, ending one of the most successful banana farms in Stann Creek.
Daniel Ortiz was down there when the company executive's were trying to resuscitate the company from the brink of destruction, and for context to see how much damage that Kingpin designation really did, we revisit our story on the Fyffes embargo:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
This is the company's Packing Shed #25, one of 4 facilities belonging to Mayan King Banana Farms. The purpose is to prepare fully grown bananas, that have been picked off the trees, to box them for export.
The final destination is Europe where Fyffes will market them. Normally, this packing shed - like the other 3 - would be bustling with activity where just under 100 workers should have been washing and sanitizing the bananas, and packing them into boxes to transport to the BGA. At Mayan King of about 600-800 workers are usually hard at work from about 8 a.m to 5 p.m. on the weekdays to produce boxes upon boxes of exportable bananas at all 4 sheds.
Miguel Monroy - Packing/Field Manager, Mayan King
"We use to do 1,500 - 1,600 boxes for each packing shed and the 4 shed are working 4 days a week. 1,500 per boxes per day is 4,600 boxes per day and that is what we produced."
Daniel Ortiz
"How much does a box of bananas cost?"
Miguel Monroy - Packing/Field Manager, Mayan King
"Right now the price is very low, about $14 per box. In January it goes up to $20 per box."
Daniel Ortiz
"That's several thousand dollars that you are losing because no productivity is happening today right?"
Miguel Monroy - Packing/Field Manager, Mayan King
"Definitely. Lots of money is losing."
To be more specific, that's approximately 84 thousand dollars per day being wasted in non-productivity. But, since Thursday, it's been like this shut down, and forlorn, a foreshadowing of what may come since the company is in danger of going under.
Miguel Monroy - Packing/Field Manager, Mayan King
"On Thursday when they told me, I got a shock when they told me that everything is closing down, because they are not taking any fruit from us. Right away I had to call the captain and I told him no packing, no work. And he ask why and I told him that is the message that I got. Up today I don't know what is happening because hundreds of people are in the compound and we are feeding all of them."
There, meaning the Maya King Housing area, where we found a few hundred of employees frustrated, emotional and ready to demonstrate against what they believe is the injustice being committed against them. They suddenly find themselves out of a job.
Their children cannot go to school because the parents cannot afford to send them, much less feed them.
Leonora Rol - Banana Farmer, Mayan King
"I have children here and we want food for our children and I want them to give back all our jobs."
Joseline Carolina - Daughter of a Banana Farmer
"Our father need to work and we want to go to school and that is not fair because we need things for our school and if we don't go to school, that is not fair. Our father needs money to pay our school."
Carlos Villanueva - Banana Farmer, Mayan King
"We are starving. Everybody needs their job. Watch how many children are here already. Everybody want their job, so please."
Amelia Tzar - Banana Farmer, Mayan King
"We need our job. That is important. We need the job. This is not right. We need the job, because lots of people are not eating."
Marcos Bac - Banana Farmer, Mayan King
"Please I need a job."
Teodolfo Cho - Banana Farmer, Mayan King
"Men and women are right here. You could see a crowd of people. They need jobs. I need a job."
General Manager Jose Gonzalez says that he and his employees were blind-sided by the severity of Fyffes actions.
Jose Gonzalez - General Manager, Mayan King
"I want to retract or to go back 3 years ago when things were really hot for Mr. John Zabaneh. That was the time that they designated him as a king pin and obviously everyone was paranoid to deal with him - everyone. Myself included obviously. But at that time Fyffes did not put this drastic measure. They did not call up this drastic measure of cutting us off completely. It's really baffling that 3 years later, when everything has cooled down. I mean you have not heard his name. Now they are paranoid that okay, we have to cut ties and so it doesn't add up. We can speculate basically that they might have ulterior motives and they are just really washing their hands by saying oh Mr. John Zabaneh is king pin, so we can't do business. But like I said, it does not add up and it does not compare to what they did 3 years ago when things were really bad."
The company's staff is hoping that the rest of the world will take notice of their sudden suffering, shake their heads at Fyffes International, and that they will get a international black eye. That, they hope will force their hand in rolling back this sudden embargo.
Daniel Ortiz
"Are you all worried that you will never recover from this?"
Jose Gonzalez - General Manager, Mayan King
"It's getting to the point of no return. I think practically speaking we are still about 2 weeks from that point of no return. Every day that passes that we do not take care of the bananas represents probably a week of recovery time. I would say within 2-3 weeks it's going to be monumentally difficult to recover the farms."
Again, that story was from 2015. Yesterday Zabaneh sent out a release saying, quote, "As Mr. Zabaneh's innocence has finally proven out, he and his family are hopeful that the business community and the government will now support their efforts to restart and restore those businesses that brought meaningful benefit to so many workers and their families in the South."
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