1 Multinational Corporations and the Politics of Vertical Integration: The Case of the Central American Banana Industry in the Twentieth Century Marcelo Bucheli Assistant Professor of Business History Department of Business Administration College of Business University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 350Wohlers Hall 1206 South Sixth Street Champaign, IL 61820 United States of America 1+ (217) 244-0208 E-mail: mbucheli@illinois.edu