It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economy and politics of many Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of neocolonialism. They described it as the example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of countries. After a period of financial decline, United Fruit merged with Eli M. Black's AMK in 1970 to become the United Brands Company. In 1984, Carl Lindner, Jr. transformed United Brands into the present-day Chiquita Brands International.