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Summary: What about Bacardi's anti-Batista /pro-Castro history?
Review: The Bacardis along with other elite Cuban families bankrolled Castro's rebel forces for years, and in the case of Bacardi provided sponsored a visit for Washington officials to demonstrate Fidel Castro's democratic credentials in 1957.Why isn't that dark chapter mentioned in this so-called tell all book. The Bacardis have a consistent history of being anti-dictator both in the case of Batista and of Castro. I wonder how the author could leave out their support of a violent, thuggish, ex-patriate who wandered around Miami raising funds for waging unconventional warfare against Cuban nationals. But in that case the expatriate (or exile if you prefer) was Fidel Castro, and the tyrant was Fulgencio Batista. "In the spring of 1957 Washington had sent an official fact-finding mission to the island to learn more about the rebel leader. ... The American delegation found that the rebels had appealed to a desire in many Cubans, from all classes, who were tired of the Cuban dictatorship. The tour itself had been sponsored by the owner of Bacardi rum as a way of easing American anxieties about the Castros." From "ONE HELL OF A GAMBLE" KHRUSHCHEV, CASTRO, AND KENNEDY, 1958-1964 by Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali Hmmmmm....I wonder how they could miss something this big? Half truths?
Rating: 
Summary: Entering a murky world
Review: This book explores the murky world of the Bacardi Empire. Bacardi has had dealings with the CIA and the extreme right-wing National Cuban-American Foundation (CANF) as well as links with both political and violent attempts to overthrow the Cuban government. This began almost from the Revolution in January 1959 and has continued to the present day. As the prologue puts it, the book: "raises fundamental issues about the relationship between multinational corporations and imperialist politics, about the instrumental use by the state of private corporations to serve state-directed terrorism." Bacardi has sought to use US laws to put a stranglehold on Cuban trade. This includes sponsoring the Helms-Burton Act that tightens the 40-year blockade. The author comments that "the text is so severe and over-arching that doubtless not even the laws and treaties imposed on African colonies by the European powers have contained such a degree of arrogance and lack of respect for a sovereign nation." Bacardi lawyers were also heavily involved in writing the new trade laws that mean Cuban brands are no longer recognized in the US. Havana Club rum's French partner Pernod-Ricard (the major competitor to Bacardi) has convinced the European Union that such moves are an infringement of fair-trading laws. Bacardi and others are aiming not just to remove Castro from power but establish Cuba as a colony of the US with chosen front men running the place.
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