Bacardi: The Hidden War

By Hernando Calvo Ospina

Book Overview

The Bacardi rum company is one of the most successful and recognisable brands in the world. It spends millions on marketing itself as the spirit of youth and vitality. But behind its image as a party drink lies a very different story. In this book, investigative journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina brings to light the commercial and political activities of the Bacardi empire to reveal its role in fostering the 40-year long confrontation between the United States and the revolutionary government of Cuba. Through meticulous research, Ospina reveals how directors and shareholders of the family-owned firm have aggressively worked to undermine the Castro government. He explores how they have been implicated in supporting paramilitary organisations that have carried out terrorist attacks, and reveals their links to the extreme right-wing Cuban-American Foundation that supported Ronald Reagan's Contra war in Nicaragua. Bacardi: The Hidden War explains the company's hand in promoting 'special interest' legislation against its competitor, Havana Club Rum, which is manufactured in Cuba and promoted by the European company Pernod-Ricard. Ospina reveals the implications of Bacardi's involvement in this growing dispute that threatens to create a trade war between America and Europe. Exploring the Bacardi empire's links to the CIA, as well as its inside links with the Bush administration, this fascinating account shows how multinational companies act for political as well as economic interests.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745318738
• ISBN13: 9780745318738
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Entering a murky world

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.