Bacardi Hidden War (Book Review)

"Bacardi: Hidden War". By H. Calvo Ospina; #9780745318738; Pluto Press; $24; 127 p. ; c2002.

The work is, apparently (it doesn't indicate this, but it is hard to believe otherwise), a translation of Ospina's "Rhum Bacardi: CIA, Cuba, and Mondialisation" - a book that is also available in German, French, Dutch & Italian. Perhaps the title was changed when the U.S. publishing outfit realized the book could never live up to the original title, and it barely lives up to this new one. From the prologue: “This is the story of the close-knit relationship between major stockholders and directors of Bacardi rum, the extreme right-wing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and the CIA. It provides a wealth of details documenting how Bacardi acted as a conduit for CIA funding to paramilitary mercenaries in Nicaragua, Angola and of course Cuba." If the book really showed this then that, indeed, would be a dam good story. That story, if it exists, is not in this book though.

The book comes with an introduction by James Petras, which is perhaps the best thing it has going for it. Petras is a frequent "Counter Punch" contributor. Even though the Jewish Anti-Defamation League has labeled him an “anti-Israel conspiracy theorist", and Colombian FARC rebels have on occasion addressed open letters to him (which puts him in the unfortunate company of Noam Chomsky & Jesse Jackson), the retired ethics professor is usually associated with things a little better than this volume. Petras is the author of: “Multinationals on Trial”; “Empire or Republic?: American Global Power and Domestic Decay”; “Globalization Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century”; “Fidel Castro Speaks”; “Cultivating Revolution: The United States and Agrarian Reform in Latin America”; “The United States and Chile: Imperialism and the Overthrow of the Allende Government”, etc. Petras is many things, and though I often think him wrong, he is not uninformed and rarely uninteresting (if curious, google his name and you are at his website). Had Petras written the book, it might have been worth reading. Unfortunately, Ospina (by his publisher he is billed as "a Colombian investigative journalist who specializes in the anti-Castro movement") wrote it, and it isn't exactly riveting. Espionage, revolution, terrorism, murder, and rum - and yet the book is still boring.

Ospina is the author of "Salsa, Havana Heat, Bronx Beat" (Latin America Bureau, 1995) and co-author of "The Cuban Exile Movement: Dissidents or Mercenaries?" (Ocean Press, 2000). European reviews of this so-called Bacardi expose, come complete with boycott advice: "Support Cuba and boycott Bacardi-Martini products and those closely linked with the company: Bacardi Rum; Martini; Bombay Sapphire Gin; Pommery Champagne; Dewar's, William Lawson's and Glen Deveron Whiskies; Jack Daniel's; Benedictine; and Southern Comfort." While I personally think there are better reasons for not buying Bacardi (it isn't that great of a rum and isn‘t that reason enough?), boycott may or may not be good advice. Like so many books on politically sensitive topics, it cannot even begin to live up to the claims made by supporters and in press releases. When Ospina is simply outlining the more slimy side of Bacardi as a business, he appears to be factually correct, and does a decent job; when he is outlining the aid, sometimes quite remarkable, that Bacardi has received via the U.S. taxpayer, he is reasonably good. But, these things are not the heart of the book and are not “news“. When he attempts to make the links implied by the work’s original title, and highlighted in the prologue (the CIA terrorism stuff, etc.), he is unbelievable (it might be true, but he hasn‘t the requisite evidence).

Oddly, some of Ospina’s biggest criticisms of Bacardi are as follows - and per the book title most don’t make much sense, and are obviously the result of crafty business decisions; Ospina is pro-Castro and pro-Cuban rum, in case that is not obvious, and he is dismayed by the fact that the biggest-selling rum in the world is not Cuban: (1) Prohibition did not hurt Bacardi abroad; (2) In the prohibition-era, Cuba rum could not be sold, so Bacardi gave it away to tourists, later building their market name; (3) Bacardi had always had an unfair advantage in the rum wars, since their Puerto Rican base gets them tax-free entry to the U.S., etc.; (4) Bacardi is not really Cuban rum; (5) Bacardi only entered the U.S. with offices after the war to capitalize on the recovery market; (6) Bacardi continues to receives tax-free import status as a U.S. colony; (7) Post-war, Bacardi was a U.S. product abroad, a P.R. one in the U.S., and a Cuban one at home in P.R. securing all advantages and facing no disadvantages; (8) Bacardi was, early on, made in Mexico to avoid Cuban taxes, and later operated elsewhere to avoid P.R. and/or U.S. ones; (9) Cuban attempts to nationalize Bacardi more or less failed since the company had many offices and trademarks registered abroad; (10) Bacardi is a “stateless” company with headquartered offices in Bermuda, yet it reaps the benefits of U.S. government protection; (11) Bacardi never lost the name Bacardi so they should stop with revisionist anti-Cuban histories regarding their revolutionary losses; (12) Many Bacardi distilleries produce a product which does not indicate the country of origin. While the author is mostly correct on all these counts, this is just Bacardi leadership thinking long-term and taking advantage of every offer, law, and loophole - and you don’t need the CIA’s help to do that.

Consider the Contras. They are specifically mentioned in the press releases (the passage at the outset here) and by Petras: “With Bacardi, it is a symbiotic relationship — the Government used the company to money-launder and direct funds to terrorists such as UNITA in Angola and the Contras, and Bacardi uses the US Government to enact legislation that permits economic terrorism.” The problem is that the author never shows that money was laundered. Better yet, since the Contras are mentioned so prominently, one would assume an analysis of them makes up a measurable part of this work. But, no, the entire Contra commentary takes place between pages 41 and 44, and not one single piece of useful verifiable evidence is introduced. In fact, the only statement actually linking Bacardi to the Contras is the following: “The Cuban American National Foundation played a direct role in the whole of the anti-Sandinista operations. This would include those shareholders and heads of the Bacardi multinational, who are involved in the organizations decision making process”. In other words, some major Bacardi shareholders are also Anti-Castro activists and they allegedly helped finance Contras (which he doesn‘t prove) - which is a far cry from Bacardi actually financing them. The entire work is based on leaps of logic and nearly zero evidence. The book comes with countless odd claims; here is an example: “So far, the author has not found either a written sentence or a recorded tape in which any [Bacardi] shareholder of the multinational expresses a disagreement with or a rejection of the facts presented here [in this book]". This book is obscure and reviews almost non-existent. So, why would Bacardi representatives address it, especially since the author cannot prove any of the key claims? The fact that your enemies ignore you is not proof that your thesis is correct.

The author’s bizarre sense of evidence and logic just complicate his whole story (which probably is worth telling). There are so many examples there is no reason to list them. An instance of just how weird things get is one of many claims regarding the “Bacardi family”. In chapter 10, “The Absurd: The Helms-Burton Act”, while apparently trying to show clout or power or something, he maintains that, including “Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio, both members of the Bacardi family”. Unlike many claims, this one has a footnote. If you flip to the back and check it out, this is what you find: “Emilio Estefan Jr. is a Bacardi shareholder. For twelve years Emilio worked for Bacardi as the Director of Marketing for Latin America. Gloria Estefan made her first public appearance in a small Miami nightclub called “Bacardi”, in 1975.” However, Emilio worked most years with Bacardi in their mailroom, and was later in the marketing department briefly as director but he left to devote full-time to music production - which is how he met his wife. Gloria Estefan is a Cuban exile whose father was once Cuban President Batista’s wife’s bodyguard, and he was later part of the Bay of Pigs mission. It doesn’t take much to become a full member of the Bacardi family. Apparently, every employee and every stockholder and anyone who performed in an establishment of the same name, is now on CIA-backed team Bacardi, which is owned by the Bacardi family, and was formerly managed by the Bosch family, and so the Estefan connection is that...what...?

The author needs to string together countless things like this to make is seem as though he has a case, or at least a conspiracy. There is no doubt that Bacardi is a shady company, and that their private-company status makes research difficult, especially when the alleged activities are secretive. But, that is not exactly an excuse for linking everyone to whatever sinister motive and acts the author chooses. Bacardi deserves lots of bad press (they rarely received any; too bad Castro didn‘t live up to his trademark-era threat of making a Cuban-only rum called Bacardi that would actually taste good) for their business practices (some is covered in the Wikipedia article on the company) and Bacardi’s Bosch may have been obsessed with Castro, but that is not the thesis of the book, and the book doesn’t live up to the thesis. Bosch may have used his own money in his own attempt to knock-off Castro, and if various government agencies had been pleased if he had succeeded, that does not mean Bacardi laundered money for the CIA or funded the Contras or any of these other things. The thesis, while fascinating, is never proven; the tangential issues -just what kind of company Bacardi is- are interesting, but they have been covered elsewhere. Unfortunately, the author conveniently ignores the Bacardi family's role in anti-Batista actions. In fact, early on, they helped fund Castro's militia, but such facts are not documented in this book. Also missing are facts surrounding the Bacardi funding of Eisenhower-era Cuban fact-finding missions for the U.S. State Department and American business interests (that were intended to alleviate concerns that Castro and his revolutionaries were too revolutionary, etc.) and exposes of the Batista administration. Ospina simply assumes that because the Bacardi family has been Anti-Castro, that they must be pro-CIA and anti-Communist; it is as if it never occurred to him that perhaps they were later Anti-Castro for the same reason that they were before Anti-Batista, perhaps because they are not fond of dictators ruling the country? Not all Pluto Press books are this weak, but it is not unheard of: http://www.plutobooks.com/index.html