Pre-Fidel Castro Cuba was not a trouble-free country, but it had a vibrant economy, thanks to tourism and international prices for sugar cane (the island’s main export). It also had a middle class with a good standard of living, and an intense cultural life, to the point that big names in American music, such as Frank Sinatra, performed in the venues of the capital Havana. Instead of Cubans fleeing the country in despair, as is the case today, Cuba was a point of arrival for immigrants from all over the world, who sought the local “high standard of living”, as Che Guevara himself admitted.
Even so, one cannot forget that the country lived under a violent dictatorship, commanded by Fulgêncio Batista, and that the persecution of opponents and critics of the regime was common, who suffered from arbitrary arrests and even murders. Censorship was common, and newspapers were taken out of circulation according to the dictator’s wishes. And the persecuted were not limited to the intellectual and artistic class: priests, pastors and common workers were also in Batista’s sights. Businessmen who did not support the dictator suffered retaliation.
It was in this environment of dissatisfaction with the growing hardening of the regime that some businessmen saw in Fidel Castro, Batista’s enemy, the ideal figure to put an end to this situation. It is good to remember that Castro, until then, did not show any sympathy with communism, and gave statements indicating that he would hold free elections after overthrowing the dictatorship. As Cubans would later learn in the worst possible way, none of this was true, but at the time Fidel represented the hope of a freer future.
Therefore, businessmen contributed to the revolutionary cause. Pepín Bosch, chief executive of the Bacardi distillery, gave US$38,000 to the guerrillas led by Fidel, a fabulous amount that was worth even more at the time (in current values, something around US$300,000, or R$1. 5 million). In 1957, Daniel Bacardi, owner of the distillery, even organized a business strike in the city of Santiago against Fulgêncio Batista. At the same event, the country’s biggest sugarcane producer, Julio Lobo, owner of an estimated fortune of US$ 4 billion (R$ 20 billion at current exchange rates), donated US$ 50,000 to the revolutionaries.
As Leandro Narloch and Duda Teixeira tell in the book ‘Politically Incorrect Guide to Latin America’, the American journalist Jules Debois was surprised by the support of the wealthy for Fidel Castro. “Santiago’s richest and most prominent men, most of whom have never been involved in politics, are supporting rebel Fidel Castro as a symbol of resistance to Batista,” wrote the journalist.
When the revolutionaries finally took power in early 1959, Bacardi even published a public thank you to the rebels led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. “Thank you to the people of Cuba and the Cuban Revolution. Because of their efforts and their sacrifice, we can once again say ‘What a lucky Cuban!’”
Luck would not last long. In October 1960, Julio Lobo was called in for a personal conversation with Che Guevara, then Cuba’s economy minister. Guevara informed him that there was no more room for capitalism in the country, and that all of Lobo’s assets would be nationalized. If Lobo, however, agreed to be part of the government, he could keep his mansion and one of his 14 factories. Lobo did not agree and two days later he left for the United States, where he made his fortune again. In the hands of the communist government, sugarcane production in Cuba became inefficient to the point that the country, which was the largest producer in the world, had to import tons in the following years.
In the same month, the Cuban government confiscated the properties and bank accounts of the Bacardi distillery, without any type of compensation. Founded in 1862, in 1965 the distillery was established in the city of Hamilton, capital of Bermuda. While Cuba’s economy has been faltering since the end of the Soviet Union, Bacardi is one of the biggest companies in its sector, having earned US$ 4.6 billion (R$ 23 billion) in 2021.
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