After reading "Bacardi: The Hidden War", it is very important to say that the discovery and production of Bacardi rum meant more than a profit for Cuba; it engaged the country in a hidden war that still lives today. Throughout this essay, I want to go deeper into the anti-Cuba activities of the Bacardi Rum Company, and how an entity like the CIA became involved with the Cuban American National Foundation to overthrow Fidel Castro from power. At the same time, I want to explain how all of those actions affected Cuba economically, and the fact that today this nation still lives under Castro's command, meaning that all the efforts to cause the downfall of the Cuban leader have been unsuccessful.
To understand better the anti-Cuba activities launched by the mentioned rum company, it is meaningful to talk slightly about its history. Bacardi was born in 1862 when Spanish-born wine merchant Don Facundo Bacardi Masso bought a small tin-roofed distillery in Santiago de Cuba; however, the founding family fled the country for the Bahamas in 1960 when Fidel Castro seized control of the company. Today, this brand is one of the most recognized worldwide, and its name portrays a fun drink for partygoers. Nonetheless, behind this image this empire has spent millions of dollars of its .
profits towards removing Castro and the current Cuban government, which nationalized its properties in 1959.
After Castro took total control of Cuba, the directors and even the shareholders of the company decided that attempts to destabilize this administration was the smartest way to make Cuba go on its track again; certainly Fidel was not an asset for the island. The investors of the Bacardi Company decided to set connections with the United States, and the CIA was the entity directly involved.
During the 1960's, the head of Bacardi, the late Jose Pepin Bosch, planned to bomb Cuba's oil refineries, hoping to create a blackout in the country and thus stimulate a state of national rebellion; however, the plan did not work out so new strategies became alive to bring down the system.
