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CubaBrief: Bacardi environmental stewardship recognized while Castro regime's rum maker harm's Cuba's, yet a travesty continues https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 1/
Bacardi is in the news again. The rum maker founded in 1862 in Santiago de Cuba has a positive track record on environmental stewardship that has again been recognized. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 2/
Bacardi USA was awarded the SmartWay® Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the fourth time. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 3/
Meanwhile, the Castro regime continues to sell their stolen version of Havana Club, that today "pumps 1,288 cubic meters of waste liquids into the Chipriona inlet in Cuba every day, mostly vinasse. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 4/
It has been doing that since the 1990s, although the problems became more acute starting in 2007," according to Julio Batista in his 2017 report described the impact of this pollution as follows: https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 5/
"The Chipriona inlet is a place where no one goes, where no one fishes, that doesn't need a fence because no one wants to swim in the boiling filth that flows into its waters every day." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 6/
"The waters of what used to be a beach are now soupy and have the sour smell of decomposition. No studies about the marine life in the inlet are publicly available, but fishermen say there's no fish there." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 7/
..."In the last decade, Chipriona has become the drainage point for the Ronera Sana Cruz, the biggest distillery in the country and one of the four owned by Cuba Ron S.A." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 8/
"It's the end point of the sewage of the only place where the white and 3-year-old brands are distilled by Havana Club International (HCI)." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 8/
"And the dumping ground for a company that earned $118.5 million in profits in 2016 from the sale of 4.2 million boxes each with nine liters of rum." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 9/
Despite the Castro regime's poor record on environmental stewardship and overall terrible record on human rights the United States in 2016 stripped Bacardi of its right to the Havana Club brand & turned it over to a company of the Castro dictatorship. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 10/
According to @Reuters, "in January, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decided to allow Cuban state firm Cubaexport to register the Havana Club name once again in the United States." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 11/
. @Bacardi "acquired the rights to the @RealHavanaClub trademark from its pre-revolutionary owner whose distillery was nationalized" by the communist regime. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 12/
Ambassador @OttoReich, president of the Center for a Free Cuba, on January 31, 2020 in @MiamiHerald called on the United States to undo this wrong that continues to favor the Castro dictatorship and gutted the rights of a Cuban family business. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 13/
"The Obama administration allowed Cuba to renew an expired trademark registration for the confiscated Havana Club rum." https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 14/
"The Trump administration should reverse that action & demonstrate to unscrupulous foreign companies the grave risks to economic deals w/ a regime that has stolen billions of dollars in properties from Americans & Cubans, & thus stop dishonestly enriching the Cuban govt." 15/
This action by the United States in 2016 against Bacardi, and in favor of the Castro dictatorship was a deeply unpopular move for Cubans with a sense of history. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 16/
Business Insider on October 28, 2020 broadcast a podcast on "Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba" that explored the company's history back to Cuba's colonial period under Spain in the 1870s. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 17/
Emilio Bacardi, son of 1 of the 2 founders of Bacardi, Don Emilio Bacardi, "was a field officer for Gen. Antonio Maceo in 1895 during the invasion of Cuba by independence forces, & reached the rank of colonel by the age of 22," according to his @NYTimes obituary on 10/16/72. 18/
Emilio Bacardi Lay died at the age of 95 in exile in Miami. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 19/
He was "the last surviving ranking officer of Cuba's war of independence with Spain," according to the paper of record. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 20/
The Bacardi family throughout the struggle for independence, and during the years of the Republic defended democracy and Cuban national identity, and remain a historic example. They also resisted all of Cuba's dictators: Machado, Batista and Castro. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 21/
This is in stark contrast to the history of the Castro family. Fidel Castro's father, Angel Castro, enlisted in the Spanish army and arrived in Cuba to defend Spain's colonial possession from forces battling for independence. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 22/
He returned with the Spanish armed forces to the Iberian Peninsula following their defeat in 1898, but shortly after emigrated to Cuba and established himself there. This allegiance to Spain would continue through his sons Fidel and Raul Castro. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 23/
In 2016 TV3 produced a documentary "Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship" that explored this relationship between the two dictators and is available online. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 24/
The documentary revealed how pro-Castro Cuban exiles were able to celebrate Fidel Castro's triumph in 1959 with a mass protest in Retiro Park in Spain. This was at a time when Spaniards could not do that. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 25/
Latin American Herald Tribune reported on this and more regarding the TV3 production. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 26/
Also revealing are accounts by Castro revolutionaries who said that during their struggle against Batista their lives were saved thanks to the help of the Spanish Embassy. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 27/
As well as images of Ernesto "Che" Guevara walking in Madrid & attending a bullfight with members of Franco's secret police. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 28/
Following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the US pushed for tight economic sanctions on the Castro regime, the rest of Latin America, France and the United Kingdom all went along with Washington, but Franco's Spain continued trading with Havana. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 29/
Following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the US pushed for tight economic sanctions on the Castro regime, the rest of Latin America, France and the United Kingdom all went along with Washington, but Franco's Spain continued trading with Havana. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 30/
On Franco's death in 1975, Fidel Castro decreed three days of mourning in Cuba, although he made sure that it went unnoticed by the press, it was an official decree signed by Cuban president Oswaldo Dorticós.
https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 31/
https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 31/
This relationship with the Spanish dictator should not be a surprise when one considers that the Castro regime had a close working relationship with former high ranking Nazis.
https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 32/
https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 32/
This is why the United States siding with the Castro dictatorship in an issue of private property rights against Bacardi is so deeply offensive, and needs to be remedied. Cuban Americans and Cubans on the island would remember this gesture. https://www.cubacenter.org/archives/2020/11/11/cubabrief-bacardi-environmental-stewardship-recognized-while-castro-regimes-rum-maker-harms-cubas-yet-a-travesty-continues 33/
