An instrument for violating the spirit and the letter of U.S. law

• The recent decision by the government of George W. Bush —in the name of the blockade — robs Cuba and France of the U.S. market for the well-known Havana Club rum.

BY GABRIEL MOLINA

THE liquor company Bacardi was accused for the second time this year of using its corporate resources to influence U.S. politics.

The organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which monitors political corruption, said in a press released that it has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) regarding Senator Bill Nelson and Senator Mel Martínez, Bush’s former housing secretary, charging them with having illegally accepted more than $60,000 each from the Bacardi beverage company for their Senate election campaigns.

Bacardi violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and FEC regulations, CREW alleges, by soliciting contributions from a list of the corporation’s vendors for these campaigns, and for using corporate funds to pay for food and beverages at campaign events held in the company’s corporate headquarters on May 11, 2004 for Martínez and September 30, 2005 for Nelson.

The watchdog group first filed the complaint against Bacardi USA on August 7, and the latest one includes the charges against Nelson.

The complaint alleges that Bacardi violated these laws and regulations using the same list of clients to solicit contributions for Nelson and Martínez.

Likewise, it names at least 10 employees of Hunton & Williams and the MWW Group, Bacardi affiliates that made contributions to both politicians in response to these solicitations.

One of the most serious aspects of the influence-peddling carried out by Bacardi is that of its motives, a circumstance that aggravates crimes of any nature.

U.S. COMPANIES NOW DOUBLY HIT BY “EMBARGO�?

The recent decision by the George W. Bush government allowing the Bacardi company to take over the Havana Club rum trademark in the United States under the pretext of the laws of the blockade coincides with these accusations against Bush’s former secretary, Martínez.

When the contribution to Martínez’ Senate campaign was exposed in August, he – in response to an appeal by the company – admitted to the FEC that he broke the law by using corporate funds to pay for campaign expenses. That is why he was fined $750 “for not informing in a timely fashion about campaign contributions.�?

Martínez broke electoral laws, CREW says, by failing to identify the employer of Bacardi executives Eduardo Sardiña, Bacardi USA chief executive officer, and Frederick Wilson, the company’s general counsel, for contributing $5,000 to his Senate campaign. The watchdog group is also demanding that the FEC conduct an investigation and audit of Martínez’ Senate campaign for the entire 2003-2004 election cycle.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said at the time that the situation is “an archetypal example of how special interests use corporate money to buy influence in Washington.�?

She added that just like the FEC recently fined Freddie Mac $3.4 million for using corporate resources and facilities to finance candidates for U.S. office, given the evidence of apparent complicity between Martínez and Bacardi in hiding the company’s role in raising that money, any fine should total more than $100,000. “We firmly believe�? that an investigation and audit by the FEC are needed, she affirmed.

The CREW announcement regarding its complaint took place 24 hours before the daily Wall Street Journal published an August 8 article noting that Bacardi was about to re-launch a Havana Club rum brand on the U.S. market.

The U.S. Treasury Department cleared the way for Bacardi by refusing to grant the French/Cuban company Havana Club International the license it needed to renew the ownership of the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The joint enterprise formed by the Pernod Ricard and Cuba Ron companies distributes Havana Club rum everywhere in the world except for the United States. There, despite the company’s ownership of the trademark rights since 1974, sale of the rum is prohibited under the laws of the blockade against Cuba – the ill-named trade embargo.

A U.S. court conceded that right to Bacardi in 1999, but the Cuban/French company continued the fight by appealing to another U.S. federal agency. However, a decision by the Bush government in August prohibiting Havana Club International from paying to renew the license, opened the illegal road for Bacardi, going over the court’s mandate and violating the letter and spirit of the laws that protect trademark ownership on the international market.

Senator Martínez, together with Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Díaz-Balart — also Cuban-Americans — is known for representing Bacardi’s interests in the government and in Congress, despite the thousands of U.S. companies that are affected by not being able to demand trademark rights.

He has represented them so well, in fact, that the so-called Helms-Burton law — financed by Bacardi and put forward by this group in 1996 —, which gives the U.S. Congress the right to decide when a future Cuban government might meet the requirements to be considered democratically elected, is widely known in trade and political circles as the Bacardi law.

The Bacardi law, the ugly offspring of the anti-Cuba blockade, is a notorious example of how the so-called embargo is used to violate the letter and spirit of U.S. law, harming other U.S. companies that are thus prevented from doing trade with Cuba. And for corrupting the country’s officials and legislators.