Review
In
The Sugar King of Havana, John Paul Rathbone tells about the rise and fall of sugar mogul Julio Lobo, one of Cuba's most powerful and wealthiest businessmen in the decades before the Cuban Revolution. Lobo's fortune made him more than just rich; in a country where, today, personal wealth and property ownership is illegal, Lobo's affluence elevated him to legendary status. As Rathbone explains, "In Havana today to have Croesus-like wealth is referred to as
ser rico como un Julio Lobo - to be as rich as a Julio Lobo. After almost five decades of communism… he has become emblematic of a way of life that existed… before Castro's revolution did away with such men." And certainly the events of Lobo's life - glamorous love affairs, extreme financial risks (with both positive and negative outcomes), numerous attempts on his life, an unyielding entrepreneurial drive,...
Beyond the Book
In
The Sugar King of Havana John Paul Rathbone describes one of the most successful and cunning business moves of Julio Lobo's career - a manipulation of FDR's Good Neighbor Policy which, according to Eduardo Kaplan of
The Wall Street Journal, "placed [Lobo] in a different league."
As part of the Good Neighbor Policy, FDR enacted The Jones-Costigan Act in May of 1934. This act set up an agreement between the U.S., its sugar-producing "insular territories" (such as Hawaii and The Philippines) and overseas sugar producers - Cuba (headed by Lobo) being of particular importance here. Among other things, this agreement allowed Washington to assess the sugar needs of the US and institute a quota system in which each country would be assured...
