During the Cold War, much of the world was divided into
two camps: the democracies and the communist nations. While there were
definite rifts and disagreements within each camp, by and large, the gulf
between the two sides was even larger. In an effort to exert economic
pressure against the "evil empire," the United States and
its NATO allies often boycotted the Soviet Union and those nations under
its thumb. As a result, the communist Eastern European nations traded
amongst themselves, occasionally looping Cuba into the mix.
Cuba, though, didn't have as robust an economy as other nations. And when
the Cold War ended, Cuba had a problem: a lot of debt and not a lot of
cash.
By the time 2016 came around, Cuba owed Czechoslovakia the
equivalent of about $270 million. There were two problems, though: first,
Cuba didn't have the money, and second, Czechoslovakia no longer
existed. The second part was easily resolved, as the Czech Republic,
one of Czechoslovakia's successor states, inherited the owed debt.
But that didn't change the fact that Cuba couldn't meet its
financial obligations.
Instead, it tried to get the Czechs very, very drunk.
As the Guardian reported, Cuba asked to pay up not in cash,
but in goods. Cuba's proposal was made up predominantly
of rum -- a lot of rum. According to Atlas Obscura, the Cuban
government offered "around 135,000 tons of rum or
enough for 130 years of Czech consumption." (And that's saying
something -- per the Guardian, the Czech Republic is the "country
with the highest per capita beer consumption in the world" and had
already imported nearly 900 tons of Cuban rum the year prior.)
Crazy? Maybe, but not everyone thought the offer was so
ridiculous. Bloomberg News suggested that the offer "isn't as
weird as it sounds" as you can always try to sell the rum to
recoup some of the debt. One economist went on record to endorse the
deal, saying that Czechs should take the offer
for similar reasons, and also noting that it wasn't like Cuba was going
to suddenly have the cash any time soon. And the Czech government
didn't reject it out of hand, either. Food and Wine explains:
Czech deputy finance minister
Lenka Dupakova reportedly described the offer as “an interesting option”
– which might speak more to Czech skepticism that Cuba can repay its
debts at all than to the Eastern European country’s love of rum.
From a logistics standpoint, Dupakova was specifically concerned about
how the rum would sell. “These are relatively unknown brands which might
be good, but we would have to advertise them and generally launch them
into the market,” she said.
Ultimately, though, more sober
minds prevailed. As of the close of 2016, the Czech government had not
formally responded to Cuba's offer, and the debt appears to remain
unpaid.
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