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enabled them to combine cheap labor costs with direct entry into the American market. But, post-WWII, with the whiff of Revolution in the air, far more ominous changes loomed. Although the family initially supported Castro and his rugged band of Cuban patriots in the late 1950s (a banner on Bacardí’s Havana HQ greeted the rebels with a cordial Gracias Fidel!), they quickly changed tack when the new Cuban leader began nationalizing businesses island-wide in 1960. Abandoning a 100-year tradition, the company was promptly relocated overseas, lock, stock and rum-filled barrel.

From self-imposed exile, the Bacardí clan has become a vociferous voice in the powerful anti-Castro movement in the US and gained rum-slinging notoriety for their alleged sponsorship of dubious far-right groups and other clandestine political operations.

In the early 1960s, the family purportedly attempted to sponsor a plot to bomb Cuban oil refineries and thus spark a countrywide insurrection, until their cover was blown by a front-page story in the New York Times. A couple of years later, Bacardí boss and one-time Fidel pal, José Pepin Bosch, is alleged to have bankrolled a CIA plot to assassinate the Castro brothers and Che Guevara using Mafia hit men.

Despite the ongoing political fisticuffs, Bacardí has remained the world’s most popular rum, selling more than 240 million bottles annually in 170 countries. Ironically, one of the few countries where you still won’t find any of its alcoholic beverages is Cuba.

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While it’s not as swanky as its modern Bahamas HQ, the original Bacardí Rum Factory (Fábrica de Ron; Map; Av Jesús Menéndez), opened in 1868, oozes history. Spanish-born founder Don Facundo dreamt up the world-famous Bacardí bat symbol after finding a colony of the winged mammals living in the factory’s rafters. Although the family fled the island after the Revolution, the Cuban government has continued to make traditional rum here – the signature Ron Caney brand coupled with smaller amounts of Ron Santiago and Ron Varadero. In total, the factory knocks out nine million liters a year, 70% of which is exported. There are currently no factory tours, but the Barrita de Ron Caney (Map; 62-55-76; Av Jesús Menéndez No 703; 9am-6pm), a tourist bar attached to the factory, offers rum sales and tastings. A great billboard opposite the station announces Santiago’s modern battle cry: Rebelde ayer, hospitalaria hoy, heroica siempre (Rebellious yesterday, hospitable today, heroic always).

Cuartel Moncada & Around

Santiago’s famous Cuartel Moncada (Moncada Barracks; Map) is named after Guillermón Moncada, a War of Independence fighter who was held prisoner here in 1874, though these days the name is more synonymous with one of history’s greatest failed putsches.

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MONCADA – 26/7

Glorious call to arms or poorly enacted putsch – the 1953 attack on Santiago’s Moncada Barracks, while big on bravado, came to within a hair’s breadth of destroying Castro’s nascent revolutionary movement before the ink was even dry on the manifesto.

With his political ambitions decimated by Batista’s 1952 coup, Castro – who had been due to represent the Orthodox Party in the canceled elections – quickly decided to pursue a more direct path to power by swapping the ballot box for a rifle.

Handpicking and training 116 men and two women from Havana and its environs, the combative Fidel, along with his trusty lieutenant, Abel Santamaría, began to put together a plan so secret that even his younger brother Raúl was initially kept in the dark.

The aim was to storm the Cuartel Moncada, a sprawling military barracks in Santiago in Cuba’s seditious Oriente region with a shabby history as a Spanish prison. Rather than make an immediate grab for power, Castro’s more savvy plan was to capture enough ammunition to escape up into the Sierra Maestra from where he and Santamaría planned to spearhead a wider popular uprising against Batista’s malignant Mafia-backed government.

Castro chose Moncada because it was the second-biggest army barracks in the