Wikileaks: Fanjuls among 'sugar barons' who 'muscled' lawmakers to kill free trade deal

[RockaFowler]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/wikileaks-fanjuls-among-sugar-barons-who-muscled-lawmakers-2074022.html

Growers were likely bribing Dominican lawmakers, sponsoring anti-American attack ads and paying for slanted newspaper coverage, American diplomats alleged in secret dispatches to Washington in 2004 - documents obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by The Palm Beach Post.

The cables outline just one side of a high-stakes and contentious debate, but they contain controversial allegations against Palm Beach County's most influential sugar family: the Fanjuls.

The diplomats identified the Cuban expatriates as especially fierce opponents in the fight over the free trade agreement, a struggle that led to layoffs and a mill closing in the Glades.

On one side, the Fanjuls, owners of 155,000 acres in Palm Beach County and among the largest sugar producers in the world, and other Dominican sugar growers bridled at what they viewed as "heavy-handed" and "dictatorial" tactics by the U.S. ambassador and at American pandering to special interests.

more at the link . . .

[xchrom]

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