Coca-Cola: Latin America's Second Religion

By Kari Lydersen, LiP Magazine. Posted May 28, 2002.

If you were to choose a poster boy for neoliberalism and unfettered free trade in Latin America, a good choice would be cowboy capitalist Vicente Fox, the president of Mexico. When Fox, of the pro-business PAN party, won the election in 1999, he ended the 71-year stranglehold of the institutional PRI party. Fox's election was heralded by both U.S. businessmen and government officials and Mexican citizens across the economic spectrum as the dawning of a new era for Mexico. Mexicans were hopeful that the charming businessman in boots would usher in a new era of democracy and stability in the country and bring Mexico into the economic First World.

U.S. interests were also glowing at the prospect of having free trade -- and U.S-friendly Fox in office. From the start, Fox showed himself to be a proponent of free trade pushing for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement and the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) trade corridor.

Fox played up his macho Mexican image during the election, but his training for the presidency didn't come on a ranch; it came plotting the success of a sugary brown soft drink, earning him the nickname, "Coca-Cola Kid."

Fox became an executive at Coca-Cola de Mexico after graduating with a business degree from Mexico's Universidad Iberamericana in 1964. He stayed with the company for 15 years.

In a 1999 New York Times interview, Fox said, "Working at Coca-Cola was my second university education. I learned that the heart of a business is out in the field, not in the office. I learned strategy, marketing, financial management, optimization of resources. I learned not to accept anything but winning."

Refreshment or Religion?

And Coke certainly has been winning its battle for the mouths and hearts of Latin America, as well as North America, Asia and basically the entire world.

Christmas time in Ecuador, a heavily Catholic nation, finds the cities and campos of the country awash in nativity scenes and sparkling lights. But even more than traditional Christmas decorations, Christmas in Ecuador means Coca-Cola.

El Malecon 2000, the beautiful new "millennium park" in the city of Guayaquil, sports a huge Christmas tree covered in oversize Coke bottle caps, next to a larger than life diorama of the famous Coca-Cola polar bear. Nearby a full size model cabin shows a homey scene complete with Coca-Cola curtains in the windows, posters of Coca-Cola on the walls and of course bottles of Coke on the table and in the refrigerator. In upscale malls in the city, the department store Santas are decked out in Coca-Cola regalia.

All the Coca-Cola/Christmas synergy is appropriate, because Coca-Cola could truly be called the second religion of much of Latin America.

Sentimental Coke T.V. ads showing people in remote areas all over the world happily guzzling the sweet brown beverage are not far from the truth -- from the remote jungle areas of Chiapas, Mexico to the Andean slopes of Ecuador; from the tiny thatch-roofed roadside towns of Bolivia and Peru to the sparkling major metropolises of Chile and Argentina, Coke is all over Latin America. Not only the beverage itself, but an infinite number of ads that blanket everything from billboards to shacks to government buildings to the concrete walls along mountain roadways.

While the ads essentially claim that opening a bottle of Coke is like an instant recipe for joy and community, Coke has had a far from beneficial effect on Latin America. For starters, Coke is very expensive for the average wage earner in most Latin American countries. Whether in Mexico, Ecuador or Honduras, a one-serving bottle will often cost between 40 and 70 cents, while the average worker only makes $5 a day or less.

Nonetheless, average daily consumption in most of Latin America is close to one serving a day.

Some may remember the grade school science project where you leave a tooth in a cup of Coca-Cola and watch it disintegrate in front of your eyes. In a region where only a tiny percent of people have access to dental care, this is no small problem.

If the cultural, health and economic problems with Coke's colonization of Latin America weren't bad enough, it also has a labor record that puts even most other multinational companies to shame. In Guatemala and Colombia, there is strong evidence that the Coca-Cola company actively supported the murders of union activists by paramilitary members at bottling plants run by its subsidiaries and contractors over the years. In Mexico, El Salvador and other countries there have also been ample allegations of the company using paramilitary strength to prevent unionizing and keep employees in line.

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