Consumer
Rum Seller Shows How Capitalism Thrives in Socialist Venezuela
- Alberto Vollmer targets a 40% increase in overseas sales
- He’s also advising the government on business climate
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Venezuela’s socialist government has dogged almost all of Alberto Vollmer’s 25-year career as the head of Ron Santa Teresa, the country’s biggest rum maker.
Bureaucrats allowed squatters to take over a third of his land with impunity. The Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro administrations oversaw currency declines that left the bolivar all but worthless. The economic disaster they unleashed devastated demand for consumer goods.