11 June 2009 - The government of Venezuela on Thursday banned the sale of Coke Zero in that country, citing, as Reuters put it, "unspecified dangers to health."
"The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans," the country's health minister, Jesus Mantilla, told Coca-Cola and the world.
Coke Zero—aimed at men who are so deeply insecure about their own masculinity that they can't bring themselves to order a "diet" drink because to them it sound girly—contains two artificial sweeteners that have been deemed essentially harmless by the FDA and its counterparts around the world: aspartame and acesulfame potassium—known as Ace-K (though both sweeteners are the subject of controversy concerning their health effects).
One or both of those ingredients, we are left to presume, are the ostensible reasons for the ban. But the real reason likely has something to do with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's publicity campaign against America and, in particular, the American corporations that fill his country and serve his people with products and services.
"Despite Chavez's anti-capitalist policies and rhetoric against consumerism," Reuters noted, "oil-exporting Venezuela remains one of Latin America's most Americanized cultures, with U.S. fast-food chains, shopping malls and baseball all highly popular."
Earlier this year, Venezuela took control of a rice mill and a pasta factory owned by the U.S. company Cargill. Cargill is massive and has tentacles extending throughout the global food chain, but it doesn't create the same buzz as an attack on the iconic Coke. And going after Coke Zero, which was introduced in the country only last April, doesn't seem likely to create as much internal protest as going after the company's flagship brands—Coke Classic and Diet Coke—would.
Coca-Cola Femsa, the Mexican bottler that distributes Coke products in Venezuela, was the target of labor protests there last year, with workers blocking entry to its plants demanding back pay.