The Venezuelan government under outspoken U.S.-critic Hugo Chavez has banned Coke Zero from the South American country, citing unspecified dangers to health.
This couldn t possibly be an actual health issue, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. ACSH s Jeff Stier recalls similar, politically motivated threats to American marketing abroad, which he related in a Forbes article last March: At first glance, this looks like the familiar old junk science used to justify protectionism, but it s not protectionism, it s strictly political. Chavez is known to dislike American industry.