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Still,
the poisonings have been
linked to six lesser guaro
brands, raising the
possibility of tampering.
/ Ministry of Health courtesy
photo.
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Many questions
unanswered in wave
of guaro poisonings
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A rash of poisonings and deaths
have been linked to bootlegged
alcohol, and this puts the
spotlight on the hidden market for
cheap drinks.
Investigators have not released
any information that might suggest
otherwise. Still, the poisonings
have been linked to six lesser
guaro brands, raising the
possibility of tampering.
No expat seems to have been
identified as a victim of the
recent wave of methanol illnesses
that began in January, according
to Social Security, which runs the
hospitals and clinics. Despite
warnings from this agency and also
the Ministry of Health, victims
keep showing up for treatment.
Medical teams handled 36 cases
Friday, and two persons had to be
hospitalized, Social Security
said.
Deaths and illnesses have been
blamed on counterfeit guaro, the
alcohol that is the popular and
low-priced product of sugar cane.
The suspect alcohol comes from six
brands that can be found on store
shelves, according to Social
Security and the Ministry of
Health. The Fábrica Nacional de
Licores is a state-run company
that produces Cacique, the
dominant guaro brand. So far this
brand has not been linked to the
illnesses and deaths. There may
already be as many as 19 deaths.
Cacique is the only brand of guaro
that is not being swept off the
shelves by police and health
inspectors. Thousands of bottles
have been confiscated, the Health
Ministry said. Merchants are
prohibited from selling these
brands.
If you see four men gathered
around a restaurant table watching
a soccer game, it's a good bet
that there is a bottle of Cacique
in their midst. The alcohol is
called aguardiente in most other
countries.
This is not a refined drink,
although a guaro sour is possible.
There also is something called
chiliguaro, made with chilis and
often served with tomato juice and
lemon. The clear liquid is similar
to vodka but with a distinctive
and sweeter taste. This generally
is not the alcohol of choice of
expats and tourists. This is what
men drink to get drunk. The
Fábrica Nacional says its product,
made in Rincón de Salas, Grecia,
is just 60 proof. Somehow the
drink produces an impact far
greater than the label would
suggest. The first to go are the
knees.
Guaro comes in 350-milliliter
plastic bottles, so-called
pachitas, the cheapest way to buy
alcohol in the country. There also
are larger glass bottles. The
drink is not to be confused with
Ron Cacique, the Venezuelan rum
with a similar name.
The brands that have been linked
to poisoning with methanol are
Guaro Montano, Baron Rojo
Aguardiente, Timbuka Aguardiente,
Molotov Aguardiente, Guaro Gran
Apache and Aguardiente Estrella
Roja. These are legitimate brands,
but they also are competitors to
the financially troubled Fábrica
Nacional, which once was a state
monopoly.
The Fábrica Nacional also produces
two types of rum, a vodka, a
slightly stronger Cacique Superior
and gin. Less well-known products
include a crème de menthe, triple
sec, anisette and a chocolate
liqueur called Cáfe Tico.
Social Security said Friday that
it is treating victims with an
unidentified antidote and that it
is seeking an alternative antidote
from the Panamanian Health
Organization. There has been no
report of arrests, despite the
long-running health threat.
Bootlegging has been identified as
one reason the Fábrica Nacional is
in financial trouble. The other
reason is the smuggling of untaxed
alcohol, mostly from Nicaragua or
Panamá. Police report stopping
trucks full of smuggled alcohol
nearly every week.
The Fábrica Nacional says that it
ages the guaro it produces. So
there is an incentive for
bootleggers who can ignore this
step and produce counterfeit
bottles rapidly. This is a big
health issue all over the world.
If done badly, the resultant
ethanol can be laced with
methanol, the kind of alcohol used
for disinfecting. Methanol is bad
for internal organs and may cause
cramps and serious stomach issues
just a few hours after being
ingested.
In the last few months, at least a
dozen U.S. citizens, vacationing
tourists, have died in the
Dominican Republic. The culprit is
believed to be bootlegged alcohol
that somehow made its way to hotel
minibars. Certainly there is a
financial incentive for those who
sell alcohol to purchase cut-rate
bootlegged products. There has
been no study reported to date on
the extent of counterfeit alcohol
in the Costa Rican market.
However, reporters did find a
possible case of fake scotch with
a popular brand name one
Christmas. The bottles had been
purchased from a legitimate
outlet.
In Costa Rica adulterated alcohol
was the reason cited when the
government took over production in
1850. That action led to the
creation of the Fábrica Nacional,
which once was located in the
heart of San José, just east of
what is now Seventh Avenue. The Escuela
Metalica*, the elementary
school, and Parque España now
stand where there once was a lake
that produced water for making
guaro. The National Center of
Culture, the present Culture
Ministry, is the building where
the alcohol was produced until
1981. Visitors still can see
machinery and pipes used to make
alcohol.
The Grecia plant is the reason
motorists can see large wagon
loads of sugar cane on the nearby
highways at harvest time.
The Fábrica Nacional says that its
guaro undergoes 70 types of tests
during production. The Costa Rican
Supreme Court ended the state
monopoly held by the Fábrica
Nacional in 2006. Until then the
only competition was from a few
brands whose marketers purchased
guaro in bulk from the Fábrica
Nacional for resale. Most of the
brands listed in the health
warning appear to be imports, and
one, Aguardiente Barón Rojo, has
not even been listed with the
Ministry of Health, suggesting any
bottles in Costa Rica have been
smuggled.
The Fábrica Nacional and its
parent agency, the National
Production Council, have reported
massive confiscations of imported
bulk guaro that was found to be
adulterated.
Methanol can be produced
accidentally in the distillation
process. Most alcohols have this
in trace amounts. Some producers
deliberately mix in some methanol
to give their product a boost,
according to online sources. In
addition, producers can add
methanol to make their product not
suitable for human consumption, as
in the case of medical alcohol.
Doing so also avoids taxes levied
on drinking alcohol. The human
body produces formaldehyde from
methanol in the digestive process.
That does the damage. Methanol
adulteration can be detected by
smell and more precisely by a
chemical test.
Bootleggers is Costa Rica are very
good at counterfeiting bottles of
alcohol. The bottle is identical.
So is the label, thanks to modern
printing processes. And untaxed
cases can be sold much cheaper
than the Fábrica Nacional brands.
Also possible is that counterfeit
brands can be imported because
they are identical to foreign
brands that already have been
registered with the Ministry of
Health. Some of these fakes may
originate distant from Central
America.
A counterfeit operation would have
to be massive because so far the
looks and labels of six brands
have been reported as fakes.
A third possibility that no
official wants to address is that
someone is adulterating brands of
guaro with tiny market shares as
the bottles sit on the merchant's
shelf. Deaths have been all over
the country, including one in
Limón, according to Social
Security. And methanol poisoning
has been attributed to six brands,
sparing only the Cacique label.
The counterfeit problem is so bad
internationally that an
organization, SafeProof.org*,
has been set up to monitor reports
of poisonings.
The A.M. Costa Rica team keep
asking readers to share this alert
among their contacts.
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Do you know if these brands of
liquor are being sold in your
community?
We would
like to know your thoughts on this
story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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