Today, the 5,000-acre empire produces, blends, and ages the country's primo luxury rums and raises coffee, citrus, cattle, and cane. And politically, the Vollmer brothers' backgrounds could hardly, in the new world, be more old-world conservative and aristocratic. Their father was Venezuela's ambassador to the Vatican; their mother, a countess and a Palm Beach socialite.

Since taking over leadership of C.A. Ron Santa Teresa in 1999, however, President/CEO of CARST Alberto and President of Santa Teresa International Henrique have been raising cane in more ways than one - most spectacularly, through initiating corporate social responsibility initiatives so unprecedented, so ingenious, and so successful that they have already attracted attention from international political and business leaders. Most notably, their Proyecto Alcatraz, which Aragua officials estimate has cut local crime in half by rehabilitating gang members, is being used as a case study by Harvard University and nearly a dozen noted business schools in Spain and Latin America. Even Hugo Chavez, no friend to rich landowners, has praised the program as truly revolutionary, urging other businessmen to adopt similarly humanist economic approaches that might just save Venezuela.

"This country's never going to get fixed unless you fix the slums. But if you can turn this rubbish heap around, you can turn anything around," explains Alberto, who conceived Alcatraz and deliberately narrow-focuses all of Santa Teresa's social-action programs locally and beyond. "Once you set the example, you have something to show, to say, 'Look here what we did with almost no resources. Imagine what could happen with resources.' That's what we want to do, get down to the nitty-gritty facts: We did this. Don't talk, do.

"We've done one or two things," he adds modestly. "All you have to have is a good idea, no?"