WASHINGTON  Soon after Coca-Cola decided to move into Libya in 2005, it received a harsh lesson in how the personal jealousies and brutality of the feuding family of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi shape the nation’s economy.

Two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons began to fight for control of the local Coca-Cola bottling company, and their battle turned into an armed confrontation dominated by a militia loyal to one of the sons, according to American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The dispute was settled when Colonel Qaddafi’s daughter intervened, but only after at least one worker was hurt, one Qaddafi cousin was stuffed into the trunk of a car and the Coca-Cola plant was shut down for months, the cables said.

The episode provides a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Qaddafis and more broadly underscores how the whims of ruling families have tainted the climate for economic development in parts of the Arab world.

In the 1990s, with Libya chafing under international sanctions, Coca-Cola did not have a bottling plant in the country. Instead, it was distributed through a franchise in neighboring Tunisia. It was only after Colonel Qaddafi abandoned his nuclear weapons program in 2003 and sanctions were relaxed by the West that American companies, including Coca-Cola, began to invest there again. Coca-Cola’s new bottling plant opened in 2005 through a local franchise known as the Global Beverage Company.