When George W. Bush was first running
for governor of Texas, Washington editor David Corn took a look at Bush
family activities on behalf of Enron in Argentina--itself now suffering
the results of untamed financial markets. We reprint this November 21,
1994, article to show how Enron's connections with the Bushes stretch
not just to Washington but around the world.
SEVERAL years ago, says Rodolfo Terragno, a former Argentine Cabinet Minister,
he received a telephone call from George W. Bush, son of the then-Vice
President. When he hung up, Terragno was annoyed, he recalls, for the
younger Bush had tried to exploit his family name to pressure Terragno
to award a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron, an
American firm close to the Bush clan.
During this past year, as George W. campaigned across Texas to replace
Governor Ann Richards, he portrayed himself as a successful businessman
who relied on "individual initiative," not his lineage. Contacted
in Buenos Aires, Terragno, now a member of the Chamber of Deputies, offered
an account that challenges Bush's campaign image.
In 1988, Terragno was the Minister of Public Works and Services in the
government of President Raúl Alfonsín. He oversaw large
industrial projects, and his government was considering construction of
a pipeline to stretch across Argentina and transport natural gas to Chile.
Several US firms were interested, including the Houston-based Enron, the
largest natural gas pipeline company in the United States. But Terragno
was upset with the corporation's representatives in Argentina. They were
pressing Terragno for a deal in which the state-owned gas company would
sell Enron natural gas at an extremely low price, and, he recalls, they
pitched their project with a half-page proposal--one so insubstantial
that Terragno couldn't take it seriously. Terragno let the Enron agents
know he was not happy with them.
It was then, Terragno says, that he received the unexpected call from
George W. Bush, who introduced himself as the son of the Vice President.
(The elder Bush was then campaigning for the presidency.) George W., Terragno
maintains, told the minister that he was keen to have Argentina proceed
with the pipeline, especially if it signed Enron for the deal. "He
tried to exert some influence to get that project for Enron," Terragno
asserts. "He assumed that the fact he was the son of the [future]
President would exert influence.... I felt pressured. It was not proper
for him to make that kind of call."
George W. did not detail his relationship with the pipeline project or
with Enron, according to Terragno. The Argentine did not know that Enron
and the Bush set are cozy. President Bush is an old friend of Kenneth
Lay, Enron head for the past ten years and a major fundraiser for President
Bush. After the 1992 election left Secretary of State (and Bush pal) James
Baker jobless, he signed as a consultant for Enron. An article by Seymour
Hersh in The New Yorker last year disclosed that Neil Bush, another presidential
son (the one cited by federal regulators for conflict-of-interest violations
regarding a failed savings and loan), had attempted to do business with
Enron in Kuwait. The Enron company and the family of its top officers
have donated at least $100,000 to
George W. Bush's gubernatorial campaign. Shortly after Terragno's conversation
with George W., more Bush-related pressure descended on him, the former
minister claims. Terragno says he was paid a visit by the US Ambassador
to Argentina, Theodore Gildred. A wealthy California developer appointed
ambassador by President Reagan, Gildred was always pushing Terragno to
do business with US companies. This occasion, Terragno notes, was slightly
different, for Gildred cited George W. Bush's support for the Enron project
as one reason Terragno should back it.
"It was a subtle, vague message," Terragno says, "that
[doing what George W. Bush wanted] could help us with our relationship
to the United States." Terragno did not OK the project, and the Alfonsín
administration came to an end in 1989. Enron was luckier with the next
one. The pipeline was approved by the administration of President Carlos
Saúl Menem, leader of the Peronist Party and a friend of President
Bush. (The day after Menem was inaugurated, Neil Bush played a highly
publicized game of tennis in Buenos Aires with Menem.) Argentine legislators
complained that Menem cleared the pipeline project for development before
economic feasibility studies were prepared.
Replying to a list of questions from The Nation asking whether George
W. Bush spoke to Terragno about the pipeline project and whether he had
any business relationship with Enron, Bush's gubernatorial campaign issued
a terse statement: "The answer to your questions are no and none.
Your questions are apparently addressed to the wrong person." This
blanket denial covered one question that inquired if George W. Bush had
ever discussed any oil or natural gas projects with any Argentine official.
George W.'s response on this point is contradicted by a 1989 article in
the Argentine newspaper La Nacion that reported he met that year with
Terragno to discuss oil investments. (The newspaper noted that this meeting
took place in Argentina, but Terragno says he saw Bush in Texas.)
Theodore Gildred, a private developer again, is traveling in Argentina;
his office says he is unavailable. An Enron spokesperson comments, "Enron
has not had any business dealings with George W. Bush, and we don't have
any knowledge that he was involved in a pipeline project in Argentina."
In late August, several members of the Chamber of Deputies--Terragno not
among them--submitted a request for information, calling on President
Menem to answer dozens of questions about the business activities of the
Bush family in Argentina. (In 1987, Neil Bush created a subsidiary of
his oil company to conduct business there. In early August, a Buenos Aires
newspaper reported that on a forthcoming trip to Argentina the former
President would lobby the Menem government to allow a US company to build
a casino there. The onetime President said this was not true.)
One of the deputies' queries was, Does Menem know whether George W. Bush
attempted to capitalize in Argentina on his father's position? So far
Menem has not responded.