http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/03/argentina.htmlexcerpt:
A few weeks after the U.S. presidential election in 1988, Terragno received a phone call from a failed Texas oilman named George W. Bush, who happened to be the son of the president-elect. "He told me he had recently returned from a campaign tour with his father," the Argentine minister recalls. The purpose of the call was clear: to push Terragno to accept the bid from Enron.
"He was taking a moment to call me because he knew that I was dealing with this," says Terragno, adding that Bush told him that he "viewed with some concern the slow pace of the Enron project." According to Terragno, the president-elect's son noted that a deal with Enron "would be very favorable for Argentina and its relations with the United States."
When a brief report on the attempt to influence the Argentine deal appeared in The Nation and the Texas Observer years later, the Bush team reacted angrily. His staff produced a copy of his day planner to show that Bush never placed the phone call, and a top-level adviser personally called reporters to dismiss the story as a fantasy by "some guy in Argentina." Bush's staff continues to deny his involvement, and no other media outlet ever reported on the episode, despite the high-ranking source.
More than a decade later, Terragno still recalls details of the phone call clearly -- as well as his outrage. "It looked bad and it surprised me," he says. "There was this political endorsement, apparently from the White House. I don't know if George Bush the father was aware of it, or if it was only a business contact by his son, who hoped that his family name would have some influence."
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http://www.zmag.org/content/GlobalEconomics/enron_argentina.cfmDo a quick search of the Web on the terms Enron and Argentina and you mostly get either references comparing the two, or a recent satire in which Kenneth Lay claims immunity by claiming Enron IS Argentina. You might even stumble on the Mother Jones article detailing Dubya's lobbying of the Argentinian government on behalf of Enron when he was governor of Texas.
Yesterday in New York anti-WEF protesters made the link between the plight of Enron's workers and those in Argentina. But I don't know if even these protestors realize how closely these two issues are linked.
It turns out (not surprisingly given the extent of Enron's global interests) that Enron is very deeply involved in Argentina. Its holdings there are in Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), whose website describes the company as “the leading gas transportation company in Argentina, operating the most extensive gas pipeline system in the country and in Latin America.” Enron's own website says “The company serves 4.3 million customers, 3.1 million of which reside in the greater Buenos Aires area.”
To understand the significance of these figures its worth noting that in 1998, 48% of energy use in Argentina came from natural gas (as quoted in a report posted by the Brazilian Embassy in DC, which tracks such things because of the international pipelines being laid across countries in the region.)
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http://www.enron.com/corp/investors/annuals/annual98/wholesale.htmlEnron's Annual Report 1998
excerpt:
Building strong regional positionsEnron's strategy in the Southern Cone exemplifies its ability to be an integrated energy company in international markets. Enron is acquiring and constructing key assets that create an integrated regional gas and electricity business in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. Enron owns interests in the 4,104-mile Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS) pipeline system in Argentina, the 3,093-mile Transredes pipeline system in Bolivia and the 1,864-mile Bolivia-to-Brazil pipeline. These systems link huge gas supplies with highly populated demand areas. Enron is using this supply access to create competitive advantages for other asset development projects, including the 480-megawatt Cuiaba power plant and pipeline, which began the first phase of commercial operation in early 1999. Enron's strong asset infrastructure in the Southern Cone also enables the company to participate in significant demand-side opportunities for both gas and electricity. When Argentina became the first country in the region to liberalize its energy market, Enron moved quickly to establish its presence there. The company began trading gas in Argentina in 1997 and was the first non-national company to receive a power marketing license in that country. In addition, Enron owns interests in five local distribution companies (LDCs) in northeastern Brazil and two in the southeastern part of the country. Enron also holds interests in the CEG/Rio LDCs along the coastal states of Brazil and in Elektro, one of Brazil's most efficient utilities and the electricity service provider for the huge Sao Paulo market. With this large energy franchise in place, Enron is pursuing additional opportunities to leverage its physical presence in the Southern Cone.
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