Jeb Bush's job before Miami realtor? Venezuelan banker.

[AP]

In this week's New Yorker there is long, fascinating story about Jeb Bush and the Cuban community. There are some fascinating tidbits. Did you know that FL Cubans were generally pretty pro-Democrat before jeb came along. Sure they hated Castro and communism, but they're actually pretty socially liberal and were fans of the 'welfare state' (some were huge FDR fans). Until Jeb came along, many were willing to put their hatred of Castro far down their list of concerns. Jeb, even before he became governor, expended tons of energy to move Castro-hating to the top of the list, and, thus, turning them into Republicans.

(By the way, the point of the article is that the Republicans' grip on this community is tenuous, evidenced by Clinton's ability to win FL in '96, and by a few recent developments.)

Another interesting bit of information which never really hit home, if I had ever heard it before, was that Bush spent several years in Venezuela as a banker before he moved to Miami (in '84, iirc).

Bet he still has friends down there.

Here's a a Q&A with the author of the article (the full article is not available online.)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/?040315on_onlineonly01

[SoCalDem]

1. Google Jeb with ANY of the names we talk about here..

and you will be reading for a very long time..

[boobooday]

2. Jebby -- the South American Connection

It's true.

What a sad, sad crime family they are!


http://www.wgoeshome.com

[madfloridian]

3. Many of the articles will need to be google translated.

Lots of the English language ones had disappeared last time I searched.

[lostnfound]

4. kick

[Judi Lynn]

5. Stumbled across an interesting look at US/Vene. events

which does NOT refer to Jeb, however I'll be looking for more on that. Please consider:

No doubt the Americans would feel more at home with another Perez Jimenez, the brutal army captain, virulent anti-communist, and self-appointed dictator of Venezuela who did such an effective job eliminating progressive reforms that Eisenhower gave him the Legion of Merit.

"The anti-Chavistas don't equate democracy with voting," writes Greg Palast, who interviewed Chavez in 2002. "With 80 per cent of Venezuela's population at or below the poverty level, elections are not attractive to the protesting financiers. Chavez had won the election in 1998 with a crushing 58 per cent of the popular vote and that was unlikely to change except at gunpoint."

Bush, the IMF, and Venezuela's ruling elite are nostalgic for the days when the notorious embezzler of public funds, Carlos Andres Perez, and Accion Democratica ruled. In 1989, Perez sent the military to slaughter 1,000 workers and poor people from the cerros, or shantytowns, for the audacity of protesting against an IMF austerity plan.

Following the slaughter, IMF Managing Director Michael Camdessus wrote to Perez and said he was "profoundly moved" by the loss of life but said the IMF was convinced "that the economic policies were well-conceived." No word if Camdessus was "profoundly moved" by the further impoverishment of pensioners and the poor for the sake of US creditors holding Venezuela's debt.
(snip)

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:jfxrX6mJ7PoJ:www.kurtnimmo.com/+%22Jeb+Bush%22+%2B+Venezuela+%2B+%22Carlos+Andres+Perez%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please check the following:

By the time of Lusinchi's presidency, an economic meltdown was looming.
Lusinchi tried to diversify the economy so that it wouldn't be at the
mercy of fluctuating oil prices, but ultimately he made things worse by
sucking up to foreign creditors and the IMF through austerity programs and
wage freezes. He managed to keep the chaos at bay through the rest of his
term by controlling prices, "but when the new president, Carlos Andres
Perez came in, they were ready to explode," says Hardy.

Perez opened the floodgates by lifting all price controls at the same time
that he tightened austerity programs in the name of "free market" reforms.
But in this case free was awfully expensive, and the country's poor found
that they couldn't afford to feed themselves or take the bus to work
anymore.

Hardy: "What's the price of a loaf of bread in the U.S.? A dollar? Two
dollars? Imagine walking into the grocery store tomorrow and a loaf of
bread is six dollars. Milk is $15. If you're poor, what do you do?"
On the 27th of February, there was a popular explosion. No leaders, no
organization, just the frustration of the people over the price of food
and transportation. There was some looting--food, clothing, whatever you
could get your hands on. And then, probably the next day, Carlos Andres
Perez sent the troops out.... It really--it was brutal.
"Did you know that, three months before Tiananmen Square, there was a
massacre right here that was a lot bloodier? Had you ever heard about it?
"Over a thousand killed, bodies put in garbage bags, buried in common
graves, denied they ever existed."

An important bit of context left out of all U.S. news reports about
Chavez: it was Perez's administration, responsible for the worst massacre
in Venezuela's history as a democracy, that Chavez tried to overthrow in a
coup.
(snip)

http://www.cabbagehead.org/d_consolidateds/2002/7/31.html



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stop the Press:
Why the media missed Latin America's collapse.
Ken Silverstein

(snip) Among Latin America's "reform-minded leaders," according to a laudatory 1991 article in the Post, were Menem, Carlos Andres Perez in Venezuela, Carlos Salinas in Mexico, Fernando Collor de Mello in Brazil, and Alberto Fujimori in Peru. A decade later, one of these five crusading reformers has been impeached, three live abroad in disgrace, and the other, Menem, is widely reviled and suspected of plundering Argentina's state treasury. Had the U.S. press not cavalierly dismissed the "short-term pain of millions," maybe none of this would have come as such a big surprise.

Consider Venezuela. After Perez was elected in 1989, its economy was the first in Latin America to be deemed a miracle. The country's gross national product climbed sharply at the start of Perez's tenure, but simultaneous austerity policies caused the real value of salaries to fall by almost half. In 1989 the government decided to triple bus fares. Riots broke out, and the security forces summoned to quell them killed somewhere between 400 and several thousand people, mostly in the poor barrios. Perez's popularity plummeted. For some reason, this baffled The Miami Herald, which reported in 1992 that international economists were "puzzled by Venezuela's generalized malaise because this oil-rich country is the economic star of the Americas."

Implicated in a series of corruption scandals, Perez was forced to resign in 1993. He now resides in the Dominican Republic. Last December a Venezuelan judge announced that his court was considering bringing charges against the former president and that Perez would be placed under house arrest if he returns home.
(snip)

http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/4/silverstein-k.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's an "Early Jeb" article from the St. Petersburg Times

"Make the Money and Run."

In 1977, Texas Commerce sent 24-year-old Bush to open a branch in oil-rich Venezuela. When the bank's top executives visited, they brought along bank director Lady Bird Johnson who arranged a visit with Venezuela's president.
(snip)

http://www.sptimes.com/State/92098/Make_The_Money_and_Ru.html

It also refers to his immersion in the Cuban "exile" community for mutual advantage. He and his Cuban financial associates both
definitely gain from their association.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Here's a reference to the bank:Texas Commerce Bank, Vene. branch

Institutional Affiliations

George Bush Presidential Library: Director and Trustee (2)
Governor’s Family Literacy Initiative for Florida: Instituted in conjunction with Verizon Wireless (3)
Project for the New American Century: signed PNAC’s founding statement of principles (1997)
Foundation for Florida’s Future: A not-for-profit organization that “has worked to impact public policy at the grassroots level,” established in 1995 (2)
Liberty City Charter School: Co-Founded with the Urban League of Greater Miami (2)
Florida Campaign to Re-Elect George Bush: State Chairman, 1992 (1)
Campaign to Re-Elect Florida Gov. Bob Martinez: State Chairman, 1990 (1)
Government Service

State of Florida: Commerce Secretary, 1987-1988 (1)
Dade County Republican Committee: Chairman, 1984-1986 (1)
Corporate Connections/Business Interests

Codina-Bush Real Estate Agency: Co-Founder, President and CEO (1, 2)
Texas Commerce Bank: Vice President (until 1980) for branch in Caracas, Venezuela (1)
Education

University of Texas: B.A. in Latin American Studies, 1974 (1)
(snip)

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/bush_j/bush_j.php

There should be more info. around on this Venezuelan banking association, surely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A quick piece from Counterpunch:

The Bush Family's Bloody Pals
Florida a Sanctuary for Terrorists
by Jack McCarthy

http://www.counterpunch.org/mccarthy0709.html

Refers to the Bushes as the "WASP Sopranos!"