Menem charged with arms-smuggling

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 13:06 GMT,
Saturday, 29 November 2008

Menem charged with arms-smuggling

The former President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, has
been formally charged with involvement in arms-
trafficking.

Prosecutors said Mr Menem had illegally sold weapons
to Croatia and Ecuador in the 1990s, when they were
involved in conflicts. He denies the charges.

Mr Menem, who has been ill, took part in the session
on a video-link from the northern province of La Rioja.

He governed Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He has been
on trial, alongside 17 co-defendants, since October.

He and his co-defendants are accused of authorising
the sale of weapons, including rifles, anti-tank rockets
and ammunition, to Croatia and Ecuador between
1991 and 1995.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7756377.stm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Carlos Menem has been as thick as thieves with the entire Bush family for ages.

Bush Friend Arrested for Illegal Arms Trafficking
by Ana Simo

JUNE 7, 2001. A long-time friend of former U.S. President George H. Bush was arrested today on charges of illegal arms trafficking. If found guilty, he could face a jail term of up to ten years. Only a phone call from the new Bush White House might spare him the indignity, he thinks. But the phones aren't ringing.

The friend in trouble is the former President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, a golfing partner and business benefactor of the elder Bush. He is suspected of having illegally sold 6,500 tons of arms to Croatia and Ecuador between 1991 and 1995, in violation of international arms embargoes. Menem, who was put under house arrest today by a Buenos Aires federal judge, said in his defense last weekend that the U.S. knew all about the arms sales.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher gave Menem the cold shoulder on Monday. He was unaware, he said, of any action by the U.S. government entailing approval or encouragement of Argentinean arms sales to Croatia. Given how profitable the Menem connection has been for the Bushes, one might imagine Boucher was frostily putting interests of state ahead of the Bush family, until you realize that, with a Bush in the White House, they are essentially one and the same.

In 1988, a few months before Menem was elected for his first term, George W. Bush, the then oilman son of a sitting U.S. President, had tried to pressure the administration of outgoing President Raúl Alfonsín to favor Enron, the Houston-based company, over other, more qualified bidders to build a gas pipeline in Argentina. He was unsuccessful, but the Bushes hit it off with the high-rolling, big-spending Menem from the start. One of Menem's first acts as President was to give Enron a $300-million sweetheart deal on the pipeline project.

The Enron deal triggered a public outcry in Argentina. A congressional inquiry was demanded, and a special prosecutor launched a probe. But after Menem fired him, the probe fizzled. Enron and its founder and CEO, Kenneth Lay, another close friend of the elder Bush, were among the biggest contributors to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, as well as to his two gubernatorial campaigns.

George W. Bush's brother, Neil Bush, also had his fingers in the Argentina pie. He jetted to Buenos Aires for a tennis match with Menem the day after the latter was first elected, in 1989. Earlier, Neil had been involved in a failed plan to drill oil in Argentina, to be financed in part with a $900,000 loan from the Silverado Savings and Loan Bank in Denver, of which he was a director. The S&L collapsed in 1988 amidst a financial scandal, costing U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion.

More:
http://www.thegully.com/essays/argentina/010607bush_menem.html

What a douchebag.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/argentina/menem-bush.gif