http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13667532.htm
Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006

In Latin America, Gov Bush Talks Trade, Leaders Talk "W"
BY TYLER BRIDGEStbridges@MiamiHerald

THE AMERICASIn Latin America, Gov. Bush talks trade, leaders talk 'W'Promoting trade and investment in Florida, Gov. Bush draws a crowd wherever he goes in Latin America, and yes, leaders always manage to bring up his big brother.

When Jeb Bush comes to Latin America, he is treated like political royalty.
After all, Bush is the governor of one of Latin America's favorite trading partners, speaks Spanish fluently, is married to a Mexican American and has a brother in the White House.

So while his trips to Latin America barely receive media coverage in Florida, here he is lobbied to exercise his influence in Washington and pumped for clues on whether he might run for president himself some day -- even as he tries to keep his focus on promoting trade with Florida businesses.

''I don't use the brother card, it's not my job,'' Bush told The Miami Herald Thursday following a lunch organized in his honor by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. ``I have a duty to protect my state and see it advance.''

In a little-noticed aspect during his seven years as governor, Bush has devoted an enormous amount of energy and time to Latin America, more so than an at least any recent Florida governor, said Manny MencÃÂ*a, who has been organizing gubernatorial trips as far back as the Askew administration in the 1970s.

Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development agency, says his trips have helped create tens of thousands of jobs in Florida, a claim that could not be verified. For Bush, the trips also have the side benefit of keeping up contacts that could come in handy as a private businessman and consultant after he steps down as governor in a year.

Bush was accompanied by four dozen Florida businessmen during his current two-day trip to Ecuador and Peru. Peru is the 15th Latin American country that Bush has visited as governor.

There's no doubting Bush's ties to the region. He went on a high school work/study trip to Mexico, where he met his wife, Columba, received a degree in Latin American studies at the University of Texas, worked for a Texas bank in Venezuela for two years in the late 1970s, campaigned in Puerto Rico in 1980 for his father's unsuccessful presidential campaign and led his first trade mission to the region as Florida's secretary of commerce in the late 1980s.

There's also no doubting the governor's star power in Latin America.
Visiting Latin American presidents sometimes rearrange their schedules to see him in Miami. And Bush administration officials in Washington sometimes ask him to call Latin American leaders to resolve nettlesome problems, said Chuck Cobb, a Florida businessman who is close to both brothers and was on Thursday's trip.

On this trip they even asked him to hand-deliver a White House Christmas card to Ecuadorean President Alfredo Palacio that had been lost in the mail.

In his southern travels, Bush emphasizes at each stop that he is serving as Florida's chief business ambassador and nothing more.
But the presidents he visits invariably make a wry remark about his brother and press concerns on him involving the federal government that they wouldn't discuss, say, with the governor of Kansas, said Jorge Arrizurieta, who accompanies Bush in his capacity as head of the effort to make Miami the headquarters of a proposed free trade secretariat of the Americas.

''The governor does not bring up his brother at the meetings, but every one of the heads of state has,'' said Arrizurieta. ``They will also inevitably bring up the federal issues that matter to them and the possibility that the governor, too, might become president one day.''
Central American presidents sought Bush's help in getting the Congress to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Arrizurieta said.
The Latin American presidents also seek Bush's assistance in helping their companies get business in Florida.

Former Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle, who hosted Bush five years ago, said the governor helped connect Uruguayan beef exporters with beef importers in Florida.

''Uruguayan businesses got contracts that they would never have gotten,'' Batlle said in a telephone interview from Montevideo.

El Salvador President Tony Saca said Bush's longtime ties with Latin America make him a natural salesman for Florida. ''He speaks perfect Spanish,'' Saca said in a telephone interview from San Salvador.

President Toledo Thursday endorsed Miami as the headquarters for the free trade secretariat of the Americas and asked Bush to lobby the Florida congressional delegation for a free trade agreement signed in December between Peru and Washington.

The agreement requires congressional approval in both countries.
''He knows his facts, he knows his data,'' Toledo told The Miami Herald in the foyer of the presidential palace as Peruvian Congress members and others off to the side sought photos with Bush.

Bush himself rarely, if ever, visits tourist sites during his trips that might produce a good photo op. Instead, he speaks to business groups with a focused message on the benefits of free trade.

''Free trade brings stronger support for democracy,'' he told 300 businessmen at a breakfast sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Peru. ``You have to be able to compete globally. You also have to behave better.''

When the state of Washington's governor addressed the group two years ago, only 120 people showed up, said Aldo Defilippi, the chamber's executive director.
Bush does his best to keep the focus on investment and trade with Florida even as his hosts change the subject.

President Palacio on Wednesday pushed Bush for help on federal trade issues, prompting the governor to deflect the matter to the U.S. Trade Representative's office. ''My job isn't to get in the middle,'' Bush said after telling the anecdote.

Toledo referred to President Bush several times, including one remark that brought laughter to an ornate presidential palace hall.

''Your Spanish doesn't have a Texas accent,'' Toledo said. Bush rejoined, ``I don't know who you were talking about in my family who speaks Spanish with a Texas accent.''
email thisprint this