Chapter 56
With a day left before his departure, Ashby went to the Central Library in Houston. On microfilm, there were copies of the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and The Times for earlier years.
What Trowers had told him was true : there had been a lot of anti-British, anti-colonial feeling stirred up by the Argentinean military junta running the country. In 1976, they’d staged a coup and since then had difficulty holding off a civil war. Everything was in chaos there : right and left wing death squads, communist revolutionaries, ‘disappearances’ of left-wing politicians, students and trades unionists, wildcat inflation and the economy ready to disintegrate. It was a shambles.
The generals controlling the government were sitting on a powder keg. They’d tried to defuse it by drawing everyone’s attention away from the mess inside the country by whipping up nationalist sentiment. In 1978, they were set to invade a group of islands belonging to Chile in the Beagle Channel near Tierra del Fuego. Argentina had always disputed Chile’s sovereignty. At the last moment, the invaders had gotten cold feet. The Chileans had got wind of the invasion and were ready for them. Since then, the Argentineans had borrowed a phenomenal amount of money from US banks. Most of it had been splurged on weaponry and military equipment. The claim to ‘Las Malvinas’ (The Falklands) was being pushed in place of the islands in the Beagle Channel. Rumours were being spread that the area around the Falklands was rich in oil. This, it was said, would save Argentina’s bankrupt economy. Most Argentineans had been taken in by this.
Texas Fire & Guaranty had many South American clients, most of whom exported goods to the United States. While Ashby knew about their outward business to the US, he didn’t know much about what was going on in their home markets.
From what he’d read, most of the countries in Latin America had two opposing groups : the peasants who wanted land reform and the landholders who opposed it. As time went on, the level of violence between both groups had intensified.
In early 1982, nearly every South American country was in the grip of civil war : the leftists, Marxist guerrillas and socialist revolutionaries, supported by the Soviet bloc were fighting the military officers, big business and wealthy powerbrokers, supported by the Americans. Some countries had left wing governments. In other countries, the right held power.
When he arrived in Mexico City the next day, he was told that a violent communist revolutionary movement had recently been formed. They were opposed to any dealings at all with the United States. He was able to see many of his clients and several brokers but there was an air of uncertainty and fear about where the country was headed.
When he moved on to Central America, he didn’t stay long.
In Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, he was told that right-wing death squads of army officers had been murdering their political opponents on the left. Outside the capital of El Salvador, armed guerrillas were fighting a revolution with the backing of America’s arch-enemy, Cuba. They hid in the mountains and kidnapped their victims at night. Americans were a favourite target. Ashby was advised to leave on the next flight. Doing business was a waste of time anyway as bribery and corruption were rampant.
In Nicaragua, it was the opposite but there was universal hatred for anything American. A right-wing movement called the ‘Contras’ was fighting the left-wing Sandinista government. When Ashby said he was from ‘Texas’ Fire, he was ordered to leave the country on the next available flight as they suspected that he was a spy. When he showed them his British passport, they laughed at it and said it was a forgery.
Costa Rica and Panama weren’t as bad but their economies were gripped by runaway inflation. The exchange rates for the US dollar to the local currency made it impossible to make a profit. No-one could afford the rates of cover he was quoting.
If Central America was a dead loss, he expected to do better in Colombia. Texas Fire already had many clients there including local insurers and coffee producers ; it was also closely associated with the local brokers, some of whom were branch offices of American firms. The Colombian government was trying to steer a course between the guerrillas, the drug cartels and the army. They’d been more successful than in Central America but the political scene was still a cauldron, ready to boil over.
In Quito, Ecuador, he was welcomed by representatives of the national oil corporation. They reinsured part of their operations with Texas Fire (and also with Plantation.) Six months before Ashby’s visit, the President had been killed in a plane crash. The new President was having to contend with a mountain of debt left by his predecessors. It was the usual story : excessive borrowing, runaway inflation and poor economic management.
In Lima, Peru, he found the country to be desperately poor. A violent Maoist guerrilla movement, the Shining Path, had recently started up. One or two of the fish canneries which Texas Fire insured had been attacked.
While he’d been in Colombia, an American broker from Greene & Grey (smaller rivals of City First and Welch Wenders) said that like Ashby, he was going to Peru and Chile. He asked Ashby if he could tag along to Santiago.
“Certainly,” said Ashby. “You can introduce me to some of your clients there.”
The broker whose name was Ted Raeburn, noticed Ashby’s accent. When they were having dinner together in Lima, he said, “The Peruvians don’t get on too well with their neighbours, the Chilayuns, so they’re supporting Argentina. What’s your take on that ?”
“Supporting Argentina ? How do you mean ?”
“You’re British – come on, man. You must know about Argentina’s claim to the Malvinas – the Falkland Islands ? You must know about that ? You don’t ? You’re kidding me. What do you guys do at Texas Fire all day ? Shoot pool ?”
“Enlighten me,” responded Ashby. And for the next quarter of an hour, Raeburn described most of what Ashby had read about. But the articles hadn’t mentioned the Peruvians’ antipathy for Britain.
“Is it a case of your enemy is my enemy ? Peru has territorial claims against Chile and so does Argentina. Chile beats them both off, so if Argentina is demanding the Falklands from Britain, Peru will help it and the Argentineans might help Peru against Chile ? Is that how it works ?”
“Could be.”
When they visited the Peruvian Department of the Interior, the officials there wanted marine cargo cover for “military components” being freighted from France. There were three large consignments. The secured values for each of them over a two month period were close to thirty million US dollars, totalling almost a hundred million. This was surprising for such a poor country.
After the meeting finished, Ashby said to Raeburn, “Did you see that ? Rather a lot of money, isn’t it for a third world country ?”
“Yeah. French manufacturer. Never heard of them.”
Ashby had – amongst other things, they made surface to air missiles. This was unusual. Why would Peru want SAMs ? Unless they were trying to help their friends, Argentina, thought Ashby to himself. Perhaps Buenos Aires wanted to get them through the back door from Peru without anyone knowing about it. If Argentina bought them, it might have alerted London. Everyone’s looking at Argentina. No-one’s interested in Peru.