Unfortunately, it was only a four-day trip. That’s how long Gov. Rick Scott was out of state–and in Spain touting (“HO-lah, boo-noze die-ez”) Florida as a great place to do business if you don’t much care about mass transit, higher-ed priorities, concealed-weapons carriers or right-wing politicians that Generalísimo Franco would have admired.
Interesting timing for Gov. Gringo.
Spain, which doesn’t make Florida’s top 30 trading partners, is experiencing the Continent’s most depressing recession.
Spanish consortiums were on the short list of those very much wanting to bid on the Orlando-to-Tampa high-speed rail line. The one that would have been a marketing bonanza for the winner and an economic catalyst for Tampa. The one that was short-circuited by Scott before bids could even be proffered. Would have been ironic–and made for great photo-ops–had the Florida trade delegation sampled one of those numerous high-speed rail routes connecting Madrid to Seville, Toledo, Barcelona, Valencia and other cities. Spain’s well-regarded HSR network is the second largest (after China) in the world.
And presumably Scott & Co. were able to seamlessly cherry pick prospects to avoid any Spanish entities doing business in Cuba. Recall that Spain has spearheaded the European Union’s drive to improve diplomatic and commercial relations with Latin America and Cuba. In fact, Spain is the leading EU investor–from tourism to telecoms to energy–in Cuba.