Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 226
important long-term toehold in the heart of South America for the Danish dairy industry.
In the light of heavy international competition, we pulled a real coup.
As I describe in The Mining Country (Chapter 3), by 1972 I was heavily involved in
setting up my own tin alloys plant. Serious problems arose when I learned the
magnitude of the challenge in marketing my products, which essentially were various
types of solder wire and rods. It was through my consulate contacts that my partner,
Boris Zorotovic, and I were able to forge Danish alliances, develop the activities and live
the adventures associated with this effort.
Our Danish partners, though paying lip service to the fairness of socialism, negotiated
contracts with the heavy hand of old time European mercantilists. With the support of
the Bolivian government agency (ENAF) in charge of the tin smelter, which was also a
partner of our new company, they demanded and obtained a 4 % royalty on all gross
sales. This royalty was in addition to hefty management fees and of their share of
operating profits. Over the years it became a significant income stream for Denmark.
Hard currency to pay for its imports is what the Royal Government needed and that is
what we gave it. We accomplished this without actually producing or exporting anything
out of Denmark. It was a textbook example of what to them was a well-managed idea.
My functions as a consul covered other non-commercial activities as well. I gave visas,
issued passports, attended functions, entertained visitors, traveled with the Ambassador
and occasionally helped stranded travelers. Such was the case of a beautiful,
freewheeling Danish girl who was backpacking through Bolivia. In one of her stops in
the remote Beni region where the main population was a garrison of soldiers at the
Bolivian Navy’s river base, she made friends with some of them and decided to go
swimming with them. In a matter of hours all the soldiers at the garrison had sexual
intercourse with her. Extremely sore and embarrassed, she caught a plane that flew her
back to Cochabamba and found her way to my office. I had never heard of anyone
successfully suing the Bolivian armed forces and it appeared that a clever lawyer would
make her look as the culprit instead. When she felt better she wisely decided to leave
rather than press charges.
In preparation for my return to Texas in 1974, at my request the Danish Ambassador in
Lima arranged for my father to be named Vice-Consul in my same office. For the next
several years he and my brother Chris handled the affairs of the consulate as if they
were me. Apparently they did so to the total satisfaction of the Danish Foreign Office. By
these actions, my Dad and Chris demonstrated once more their keen sense of family
ties. In 1979 Chris also moved back to Texas and in the early 1980s my Dad started
spending a lot of time in College Station. Finally, on January 15, 1982, Her Majesty’s
government officially closed down the Danish Consulate to Cochabamba, Santa Cruz
and the Beni.
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