UPON arriving in Spain as "George Bush’s personal representative" — as he identified himself, U.S. Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre Jr., a Cuban-born nationalized U.S. citizen, said he was "anxious" to work in a country that was a "friend and great ally."

In a move qualified as "normal" by his personnel, he reserved his first visit, in the country’s interior, for the Morón de la Frontera (Seville) and Rota (Cádiz) military bases, where he visited U.S. Army troops. Days later, his fragile sense of diplomacy did not prevent him from publicly noting that Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had not stood up when the U.S. flag went by during a military parade on October 12, 2003.

Nothing indicated that Aguirre would land that job when he arrived in the United States in 1961, where he later studied science at a Louisiana university. Soon afterwards, he relocated to Texas, where his prosperity was assured in the shadow of George Bush Sr.

He met the current president in 1977, precisely at the moment that his father was heading up the CIA.

The exact circumstances in which the two Texans met is not known, nor is the nature of the relationship they had at that time, but every time he gets a chance, Aguirre admits that he "deeply" admires former President Bush, and considers him to be an inspiration.

"His heroic qualities (sic) inspire me to do more," he said in an interview with the very conservative US Navy League magazine in Madrid shortly after his arrival in Spain.

He says in the article that over the years, the relationship between the two men evolved to a more personnel level, particularly when Ambassador Aguirre began working for George W. Bush, first when the latter was governor of Texas, and then when he became U.S. president.

As a Cuban, Aguirre maintains – just in case – the language, which he speaks with an accent revealing his complete identification with his new homeland.

In an interview published by the Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the U.S. diplomat was asked what language is spoken in his home. His response could not have been more frank:

"With my children, in English. With my wife, whatever comes into my head, except when we’re speaking absolutely seriously. Then we always talk in English."

Aguirre, who admits to having poor mathematics skills — he leaves that to "the employees," he says — worked for 24 years in a private credit institution, the Bank of America, one of the largest U.S. banks.

He began his career with the federal government in 2001, when George Bush Jr. named him president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which helps finance the sale of U.S. exports — preferably those of his buddies — with guarantees and credits.

In 2003, Little Bush named him top director of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) of the Homeland Security Department.

There, he guaranteed U.S. citizenship to the 50,000 soldiers in the U.S. armed forces who are not U.S. citizens.

He affirms that one of the most emotional moments of his career as an immigration czar was in October 2004, when he traveled to the Bagram U.S. military base in Afghanistan, and to Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, to grant citizenship to a group of soldiers in combat and dressed in complete battle gear, he told a Navy League reporter.

While in that post, Aguirre had all the immigration services under his charge, and he headed up with a view to strengthening U.S. security, restricting to the maximum the scant rights of immigrant workers, to the extent that the USCIS came to a standstill under his administration, leaving some eight million residents with expired visas.

An active member of the most reactionary Cuban-American fauna, historically associated with the clandestine U.S. security apparatuses, like the CIA — Aguirre always lent himself to their secret maneuvers.

Another coincidence, his affiliates of the Spanish right wing will think: Luis Posada Carriles illegally enters the United States, resurfaces in Miami and manages to remain in U.S. territory thanks to the complacence of Texas immigration officials, while Aguirre was head of immigration services.

On November 16, 2005, Aguirre shamelessly affirmed to the Spanish media that he "had no evidence" that CIA airplanes used Spanish airports to transfer detainees suspected of terrorism.

However, on November 23, he affirmed that he would not speak about "intelligence-related matters" in relation to illegal flights as he addressed a complacent public that included Esperanza Aguirre, mayor of Madrid, and one of his most servile admirers.

Finally, on January 25, Aguirre confessed that something had gone on regarding the flights, but that "the law was not broken."

"We have communicated to the Spanish government that at no time was Spanish law broken. On the contrary, it has been obeyed," the Bush family associate candidly said.

A few days ago, a European Parliament report tallied 125 flights that made stopovers in Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Seville, Vigo and Tenerife between September 11, 2001 and late 2005, which could be linked to the "extraordinary delivery" CIA operations.

Charged with carrying out this investigation, Italian socialist parliamentary deputy Claudio Fava has shown that aircraft belonging to what are considered CIA front companies transferred countless terrorism suspects to Guantánamo or other torture and interrogation camps maintained by the CIA in a number of locations.

Could it be that Ambassador Aguirre, "George Bush’s personal representative" in Spain, a friend of George Bush Sr. from his CIA years, associate of the Cuban-American mafia, knew nothing about the CIA illegal flights and their "extraordinary deliveries?"