“Welcoming immigrants is a good alternative for preventing economies from declining,” proclaimed former United States President William Jefferson Clinton, Bill Clinton, in Tenerife in 2005. Who would have thought that the former governor of Arkansas would see, twenty years later, the world astonished as one of his successors instilled a regime of terror among millions of migrants arriving in his country seeking an opportunity, who are pursued, cornered, imprisoned, and deported?
Clinton’s outlook was very different from Donald Trump’s, as demonstrated during a two-day visit to the island, marking its 20th anniversary, where he found in the Canary Islands “the face of Africa’s best future.” He expressed confidence in the strategic role of the archipelago as a “nerve centre” between Europe, America, and Africa, and an economic bridge with the neighbouring continent to “bring benefits to the region, although he specified that the results would be seen “in the long term.” In that vein, he advised working on “building trust and the ability to attract investments.”
In the conference titled Embracing Our Common Humanity: Security and Prosperity in the 21st Century, Clinton urged European countries and his own, which he presided over from 1993 to 2001, to “study rigorously” their birth rates before establishing any limitations on the number of migrants, because, he emphasised, “with the current numbers, the maintenance of the system is not guaranteed.”
In the conference, lasting just over half an hour, for which the 250 attendees paid €1,200 each, Clinton won the affections of the select audience with several references to the island. “I’ve called my wife and daughter to tell them that Tenerife is a wonderful place because of its people, landscape, and towns. They got very upset, and I had to promise that I would return soon with them,” he noted.
At another moment in his talk, the former US president confessed that he had tried the Canarian banana and lamented that he hadn’t had more time to visit some of the island’s wind farms, which particularly interested him.
At the end of his lecture, he received a timple as a gift, presented by four children dressed in typical Tenerife attire, a curious image that was published by the Washington Post. “I’ll keep it in the presidential library, where I have a collection of musical instruments,” he assured to the applause of the audience.
Clinton bid farewell to Tenerife with a lunch following the talk. As he left the auditorium, he still had time to observe a protest outside against the construction of the Granadilla port. Thus concluded a two-day visit that began in the early hours of 24 July 2005. After landing shortly after midnight at Tenerife South Airport, he headed to the Botánico Hotel in Puerto de la Cruz, where he spent his first night in the royal suite, which now bears his name.
A large part of the following day was dedicated to playing golf at the Abama Club in the municipality of Guía de Isora, with the then mayor of Santa Cruz, Miguel Zerolo, businesspeople Pedro Luis Cobiella and Pedro Suárez, and golfer Alfredo García.
At the southern facilities, he was welcomed by Adán Martín, President of the Government of the Canary Islands; José Segura, Government Delegate in the Islands; Ricardo Melchior, President of the Cabildo and organiser of the trip, who gifted him a painting by the Tenerife artist Juan Galarza, along with the director of the hotel and the Abama Club.
FRIENDLY AND SMILING
The former Democrat president, accompanied by a team of around twenty people, mostly bodyguards, appeared friendly and smiling and accepted to take photographs. He looked out at La Gomera on the horizon, asked what distance separated the islands, and expressed his amazement at the contrast of landscapes between the north and south of Tenerife.
Dressed in light trousers and a striped orange polo, he spent five hours on the green carpet, and between holes opted for two sandwiches of ham, cheese, and tuna accompanied by a cola light. He hardly tasted the delicacies from Basque chef Martín Berasategui featuring cherne, peppers, potatoes, mojo, cheese, and fruit salad.
During his 48-hour stay, the former American president had time to explore the centre of Puerto de la Cruz on foot, accompanied by a dozen escorts. He walked through the plaza del Charco and dined at the El Monasterio restaurant in Los Realejos, where he was invited by the municipal councillor for Tourism, Rosario Hernández, who was dining with her family at that time. Clinton covered the €560 bill by posing for a photo with her, published by this newspaper.
It was not the only curiosity of the trip. The night before, as soon as he arrived at the hotel, he encountered a wedding banquet in full swing at reception. To everyone’s surprise, Clinton did not hesitate to approach the newlyweds to congratulate them. Coincidentally, the groom was of American nationality.
After the visit, in a conversation with DIARIO DE AVISOS, Ricardo Melchior revealed that the former president was astonished by the prosperity found in Tenerife, “with its advances in wind energy, its infrastructure, and its hotels, which he particularly liked given that he had just visited some of the poorest countries in both West and East Africa.”
The Cabildo president emphasised that it was unnecessary to explain to him what the former Democrat leader easily deduced: that the archipelago was the necessary platform to channel aid and develop support policies for the most underprivileged nations on the neighbouring continent.
This conclusion was summarised in a phrase that emerged from the illustrious visitor’s mouth five months later when he coincided again with Melchior, whom he invited to New York to attend the Clinton Global Initiative summit: “Canary Islands are an aircraft carrier of peace towards Africa, the place that the world needs to reach it.”
In that meeting – there were several more in the following years – the senator from Tenerife coincided with British Prime Minister Tony Blair; French President Jacques Chirac; Jordanian King Abdullah II; and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. It was also where he met Hillary Clinton, who would challenge Donald Trump for the presidency of the world’s leading power, albeit unsuccessfully, in 2016. “Hillary told us that her husband had explained the strategic importance of the Canary Islands regarding Africa and that she hoped to come to the archipelago one day, but did not know when,” Melchior explained.
Although the former Cabildo president recognised Hillary’s “friendly” demeanour, he stressed that “he is more charismatic and affectionate” and highlighted his “human dimension and overwhelming personality.”
Despite the international impact of Bill Clinton’s visit to Tenerife, there were some critical voices regarding the cost of it, around €300,000, although much of that amount, as explained by Ricardo Melchior himself, was covered through contributions from around fifty island entrepreneurs.
A trip of significant regional and national media impact
Bill Clinton’s 48-hour visit to Tenerife made headlines in regional, national, and international press. Some American media reported on his stay on the island.
On the first day, DIARIO DE AVISOS dedicated the front page to him with the title “Bill Clinton speaks in Tenerife about security and prosperity,” while 24 hours later, the leading newspaper in the Canary Islands featured a phrase from the former president on its front page: “Canary Islands can be the face of Africa’s best future.”
