Check out the brain on Slim

Posted By Hugh Collins Friday, March 23, 2007 - 2:21 PM Share

OMAR TORRES/AFP

Mexicos Carlos Slim Helú, the world's third-richest man and owner of telecommunications behemoth América Móvil, insists that Venezuela's recent nationalizations will not be copied across Latin America. Speaking at the recent Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, Slim painted a distinctly rosy picture of the Latin business environment. In his view, nationalization is a luxury that only oil-rich Venezuela can afford, while market-friendly leftists such as Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Peru's Alan García are dying to attract foreign cash to their countries. Even Nicaraguan premier Daniel Ortega, who led the Sandinista guerrillas in the 1980s, is today "open to private investment." (You could say that Latin America is a land of many lefts, not all of them anti-capitalist in nature.)

Slim is a smart man. It took foresight to spot Telemex's potential in 1990, and nothing short of divine inspiration to sense that subsidiary América Móvil could one day dwarf its parent. But he's deluded if he thinks that only the rich will nationalize—just look at desperately poor Bolivia where militancy and torn-up contracts are becoming a Morales hallmark. And while Lula might lead an investment-friendly Brazil today, unless he can crank up Brazil's anemic economy, tomorrow will be very uncertain. The Reuters summit is posing the right questions, but so far neither Slim nor anyone else has the answers.

EXPLORE:LATIN AMERICA, BUSINESS, DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMICS

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