Author Archives: LatinFinance

America Movil, controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, raised the number of clients it expects to add this year as expanding economies boost cell phone sales across Latin America. CEO Daniel Hajj said the company will sign up 22 million new subscribers in 2005, up from the company´s previous prediction of 17 million. Colombia and Brazil helped America Movil add a record 7.4 million clients in the second quarter, more than any other carrier in the Western Hemisphere.

Parts of Mexico’s northern border region have become a battleground as gangs massacre hundreds. The town of Nuevo Laredo is under federal intervention. Bolivia’s political system is unraveling as protestors take the street, booting out two presidents in as many years. Colombia’s Congress has approved a controversial law allowing rightwing paramilitary militias to demobilize at the risk of entrenching their drug empires. In Rio de Janeiro, warlords dominate several of the city’s favelas in a brutal reign of terror. Latin America is paying a heavy price in lives, political instability, corruption and economic disruption for Washington’s futile war on drugs. Drugs are Latin America’s most lucrative export. North American and European consumers will pay almost any price for their drugs. Repression and interdiction have failed, so governments should legalize and regulate this trade. Opponents in the US say this would lead to further moral degradation. That seems scarcely possible. But a well-structured drug market would ensure a livelihood for farmers, drugs for addicts and tax revenues to pay for their counseling. Until policymakers realize this, Latin America – not the US – will continue paying a bitter price for its hypocritical war on drugs.