Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico and Latin America and founder of Grupo Carso, has laid out in black and white his political positions on recent governments in Mexico and talked about his expectations for the next six-year term. He achieved this less than four months before the presidential and legislative elections, in which the prominent figure Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico and moral leader of the left, plays a central role. “This government was a transitional government. I hope he [próximo] “Government, whoever wins, it is about consolidation,” said the tycoon this Monday in a nearly four-hour press conference in Mexico City. Slim, an 84-year-old engineer and owner of a fortune of around $100 billion, does not typically appear before the media, but when he does he has been known to openly express his views on issues, both positive and critical expresses the national agenda. That was the tone of his last appearance, in which he defended his business and spoke about his similarities and differences with the López Obrador government. For example, his support for the separation of powers and the proposal to increase salaries for teachers and doctors, and his criticism of the insecurity in the country and the privileges given to parastatals.
The tycoon recently made headlines after López Obrador stated in one of his morning conferences that, as part of the 2018 presidential election, a group of power brokers came to Slim to ask him to become the sole candidate of the PRI and BREAD. “There have been some suggestions from different people that I won't tell you,” the businessman told a journalist. “When this administration ends, I will have to talk to the president about many things,” he added. Slim has maintained a good relationship with López Obrador, has been part of his corporate advisory board and often visits him at the National Palace and accompanies him on trips on the Mayan Train (a project in which his companies are involved). . “As he says, we disagree on several things. “When it's over, we'll be done talking about what makes us different, starting with Porfirio Díaz,” the magnate added. The reference to the dictator who clung to power over the last century and whose reign was disrupted by the Mexican Revolution made reporters laugh. López Obrador is a staunch critic of Díaz, whom he considers a traitor to democracy, a representative of the elites and a facilitator of US interventionism. “I think he was a great president,” Slim continued, “he ruled for 30 years. “Time got out of hand, but it modernized the country.”
The politician
The middle ground between criticism and recognition of certain policies of the López Obrador government puts Slim at a measured distance from the businessmen who openly play against the executive branch and its dolphin, Claudia Sheinbaum, presidential standard-bearer of the ruling party. The tycoon highlighted the problem of violence and insecurity, “an impending task that we are all waiting to solve.” The businessman stated that the uncertainty has not only damaged his group's finances but has also had a direct impact on customers, particularly telephone customers, through copper theft. However, Slim believes that “there is social peace, there is no confrontation” between people, despite militancy in one political project or another. “The only thing that is circulating negatively is the issue of security, but otherwise the attitude of the population is generally very positive, regardless of whether they are in one party or the other, whether there is unrest or not.” Unrest. Except this problem [de la seguridad]“I think everything else is fine and will continue very well,” he said.
Based on this diagnosis, the businessman claims that the June 2 elections will be peaceful and that there will be no post-election conflicts that threaten democracy. “We have had 90 years of peaceful transitions of power, I don't see that no matter who wins, there could be a confrontation in the election or a thorny issue regarding non-recognition of the victory. “In that sense, I'm not worried,” he admitted. Slim, who said he personally knows Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, the opposition coalition's standard-bearer, emphasized his “surprise that we are being governed by a woman for the first time. Let's hope he's doing well.” He expressed himself positively The two candidates said: “I think they are both very committed and it is clear that they are excited to become governor, which already implies a lot of commitment, courage and the will to do things well.”
López Obrador after a meeting with Carlos Slim and other businessmen in Washington (USA), in 2022. Presidency
Slim has assured that López Obrador respects businesses, although the president is convinced that the state should participate in sectors such as aviation, telecommunications and banking. “What’s important is that he respected the private sector. I believe the private sector is working well,” he said. The tycoon emphasized that in the first years of his six-year term, López Obrador took care of inflation, public finances and the budget, increasing revenues without creating new taxes. “I think this was all a task that we business people agreed on. I think overall it was very healthy,” he said.
The world's richest Mexican has indicated that he agrees that the state competes with individuals “under similar conditions”, although he has clarified that for him the private sector is “more efficient” because it does so in a 100% professional way.” %, it has no political bias that defines it.” In doing so, he has positioned himself as an administrator against the state, an important expression of a man who benefited from the privatization of Telefonos de México (Telmex) in 1990. “I have one Belief that clashes a little with what is said in government: “Who do you think is more efficient and knows more about managing human, financial and material resources? The businessman or the politician?” Slim asked a journalist. ” I think he is the businessman,” he said himself. “If they say that state-owned companies are very good, then that's dirt, man! The term of office of the directors of Pemex is two years; in the three previous six-year terms [duraban] 2 years. There can be no company in which the board of directors changes every two years. That was Fox's Pemex, Calderón's, that of the last six-year term [de Peña]“. He added that Peña inherited from López Obrador a heavily indebted oil company with low production levels.
Slim has expressed the opinion that delegating so many tasks to the military (whose responsibilities, in addition to public safety, range from building public works to managing airports and ports) is “overkill.” “I think the armed forces are excellent, but I think it's too much. For example, when they were invited to take part in the construction, it was very good because […] Some excellent military engineers have come out and it is better that many soldiers work instead of being in the barracks,” he noted. Although he explained that military engineers excel in execution and speed, he said, “The fact that we include them in so many things is an overreach.”
López Obrador will oversee the construction of Tulum International Airport in July 2023 and will be in charge of the army
Referring to the package of 20 reforms that López Obrador sent to Congress last week – including changes to the judiciary, the National Guard and the pension system – Slim explained that “some things are very good and others are average.” The businessman praised the fact that there are signs of a separation of powers in the current government, because despite López Obrador's fierce confrontation with the judges, the Supreme Court has been an independent counterweight, unlike the six-year term. Past “I think it's wonderful that there are differences between the three branches of government. It was unusual for the Supreme Court to decide something different than the executive branch. Not only was it unusual, it wasn't done. The influence of the executive branch on the judiciary was enormous. “It seems extraordinary to me that the judiciary is now deciding things that are against the executive branch,” he said.
The tycoon mentioned other similarities and differences with López Obrador. For example, he supported the promotion of the right to the Internet or the demand that the US government invest in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to curb migration, but distanced himself from the reform to increase workers' pensions and has opposed the Reform announced to reduce the working day to 40 hours per week.
From Telmex in search of “black gold”
Slim, 84, has taken the time to carefully describe his business history. An evolution that goes from the founding of Jarritos del Sur in 1965 to the América Móvil telecommunications center. As he himself said, his corporate constellation began with three companies: Inversora Bursátil – today Grupo Financiero Inburs – and Inmobiliaria Carso. A beginning that was consolidated in the 1980s with a handful of strategic purchases: Cigatam, Sanborns, Minera Frisco and other companies.
Far from the overtones of favoritism and privilege attributed to him due to his close relationship with President López Obrador, Slim has defended the investments he made for years in the telecommunications sector, starting with the purchase of the then parastatal telephone company of Mexico (Telmex) for 8.615 million dollars in 1990. 34 years after this privatization, the businessman reiterates that Telmex has been in the red for a decade and has not paid dividends due to the competitive barriers that prevent it from offering pay television and the burden of labor liabilities: “We are the only company in the world that does not have a pay television service. “Telmex is no longer a business,” he warned.
The businessman has made it clear that he will not sell Telmex because of his commitment to his family that it remains a Mexican company and has announced that they will continue to invest in fiber so as not to lose another market. “I will not sell Telmex because it is Mexican, otherwise we would have already sold it. I agreed with my children that we would not sell it,” he commented.
Telmex workers leave company headquarters while on strike in July 2022. EDGARD GARRIDO (Portal)
The Group's desire to keep Telmex in its business portfolio inevitably requires resolving the burden of labor liabilities worth 270,000 million pesos. Slim acknowledges that while exchanging employees' liabilities for Telmex shares was put on the table to ease this burden, the plan was abandoned due to the Mexican Ministry of Finance's refusal to waive the tax on these shares and thus none for the employees Dealing damage has been reduced. The restructuring of Telmex's finances, now supported by the profits of its subsidiaries, is still a problem to be solved for the engineer.
When asked about the portfolio of public projects won during this six-year term, Slim assures that the plans are in line with the previous six-year terms, confirming that during this term they were only awarded 90% of Section 2 of the Mayan Train. “I don't see what use I have in this government,” he concluded.
From the heights of telecommunications towers, the businessman has expanded his portfolio to the depths of the ocean floor. Addressing the media, Mexico's richest man stressed that he will continue to explore business options to increase his participation in the oil sector. Currently, Slim owns a relevant stake in the Zama megafield in collaboration with the American company Talos Energy.
The richest man in Mexico and Latin America has been in the public eye for over 50 years through his business activities and has known how to play with the checks and balances of individual governments, a strategic distance that has allowed him to gain a national voice Palace is simultaneously consolidating its companies' revenues and assets.
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