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Ford Wants a Mexican Fiesta

4:21 pm By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| Money| business| mexico · Comments Off

2 Jun 2008

How many of us have chuckled at the ridiculousness of the name carmaker Ford gave one of its low-end cars — the “Fiesta”? Well that little piece of metal’s name will be a little more authentic, as the car will now be built in Mexico, a change that The Christian Science Monitor calls “a blow for Detroit”:

But for Mexico, Friday’s announcement – which has been heralded as the largest manufacturing investment in the country’s history – is a decisive feat.

President Felipe Calderón called the $3 billion deal a “turning point.”

While the US automaking industry sags – undergoing massive restructuring and downsizing – Mexico’s production has expanded, especially for small, low-cost vehicles. Last year, Mexico produced a record number – over 2 million – and analysts forecast that by the year 2015 production could at least double.

The CSM says that the production of these smaller vehicles could position Mexico as a center for fuel efficient cars, bringing back some of the money lost as manufacturing jobs have moved to China.

Via / Christian Science Monitor

Slim and Buffett Donate to Shakira’s ALAS

6:51 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism| Celebrities| Entertainment| Latin America| business · Comments Off

16 May 2008

ALAS, the non-profit organization dedicated to aiding impoverished communities in Latin America for which Shakira is a spokesperson and advocate, has received a major contribution from some of the world’s richest businessmen:

With the affirmation of “We are going to make history,” Shakira and Miguel Bosé announced on Thursday that the ALAS Foundation will receive a donation of 200 million dollars from businessmen Carlos Slim and Howard Buffett, as well as from wealthy families all over Latin America.

Slim alone is donating 110 million dollars to the cause. The Mexican businessman said he feels a social responsibility towards the less fortunate and said that as a member of ALAS he is using his business experience to help solve social problems.

American Buffett will contribute 85 million dollars. “Poverty has devastating consequences. Those who prefer to live with their eyes closed will see the consequences. ALAS will not allow it” said Miguel Bosé in a press conferenece two days before the massive free concerts that will be held for the cause, which will happen simultaneously in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

capt.d788e31add33446aabb3ac4cda79207b.mexico_alas_mxev103.jpg In the photo above along with Shakira, Slim and Buffett are Spanish star David Bisbal and Peruvian singer Tania Libertad.

I’m sure the 110 million is no skin off of Slim’s nose, but it’s nice to see this happen. I’ve always found it to be an offensive contradiction that one of the world’s top 5 richest men would be from a country where half the population lives in poverty and one-fifth in extreme poverty.

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)

Image via AP/Yahoo News

Venezuela Wins Suit Against Exxon

9:19 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Money| Venezuela| business · Comments Off

18 Mar 2008

Score for Venezuela in it’s ongoing battle with U.S. oil giant Exxon. Earlier today a British court ruled that a $12 billion freeze on Venezuelan assets awarded to U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil should be lifted. The freeze has been won in January by Exxon, who wanted to secure available cash if it won arbitration over an oil field which was lost in President Hugo Chavez’s nationalization drive. Exxon is expected to appeal.

Venezuela’s Ambassador to Britain, who arrived shortly after the ruling, answered with just one word when he heard the result: “Excellento”.Excellento? Um Reuters, check your translations.

Via / Reuters

Venezuela to Exxon : You Didn’t Invest that Much Dinero So Get Out

8:26 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Money| Venezuela| business · Comments Off

15 Feb 2008

Earlier this week, we reported on the latest Hugo Chavez threat. By the next day, Venezuela’s state oil company said that it has stopped selling crude to Exxon Mobil Corp. This was a direct response to A US court freezing $12bn of State Venezuelan assets until the verdict of an international tribunal. Venezuela is saying that Exxon never invested that much money and that their actual assets value at $1.2bn.

Exxon gets (or got) about 5% of its crude oil from Venezuela.

Via / BBC y CNN

Are Cubanos Real Estate Mavens?

3:12 pm By Maegan La Mala · Cuba| Money| business| society · Comments Off

28 Jan 2008

Capitalism might be the enemy of Castro’s Cuba, but according to an article in the International Herald Tribune, that hasn’t stopped Cubans from doing their own form of real estate wheeling and dealing. Apparently it’s all going on under the table, but it’s a secreto a voces:

And although there is no Century 21 here, there is a bustling underground market in homes and apartments, which has given rise to agents (illegal ones), speculators (they are illegal, too) and scams (which range from praising a dive as a dream house to backing out of a deal at the closing and pocketing the cash).

The whole enterprise is quintessentially Cuban, socialist on its face but really a black market involving equal parts drama and dinero, sometimes as much as $50,000 or more. These days, insiders say, prices are on the rise as people try to get their hands on historic homes in anticipation of a time when private property may return to Cuba.

Officially, buying or selling property is forbidden. But the island has a dire housing shortage, despite government-sponsored new construction. And that has led many Cubans to subdivide their often decaying dwellings or to upgrade their surroundings through a decades-old bartering scheme known in Cuban slang as “permuta.”

Condi Rice in Colombia

9:37 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia| Politics| business · Comments Off

25 Jan 2008

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Colombia yesterday pushing for the free trade agreement between the U.S. and the country led by President Alvaro Uribe. The FTA, was first signed in 2006, but has not yet been passed by the U.S. Congress. During the trip, she met with President Alvaro Uribe, as well as with trade unionists who are opposed to the FTA. The major reason for the opposition is that the TLC, as the FTA is known in Colombia, doesn’t automatically protect the rights of union workers, an important issue in a country where union leaders and activists are getting killed (40 in the last year alone).

Protesters to Ring In 2008 with Anti-NAFTA Wall

2:30 pm By Maegan La Mala · Activism| Controversia| Money| business| mexico · Comments Off

27 Dec 2007

In the very first minutes of the New Year, the border that separates Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas will become a scene of protest. Tired of the 700% increase on the price of tortillas and other corn-based products — as well as increases on other staple such as beans, chicken and meat — as a result of increased importation from the U.S. into Mexico, under NAFTA, farmers and consumers are fighting back.

As part of the National Campaign in Defense of Food Sovereignty and the revitalization of Mexican farmland project Sin Maíz no hay País ["Without Corn There is No Country"], 300 farmer, environmental and human rights organizations participating in said campaigns will create a human wall on the first day of January on the 5 border bridges of Ciudad Juárez, where truckloads of grain enter from the United States…

…this protest is part of the campaign, which started on July 25th with the goal of ending the free entry into the market of [U.S.] corn, beans, powdered milk and sugar cane, and to urge Congress and the [Mexican] federal government to begin a renegotiation process of the farming section of the NAFTA documents.

Organizers say they intend to keep the human wall up until January 2, but admit that it might be tough, given that the border is such a highly policed area. Joining the Mexican organizations will also be groups from the U.S. and Canada.

Via / La Jornada

Image via ElPais.com

Carlos Slim’s CompUSA folds

12:52 pm By Maegan La Mala · Money| business| mexico · Comments Off

10 Dec 2007

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is called “El Rey Midas” in Mexico, as it seems as if everything he touches turns to gold. But that hasn’t been the case with computer superstore CompUSA, which will fold after the Christmas shopping season:

As rumored last week, Carlos Slim Helu’s U.S. electronics chain CompUSA Management Co. will close after the holiday. Liquidator and restructuring firm Gordon Brothers Group LLC agreed to purchase the assets of the troubled Dallas-based retailer, which closed half of its stores in February. No financial details were given, but Boston-based Gordon Brothers is expected to find a buyer for CompUSA’s 103 store locations, e-commerce unit and its tech support business.

According to the Dealscape blog, over 100 CompUSA stores were closed in February. And while Slim and his guys chalk up the failure to competition from big box stores like Best Buy, anyone who’s visited a CompUSA store lately can tell you that from the terrible customer service to the non-competitive pricing to its archaic website, this business lost its relevance a while back.

Via / Dealscape

Image via Tyler Durden’s Imaginary Friend’s Flickr page

Strange Fruit Revisited : The Lechuga Story

1:14 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| Labor| business · Comments Off

5 Sep 2007

Remember when I challenged all those “send ‘em back” anti-immigration advocates in light of the impact that the lack of immigration reform could have on business and on prices? Today’s New York Times has a really interesting article about how farmers are renting fields in Mexico where they can get cheap labor directly from the source without worrying about immigration laws.One lettuce farmer who moved his operation south of the border gives his perspective:

He also dismisses arguments that he could attract workers by raising wages, saying Americans do not take the sweaty, seasonal field jobs. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I did that I would raise my costs and I would not have a legal work force,” Mr. Scaroni said.

Image Via / NYT (Registration required)

Coppola staking a claim in Latin America

1:47 pm By Maegan La Mala · Argentina| Brazil| Celebrities| business · 2 Comments

30 Aug 2007

It’s not enough that legendary director Francis Ford Coppola owns half of the San Francisco Bay Area, but now the ultra rich film mogul is going to go buy up South America. Coppolla already owns some properties in Buenos Aires, and is looking to expand his investment in hospitality in Brazil:

The five-time-Oscar winning director arrived this week in Florianopolis, on the Atlantic coast some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of here, in search of real estate for his business venture, said the website without further details.

Coppola, 68, already has several investments including a couple of wineries in the US state of California and resorts in Guatemala and Belize.

In June, the director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” was in Buenos Aires where he bought a hotel boutique and where he also plans to set up a film production facility and shoot a movie in 2008, G1 said.

I really like FFC’s work and I hope whatever he is doing in Brazil will benefit not only himself but the local economy.

Via / Yahoo! Entertainment – AFP

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