MEXICO: Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim says U.S. should invest more in Latin America

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the world's third-richest man, called on U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday (March 12) to push more U.S. investment in Latin America, where he is at odds with leftist leaders. Hours ahead of a visit by Bush to Mexico, Slim said more investment in the region would bring down U.S. corporate costs and stem the flow of immigrants crossing into the United States, often to flee from poverty. "The United States should buy from and invest more in Latin America, pass a good part of its industry to our countries," the cigar-smoking Slim said in a four-hour news conference. Slim, whose wealth from his telecommunications, retail and industrial firms is estimated at $49 billion by Forbes magazine, said U.S. companies should build large, top-quality hospitals on the Mexican side of the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border. Cheaper Mexican salaries -- from construction workers to nurses -- would lower hospital costs and fees, he added. Slim, 67, said the fence being built on the U.S.-Mexico border to try to stop immigrants from entering the United States illegally was absurd. U.S. immigration policies are unpopular across much of Latin America, helping leftist leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gain support in the region. Bush said on Monday in Guatemala he wants a breakthrough on U.S. immigration reform by August. Bush is scheduled to arrive in Mexico late on Monday and hold talks with President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday in the city of Merida. It will be the last stop on Bush's five-nation Latin American tour, a trip in which he has been dogged by thunderous denunciations from his leftist nemesis in the region, Chavez. Bush failed to get an immigration overhaul through the then Republican-led Congress last year due to conservative concerns about a porous U.S.-Mexico border.

ITN Source | March 14, 2007

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