By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Fresh off a $1 billion fine for monopolization in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu appeared Friday with the UN Development Program talking about economic development in Latin America.
Inner City Press asked Slim about the case, and the place of antitrust law and competition in economic development. Slim cut the question off and launched into an underdog story, of having taken on AT&T, MCI / Worldcom, Verizon.
Yes, he acknowledged, there are places where his company comtrols 100% of the market. He said this could be attributed to who had the better and more extensive network.
Many who attended his press conference at UNDP wondered why Carlos Slim would come to the UN at this time. But this is not his first or only connection. Already, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named him to a climate change advisory panel.
Mexico and climate change seem to together in the eyes of the UN system. As Inner City Press exclusively reported, the Latin American head of state left unnamed by UN Environment Program in the run up to its “Champions of the Environmental” award ceremony on May 10 is president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.
After Inner City Press fruitlessly asked Slim about the case and $1 billion antitrust fine, a UNDP staff came over and pointed out that Bill Gates was charged with similar monopolization. It occurs that the UN has a thing for monopolists. Inner City Press raised the same questions about Gates, for example when an Under Secretary General's brother held an event at the UN as “Microsoft's Ambassador to Africa.”
Friday's press conference, held in connection with the Fourth Ministerial Forum on Development in Latin America, was supposed to include Viviana Caro, Minister of Development Planning of Bolivia -- but did not.
Alongside Carlos Slim was Angelino Garzón, Vice President of Colombia, who jumped in to say that monopolies must be opposed by governments. One wanted to ask, by $1 billion fines? But the press conference was over.
Serving as moderator was UNDP's chief for Latin America Heraldo Munoz. Before going to UNDP he as Chile's Permanent Representative to the UN, and chaired a UN inquiry into the murder of Benazir Bhutto. When the report was released, he held a press conference, something that has not been done by the more recent UN panels on Sri Lanka war crimes and then cholera in Haiti. And so it goes at the UN.
