5,170 viewsApr 5, 2017, 07:06am

Brazil Tops Latin Billionaires On List's

3rd Decade, While Carlos Slim Remains
Region's Richest

Dolia EstevezContributor
I cover Mexico's billionaires, politics and U.S.-Mexico relations

In the three decades that FORBES has been tracking billionaires, the number of Latin Americans
on the list has jumped from two in 1987 to 87 in FORBES World's Billionaires 2017
rankings released last month. Their combined total net worth climbed from $3.3 billion in 1987
to $373.2 billion in 2017.
According to the 1987 FORBES inaugural list of the World's Billionaires, Brazil's Ermirio de
Moraes family ($2 billion net worth) and Mexico's Garza Sada family ($1.3 billion net worth),
were the first Latin American billionaires in the ranking. Members of the Ermirio De Moraes
family still appear on the list, but not the Garza Sadas.

Mexican TV mogul Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, who died in 1987, was Latin America's
richest man in 1992. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Brazil has witnessed the largest expansion of billionaires since that first list in 1987. South
America's biggest economy went from having one billionaire to 43 this year, with a total net
worth of $172.1 billion. With a net worth that FORBES puts at $29.2 billion, investor and
philanthropist Jorge Paulo Lemann is Latin America's second richest person after Mexico's
telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú.

Latin American billionaires hail from seven countries: 7 from Argentina, 43 from Brazil, 12 from
Chile, 3 from Colombia, 15 from Mexico, 5 from Peru, and 2 from Venezuela.

In 1991, Slim debuted on the FORBES billionaires list at $1.7 billion. Nineteen years later, in
2010, with a net worth of $74 billion, Slim became the word's richest person. But in 2014, Slim
lost that title to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Slim is the only Latin American to have held
the richest-person-on-the-planet title.

In 1992, the FORBES billionaires issue was dedicated to Mexico's billionaires. With a net worth
of $2.8 billion, TV tycoon Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, Latin America's richest person, was
featured on the cover. Upon his death in 1997, Emilio Azcárraga Jean, Azcárraga
Milmo's son, became CEO of Grupo Televisa at age 29. FORBES estimates Azcárraga Jean's
net worth at $2.1 billion, less than what his father had.

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FORBES explained that Mexico was the next Latin American country to implement free market
policies after Chile in the 1970s. But bigger, richer and closer to the colossus of the North, the
Mexican economy grew at a faster pace. No surprise, said FORBES, that year Mexico created
more billionaires than any other Latin nation.

Others Mexicans on the 1992 billionaires list included retailer brothers Jerónimo, Plácido and
Manuel Arango; cement moguls Lorenzo and Marcelo Zambrano; Slim Helú; the Garza Sada
family, and bankers Roberto Hernández and Alfredo Harp Helú. With the exception of the
Zambranos and the Garza Sadas, the rest continue to meet the ten-digit mark.
FORBES said in 1992 that having survived harsh economic and political conditions, the new
Latin billionaires were "tough and smart." "They are ready to become much larger players in the
global economy," FORBES predicted.

And so it was: 1994 was the biggest for Mexico's super rich. In the midst of high expectations
generated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect that
year, Mexico's billionaires climbed to a record high of 24. The Mexican economy surged and 11
new billionaires were added to the 1993 list. Slim moved into the world's top 10 richest persons.

The thrill didn't last long. In 1995, the Mexican peso collapsed and the economy plummeted into
a debt crisis that threatened to bring down Wall Street. Fifteen billionaires were dropped from
the billionaires ranking that year.

Over the past two decades, the number of Mexican billionaires has remained mostly stable,
ranging between 10 and 16. In 1998 the number of Mexican billionaires dropped to just seven.
Slim has been the biggest gainer. His net worth has climbed from $19 billion in 2009 (he was the
single biggest one-year gain in a decade) to $54.5 billion in FORBES 2017 billionaires list. With
a net worth of $77.1 billion, 2015 was Slim's best year ever.

In the past month, since the 2017 rankings were published, Slim has become $6.6 billion richer,
in large part due to the recovery of the Mexican peso.

The inclusion of Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán in the 2009 billionaire rankings
was a milestone in FORBES decades long tracking of Mexican billionaires. In 2013, Guzmán,
the former leader of world's biggest narcotics cartel, was dropped from the rankings when it was
no longer possible to asses his wealth, which FORBES had estimated at $1 billion. Guzmán is
currently awaiting trial in a Manhattan maximum security federal prison. His long awaited
extradition to the U.S. in January put an end to one of most extraordinary criminal careers in
modern times.

Twitter: @DoliaEstevez

As a senior foreign correspondent based in Washington, D.C., I cover politics, trade and finances
for print media and radio in Mexico. I was Washington correspondent for the Mexican daily El
Financiero during the NAFTA negotiations. My book, "U.S. Ambassadors to Mexico," pub...
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