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The Billionaires

Latin America's wealthiest individuals, according to Forbes.

Latin America can
boast 26 billionaires
with a combined fortune of $87.9 billion,
according to an analysis by Latin Business Chronicle based on the 2005 version of Forbes
global ranking of 691 billionaires.

That's 28.5 percent
more than the region's
24 billonaires were
worth in 2004, the analysis shows.

Carlos Slim, Latin America's wealthiest
man, boosted his fortune by a whopping $9.9
billion in 2004, thanks
to another strong year
at his telecom companies América Movil and Telmex.

Other significant
increases were noted
by Brazilian investor
Jorge Paulo Lemann
(who boosted his fortune by $1.5 billion) and Colombian banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento
(up $1.3 billion). Lemann's fortune
doubled after the 2004 merger between Dutch brewer Interbrew and Brazilian brewer
AmBew, where he held
8 percent of the shares.

BILLIONAIRES
Net worth in billions of US dollars and global rank
Code:
Carlos Slim Helu, MX                 $23.8        4 
Joseph and Moises Safra, BR          $5.2        91 
Gustavo Cisneros*, VE                $5.0        94 
Andronico Luksic*, CH                $4.2       132 
Lorenzo Mendoza*, VE                 $4.1       136 
Jeronimo Arango, MX                  $3.6       151 
Julio Mario Santo Domingo, CO        $3.5       156 
Aloysio de Andrade Faria, BR         $3.2       170 
Anacleto Angelini, CH                $2.9       203 
Alberto Bailleres, MX                $2.7       219 
Eliodoro Matte*, CH                  $2.7       219 
Luis Carlos Sarmiento, CO            $2.7       219 
Jorge Paulo Lemann, BR               $2.6       228 
Ricardo Salinas*, MX                 $2.6       228 
Antonio Ermirio de Moraes*,BR        $2.5       243 
Lorenzo Zambrano*, MX                $2.2       292 
Roberto Hernandez, MX                $2.0       321 
Maria A. Aramburuzabala*, MX         $1.8       366 
Gregorio Perez Companc*, AR          $1.7       387 
Julio Bozano, BR                     $1.6       413 
Alfredo Harp Helu, MX                $1.6       413 
Abilio dos Santos Diniz*, BR         $1.3       507 
Isaac Saba Raffoul*, MX              $1.2       548 
Marcel Telles, BR                    $1.2       548 
Emilio Azcarraga, MX                 $1.0       620 
Carlos Sicupira, BR                  $1.0       620
*And family. Source: Forbes

Of last year's original 22 billionaires, 14 boosted their fortunes, while four saw theirs decline and the remaining noted no changes in their fortunes, according to Forbes.

The 2005 ranking included five new billionaires compared with the previous year's list - newcomers Marcel Telles and Carlos Sicupira from Brazil as well as three others that have been on the list earlier, Brazilian Antonio Ermirio de Moraes, Colombian Julio Mario Santo Domingo and Mexican Emilio Azcarraga.

Mexicans Eugenio Garza Laguera and Carlos Peralta fell off the billionaires' list, while Lily Safra from Brazil made the Forbes list and would have made the Latin America list, but changed citizenship to Monaco since the last list and was thus not included in our survey.

COUNTRIES
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dom. Rep.
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela