Daily Research News

The ‘2003 Latin American Marketing Report,’ published this week by Strategy Research Corporation (SRC), now part of Synovate, presents buying power estimates for 18 countries, plus Puerto Rico, and 70 metropolitan markets across Latin America. According to Rick Tobin, president of SRC and co-author of the report, a few islands of economic brightness have surfaced in an ocean of South American gloom. Latin American nations located closest to the United States appear to have fared better in general than those furthest from the U.S., according to Dr. Adolfo Chiri, SRC's chief economist, the report's other co-author.

Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela (a notable exception to the ‘proximity’ rule) led the 10% downturn in consumer buying power in Latin America, estimated to total $1.2 trillion.

While the combined economies for the region are not experiencing growth, there are some obvious winners and losers. Puerto Rico and Mexico have the highest levels of average buying power per household, among the 125 million Latin American households, the report says. Twenty-two percent of Mexicans and 21% of Costa Ricans feel they are personally better off economically than in the previous year, while 64% of Latin Americans feel that their personal economic situations are worse than the year before.

Optimistically, 58% of Latin Americans expect their personal economic situations to be the same or better next year. At the same time, 54% of Latin Americans consider that their countries' economic situations will be the same or better next year, while 38% believe their country's economic situations will be worse. It is important to note that Argentina experienced a 62% decline in consumer buying power this year, while other countries, including Ecuador, experienced an 18% growth in buying power for the same period.

Twenty-five percent of Latin American households report doing grocery shopping daily. Sixty percent prefer grocery shopping in supermarkets, while 28% shop for groceries in traditional markets. Interestingly, shoppers are influenced most by quality, rather than price or taste when making their purchasing decisions.

Unemployment and security are among the leading problems that concern Latin Americans, while urban transportation and fixed phone services are the services with which Latin Americans are least satisfied.

In electronic services, 85% of Latin American households connected to the Internet do so by dial-up connection. Seventy-five percent of Internet users use it primarily for e-mail, while 63% report using online banking for paying bills. Latin Americans listen to the radio an average of 19 hours per week.

Further information is available at www.strategyresearch.com

June 16 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he may take over more regional and municipal police forces after riots at an anti-government protest on Friday, El Nacional reported.

Chavez said that the country's interior and justice ministry may move to wrest control of the police of the central state of Miranda from state Governor Enrique Mendoza. The president also said he may assert authority over the Caracas Metropolitan police, who report to Mayor Alfredo Pena. Mendoza and Pena are Chavez opponents.

No one should have any doubt,'' Chavez said during his weekly radio program, the newspaper said. If we have to do this, we will.''

Chavez took over Caracas's metropolitan police in November, claiming that Pena had lost control of the 9,000-person force. Courts later ruled the takeover illegal. The police have been used to protect anti-government protestors in demonstrations against the government.

(EN, 6/16, A6) To see El Nacional's Web site, click on {NCNL }

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 16, 2003 By: David Coleman

President Hugo Chavez Frias has stressed that he is NOT against the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA), nor is he anti-American simply because he is critical of the United States dominated proposal, scheduled to come into effect from 2005.

"I ask that the North American public should not allow themselves to be deceived by versions of my supposed aversion to the United States of America, just because I have reservations about whether or not the FTAA agreement is convenient for South American interests."

Speaking from Manaus in Brazil, during a stop-over with Venezuelan and Brazilian business executives, Chavez Frias added "We are not anti-FTAA ... how could we be?" stressing that his relationship "within the FTAA is and always will be pro-South America."

"It would be suicide for South America to negotiate a deal with the FTAA under the circumstances that the region is permeated with insecurity, splits and weaknesses ... "we would not be able to compete commercially with the larger forces within the continental agreement ... they would demolish us ... this is what some people in South America don't want to understand."

"What we need is unity, a South American brotherhood to strengthen the region and ultimately to arrive at a point where we can reach commercial agreements under more advantageous conditions with whatever part of the world: North America, Europe, Asia!@

Chavez Frias has been proposing a "Bolivarian ideal" in the best traditions of South American Liberator from colonial Spanish rule, Venezuelan Simon Bolivar, who envisaged South America as one nation, one people ... he will be continuing the thrust tomorrow, Tuesday, at a Mercosur Heads of State meeting in Paraguay.   Mercosur is a Customs & Excise union created in 1991 with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as founding members.  Chile and Bolivia are associated with Mercosur through free trade agreements but in May 2001 the Chavez Frias government made formal application for full membership with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as member nations of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).

In related news: President Chavez Frias said the government will guarantee supplies of foreign currency to foreign investment, giving fast-track access to money markets despite exchange controls imposed in February at the end of a crippling 2-month opposition stoppage.  "We are sufficiently conscious and flexible to understand foreign investors' requirements, to facilitate the mechanisms to approve foreign currency transactions ... we give this guarantee to the world."

Although he emphasizes that the exchange controls are "transitional," President Chavez Frias was at pains to include that they will not be lifted in the short-term as urged by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) which led the unsuccessful 2-day coup against his government in April 2002.

Fedecamaras executives and Venezuelan industrialists have been accusing the government of using "an workable and seriously deficient exchange system" to revenge the coup d'etat and the 2-month December-January stoppage which cost the nation at least $4 billion.  Chavez Frias insists that the controls were imposed since, having failed to out his government by fair means or foul, the opposition had taken to economic terrorism with speculative attacks on the nation's economy aimed at bleeding him out of government where the Carmona Estanga dictatorship had patently failed.

"In actual fact we now have an excellent result with US$15.6 billion foreign reserves against $14.7 billion in February ... we have been able to reduce country-risk perspective and interest rates and there has been a recent rise on Venezuelan capital markets to show for it."

"The Venezuelan economy will continue to strengthen ... this is the year of our recovery despite all the efforts by the opposition to destroy our efforts and to deceive the world into believing that Venezuela is a country in which you should not invest."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 16, 2003 By: Caare W

Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 15:41:57 -0400 From: Caare W caarew@hotmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Venezuela deserves better

Dear Editor: That previous governments have failed, can never be an argument to let a hopeless regime continue.

The last week there's been a debate here at VHeadline.com about whether human rights organizations didn't care about Venezuela before Chavez came to power ... in other words: Whether they can be suspected of taking action now because they have some interest in campaigning against the Chavez-regime.

In "If President Hugo Chavez Frias were a communist or a dictator..." one of the participants in the debate wrote: "My question was, and remains, where were the human rights organizations during those decades?" (The decades prior to Chavez).

The answer is that they were in Venezuela. For example Amnesty International concluded a visit in 1996 with a report named "Venezuela: Amnesty International delegation ends visit with disappointment and alarm."  In 1997 Amnesty reported: "Dozens of prisoners of conscience were detained during the year. Scores of people, including children, were extrajudicially executed in the context of police and army operations ostensibly aimed at combating crime. At least 25 prisoners burned to death in a prison in Caracas. Torture and ill-treatment by the security forces were widespread and some people died as a result of torture. Prison conditions remained extremely harsh. Most perpetrators of human rights violations continued to benefit from impunity."

So as is now evident, human rights organizations were in Venezuela during these years too ... meaning that when they now report that the situation is worse than ever, they do that with a high level of credibility and integrity. They investigated both previous regimes and the current. The sad fact is that things were bad before, and they are even worse now.

One can keep talking about how bad the situation was before Chavez ... and some of what is said is correct ... but this can't excuse that Chavez hasn't been able to make Venezuela move in the right direction. He has promised and promised, but hasn't kept his words. I have no higher wish than that he had succeeded in constructing a better society ... but I don't believe that will ever happen.

My conclusion is therefore that Mr. Chavez is unfit to be the President of Venezuela. It is not because I'm an oligarch ... it is not because I hate him ... it is not because I believe that the poor doesn't deserve better ... it is just simply because I think he is a catastrophically bad President, and I see no hope of improvement with him still in power.

• That the opposition failed in previous years, can't be an argument to hold on to a hopeless President. Venezuela deserves much, much better than both Chavez and previous Presidents.

Unfortunately much of the debate is not rational, because there are so many accusations and insults thrown between people with different views of the situation.

So please: Let's put aside our assumptions about those who don't agree with us. Let's listen to those who oppose us. Let's introduce some mutual respect to this debate.

Regards, Caare W. caarew@hotmail.com

<a href=www.mobilecommerceworld.com>mobilecommerceworld.com 16/06/2003 Miami-based wireless data solutions enabler CycleLogic is rolling out m-payment solutions across Latin America this year in a bid to help operators promote greater use of SMS applications.

According to BNAmerica, mobile subscribers can pay their carrier electronically by simply sending a password-encoded SMS request to the operator, which already has the user's debit card information encoded.

The m-payment service - which is geared to debit cardholders since only 4 percent of Latin Americans have credit cards - is already on trial in Colombia and Venezuela, and will be launched in Brazil in about two weeks.