To Those Who Have Much, More

Julio Santo Domingo (seated), with his son and heir Alejandro.

In a nation which still has one of the world's most unequal distributions of property and income, it hasn't seemed to make waves that one of its two richest families, the Santo Domingos, has suddenly become billions of dollars richer - without breaking a sweat.

The family patriarch, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, who died in 2011, possessed a fortune of $8 billion dollars, with a business empire including the El Espectador newspaper, Caracol TV and radio and 14% of the SABMiller beer company.

It was the SABMiller interest which contributed the new billions this week, when the world's largest beer maker, InBev, bought the company for $104.2 billion dollars. According to El Tiempo, the interest which cost the Santo Domingos $7.8 billion in 2005 is now worth $14.8 billion.

The new company, AB InBev, will control 30% of the world's beer sales, including Bavaria's 98%
chokehold on the Colombian market. The combined companies control 61% of Latin America's beer sales.

Don't be surprised if the decrease in competition means paying more for your pola. The Wall Street Journal, no critic of capitalism, says the fusion "prepares the ground for an increase in beer prices all over the the world."

Call it the fulfillment of the Bible's Parable of the Talents: For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Dark Side of Jamesmania

A vendor in Paloquemao Market celebrates the success of millionaire athlete James Rodriguez.

Of all the things which might obsess a nation, one of the last I'd have expected would by the hiring of a Colombian football player by a team in Spain.

While we were obsessing with James Rodriguez...
drought-killed cattle in northern Colombia.

James' shirts fly off the hangars in Spain.

James Rodriguez is undoubtedly a talented football player and seems to be a nice guy. He's also become fabulously wealthy by playing a sport which many others play for fun. Banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento and beer brewer Alejandro Santo Domingo, Colombia's richest men, made their money by decades of getting up early, negotiating deals, hiring employees and analyzing budgets (and, sure, probably exploiting more than a few people along the way) - but they probably receive more resentment and jealousy than admiration from other Colombians.

Rodriguez undoubtedly worked hard, too. But he became rich and famous doing something fun, thanks to lots of inborn ability. And he gets showered with admiration, rather than jealousy.

Colombian footballer Juan Guillermo Cuadrado signing
t-shirts for Colombian children he has helped.

And, while the media and public have been obsessing over Rodriguez's ball-kicking ability, other things have happened in Colombia: There's a terrible drought in parts of the country; El Chocó has been wracked by poverty and violence; A new study found high levels of malnutrition in impoverished Colombian kids; Guerrilla bombings are spilling oil; a mine disaster in El Cauca killed seven people...and on and on.

But that's been eclipsed by Rodriguez. Is Rodriguez's ball-kicking ability really more important than any of that?

A football jersey from James Rodriguez's
foundation Colombia Somos Todos.

Spanish newspapers have questioned whether Rodriguez is really worth 80 million euros, just because he played well in a few World Cup games. They should also ask whether it's ethical for a Spanish company to spend a fortune on a single athlete while millions of Spaniards are unemployed, homeless and hungry.

Colombians should ask whether Rodriguez, a young man who hardly needs millions to survive, will send part of his fortune home to help the needy. I found this ugly list of five ways Rodriguez might spend his money, including buying luxury cars and big mansions. Helping others was last on the list. The Colombian business publication Portfolio has an equally ugly article suggesting that Rodriguez buy a luxury car or a mansion, and pointing out that he'll earn 2 million pesos per hour, more than triple Colombia's monthly minimum wage. Rodriguez's annual salary is greater than Bogotá's planned investment to clean up the Rio Bogotá. How many displaced or sick people could Rodriguez help? Or, will he instead follow in the footsteps of team mate Cristian Ronaldo and spent his fortune collecting luxury automobiles?

Hopefully not. In 2011, Rodriguez created the 'Colombia Somos Todos' foundation. That's a good start. Now that he's earning close to $1 million a month and will surely rake in much more by endorsing things like athletic shoes and deodorant, let's hope he does good with his fortune.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Following the Money to City Hall

Ask where the candidates' pesos came from and you will know to whom they belong.

If one thing is clear in the campaign for mayor of Bogotá, it's that whoever wins will have some debts to repay.

The National Electoral Council has done an admiral job of posting candidates' accounts of their campaign donations online. And the numbers are just as depressing as those of United States politicians, with its legal, institutionalized pay-to-play system.

The excellent investigative website La Silla Vacia published this summary of the sources of Bogotá mayoral candidates' money. The three leading candidates, Gustavo Petro, a leftist who leads in most polls, and the (apparently) center-right candidates Enrique Peñalosa and Gina Parody, are all near the 1.646 billion peso limit for mayoral campaign spending.

Wasted money: Petro campaign
cards scattered on a sidewalk near
the Central Cemetery. 

Perhaps Petro's finances have received the most attention. He's a leftist and one-time M-19 guerrilla, but some big businesses nevertheless evidently consider him a good investment. Petro has received money from a leader of farmers, which seem like an unlikely group to be supporting a candidate for big-city mayor, the owner of a transportation company, a construction company, a bank and someone who La Silla Vacia couldn't even identify. Most worryingly, El Espectador columnist Cecilia Orozco Tascón writes that two of Petro's deep-pocketed business donors were created recently, apparently just to donate to Petro. One company, strangely, actually donated more than the financial capital it was created with.

Peñalosa received lots of money from a plumbing fixtures company and the well-known businesses Comcel, Exito and Seguros Bolívar.

For her part, Parody spent family money (her father has maritime and port interests) and received donations from banks and an insurance company.

Interestingly, several big businesses have covered their bases by supporting more than one of the leading candidates. Grupo Bolivar, for example, donated to all three leading candidates, assuring itself an open door no matter who wins.

Some of these contributors might just be friends who happen to believe in the candidates, which is justifiable. But it also seems likely that most people shoveling in millions of pesos will want a payback if their man or woman wins.

Of course, all these finance reports assume that the candidates are actually being honest. And political money is notorious for being duplicitous. How many businessmen and mafiosos have funneled money to politicians thru girlfriends and second cousins' wives?

And money isn't everything. Peñalosa, for example, has received support from evangelical churches - which rightly worries civil liberties advocates.

El Espectador also summarized the finances of mayoral candidates from Colombia's secondary cities, and some of their funding sources are very suggestive. For example, a candidate from Barranquilla accepted lots of money from a construction company, and one from Cartagena from hotel interests. if those candidates win, those businesses will likely be lining up for payback in municipal contracts.

In contrast, many local candidates from smaller parties haven't declared the sources of their money. That's likely in part because those small-town, small-party candidates lack the resources and sophistication to crunch these numbers. But the situation certainly opens the door to dirty business, since many rural areas are notorious for corruption. Suggesting that something fishy's up, in some small towns actually have more voters listed than residents.



By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours