Foundation makes it Latin America's largest corporate giver. But Slim is taking money out of his own pocket as well, last year doubling the size of his family charity, the Carso Foundation, to $2.5 billion.

In recent weeks, the Telmex Foundation has been publishing daily, three-color, full-page advertisements in major Mexican newspapers to publicize its many charitable programs, which, among other things, provide bicycles to rural children so they can get to school and provide free surgical operations for the poor.



Slim also just donated $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. Former President Bill Clinton announced on June 21, 2007 that his foundation is launching a new sustainable development initiative in Latin America, the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI), thanks to the major financial commitment of two prominent philanthropists, Frank Giustra and Carlos Slim Helú. Both, Giustra, a Canadian businessman, and Carlos Slim Helú have pledged a minimum of $100 million to CGSGI’s work in Latin America.



Publicity surrounding his ever-increasing wealth, which doesn't go down well in a country like Mexico, where 45% of the population lives below the poverty line and where the per capita gross domestic product is just over $8,000. The companies Slim controls account for nearly half of the Mexican stock exchange's value. Slim argues that his companies provide tens of thousands of jobs that are badly needed in Mexico and scoffs at the annual tabulation of the net worth of billionaires around the world, saying it's meaningless because he never intends to sell his companies. If he did, though, he'd be even more in the pink: Mexico doesn't charge capital-gains tax on stock sales.



Slim is the most visible of Mexico's monopolists, controlling more than 70% of the ...