Global Guru.

JOSE ANTONIO RIOS HAS SPENT TIME in some of the best-known boardrooms in Latin America. The longtime top executive with Cisneros Group launched Galaxy Latin America, the Venezuelan industrial group's satellite TV joint venture with Hughes Communications to introduce DirecTV. He then took charge of Telefonica's media arm, where he helped broker the merger of Spanish Internet portal Terra with Lycos of the United States. Now the Venezuelan has joined undersea cable firm Global Crossing. Rios talks with LATIN TRADE Connection Editor Greg Brown about why broadband will change everything in Latin American business--and fast.

You worked for media groups for years, building audiences. Now you've moved into infrastructure. What are your plans for Global Crossing?

We are going from being just a carrier's carrier to operating seven vertical markets that we have defined as our target, involving 7,500 global, multinational companies that are operating worldwide ... and that is the place where my experience absolutely meets with the needs of Global Crossing. I have interacted positively and negatively, negotiated with, or known, a very high percentage of these players in the many industries that operate in Latin America.

Broadband execs often tout the fast Internet. But we heard the same thing about pay TV, and I sure don't have 500 channels. Is there enough demand in Latin America for your product?

A lot is going to happen in the next 24 months that are going to be critical. There's going to be an explosion of broadband services. In Latin America we are sure that the 7,500 companies we have targeted are going to want these services for their clients, for their employees, for their suppliers, and they're going to be absorbing those services in an incredible way.

What's the outlook for broadband? Only a couple of years ago, you were explaining why DirecTV would fall short of its financial goals.

I was one of the ones criticizing the [DTH, direct-to-home, or satellite, television] projections. They have become some very good businesses, regardless. But I'm not talking about projections, I'm talking about reality. Today, you have 12 to 15 million people with access to DTH service. They will be primary subscribers to broadband in the near future.

How is Latin America different from other markets?

Every market has its peculiarities. In Western Europe you have a higher income per capita and a more sophisticated market, but I think the Latin American opportunities are more permanent. Once you make a business go in Latin America, the stability of the business, the permanence of the business, tends to be higher and longer than what it is in Europe or in the United States.

Why?

Very simply, the reason is competition ... Once you plow through all the conceptual problems with operating in Latin America, you deal with the Latin American business cycle and you establish a business, that business is very reliable and tends to produce a lot of profits. I think the real experience of US. and international companies in Latin America who have stayed the course is that one.