[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 28, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



[[Page E1354]]


                      EXPROPRIATION IN COSTA RICA

                                 ______


                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 28, 1995
  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my strong concern over the 
expropriation of the cellular telephone system installed and formerly 
operated by Millicom in Costa Rica. Congress must address this 
situation not only for the sake of this U.S. company, but because of 
the terrible discouragement the expropriation makes against investors 
to bring Latin America into the information age, and onto the 
information highway.
  Millicom has headquarters in New York and operates cellular telephone 
networks in 19 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 
The company was invited by Costa Rica to install a cellular telephone 
system there. After the system had succeeded and was being expanded, 
the government began using insidious techniques of regulatory 
expropriation to nullify Millicom's property rights. Finally, a court 
ruled that the Costa Rican Constitution requires the government's 
telephone company to be a monopoly, and thereby expropriated Millicom's 
network and overturned written assurances Millicom had received that it 
could own and operate the system. Negotiations with Millicom to resolve 
the situation were on the threshold of an agreement when they were 
suddenly terminated last month by the President of Costa Rica.


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