Billionaire, Mario Lopez Estrada, has passed away at 84

Lopez, a former minister, amassed his wealth during Guatemala's national monopoly on telecommunications' privatization in the 1980s, when the majority of the nation's cities lacked even a single functional phone. In 2021, he received $2.2 billion as payment for ending a deal with cellular provider Millicom International Cellular SA. In a place where most money is inherited, his mostly self-made riches was an anomaly.

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In an interview from 2014, when he originally agreed with Millicom about the potential sale of his interest, Lopez stated, "I am pretty affluent. "It's important to step outside of your comfort zone,"

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Guatemala gave Comunicaciones Celulares SA a 20-year concession, giving it a monopoly in exchange for sharing revenues with the government, as an early step toward privatizing phone operations. Lopez obtained his initial stake in the company, then known as Comcel, in 1993 before leaving his position as transport minister for President Vinicio Cerezo and raising his stake to 45%.

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The firm maintained its monopolistic status until 1999, when Telefonica SA, located in Madrid, and Telgua, controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil SAB, entered the market.

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Manuel Estrada Cabrera, a tyrant who controlled Guatemala for 22 years before being toppled in an armed uprising in 1920, was Lopez's great-grandfather. He made concessions to United Fruit Co., a US banana exporter, in an effort to upgrade the nation's railroads and other infrastructure.

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Mario Lopez, the chief executive officer of Grupo Onyx, and Mariana and Gabriela Lopez, the board members of the company, are Lopez's children.

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