José Luis Manzano (born March 9, 1956 in Tupungato, Mendoza province, Argentina) is an Argentine businessman and former politician. He is currently a partner in the second largest multimedia group in his country, Grupo Uno, and has investments in several economic sectors, including energy, wine, and apparel.
Born in Tupungato, department of Mendoza, he studied medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and specialized in occupational medicine. Later he completed two postgraduate programs at Georgetown University, USA: Executive Postgraduate in International Finance and Executive Postgraduate In International Business.
He had outstanding experience in the civil service. Between 1983 and 1989 he was national deputy for Mendoza; In the Lower House, presided over the block of the Justicialista Party with 27 years old, reason why they baptized "Chupete". Between 1989 and 1993 he was party secretary. Between 1989 and 1992 he was interior minister of the government of Carlos Saúl Menem.
In 1996 he began to collaborate with the media group of Daniel Vila, businessman, with whom in society acquired the channel porteño America TV, together with the politician and entrepreneur Francisco de Narváez. In turn, created with Vila the multimedia Grupo Uno, currently the second Multimedia Group in Argentina. Today, with the name Grupo América, is composed of 49 media from all over the country, including graphics, radio, television and digital.
Also, with its partner Vila created Andes Energy in 2007, an oil company in which also integrate the brother's board of Vila, Alfredo Vila, Luis Nofal and Jorge Aidar Bestene.
Video José Luis Manzano
Education and academic activities
A native of Mendoza's department of Tupungato, he studied Medicine at the National University of Cuyo.
Dr. Manzano was a Visiting Scholar at both Georgetown University and the University of California at San Diego. He has lectured in prestigious universities in Argentine, Japan, Europe and the USA and has received several international awards.
He is also president of the Postgraduates Foundation of the Congress, in Mendoza, where he was a former member of its administration board.
Maps José Luis Manzano
Business activity
Media
Resettling in Argentina in 1996, Manzano and entrepreneur Daniel Vila, also from Mendoza, created UNO Medios, also known as Grupo Uno (Group One) or Group Vila-Manzano. They also established Supercanal Holding AS, now valued at more than $800 million.
Grupo Uno acquired the Buenos Aires-based TV channel América 2, in partnership with the politician and businessman Francisco de Narvaez. Manzano and Vila developed Group One into the second-largest media group in Argentina. By the end of the 90s, it controlled the principal channels of the Cuyo region: Channel 7 (Mendoza), Channel 8 (San Juan) and Channel 6 (San Rafael). Today Grupo Uno consists of 40 media outlets throughout the country, including press, radio, television, and digital enterprises. Among the major ones is channel América 2, in Buenos Aires, whose operation license was renewed during Néstor Kirchner's administration. All together, Grupo Uno reaches around 25 million people in Argentina. In addition, it is also a service supplier of Triple Play (telephony, Internet and cable television) through the company Supercanal. Some 450,000 people in 14 Argentinian provinces subscribe to its services.
The Vila-Manzano group also bought into cable operations abroad, in 1977 acquiring 25% of Procono in Spain, and in 1997 forming Supercanal Cable Spain. The group also purchased VVC, Alvarez & Alvarez, Video Selimn, MEG, Electro Audio and Imagem Teresopolis, CATV Sat LITD, and Televisao Spectrum Systems, all in Brazil. In addition, the group owns cable operations in Bolivia and Dominican Supercanal in the Dominican Republic. The group owns or has owned part of the magazine Primera Fila, the newspapers La Capital de Rosario and New Time, Paraná, and various radio stations.
Grupo UNO has 28 licenses between AM, FM and open television broadcasting. Manzano and Vila control channel América and its cable TV channel América24, La Red radio and newspaper networks including La Capital del Rosario and Diario UNO in Entre Rios, Mendoza and Santa Fe. With its extensive network of media services, the company reaches about 25 million people in Argentina and thus constitutes the second largest multimedia group in the country. In 2014 the Board of the Autoridad Federal de Servicios de Comunicación Audivisual (AFSCA) approved the plan of adjustment to the Media Law of Grupo UNO.
As one of his main actions as a manager of Grupo Uno, he led the association with China Watch, the supplement of news and analysis about China's business, society and culture. China Watch became the first Spanish spoken media about China.
Holdings
As of 2001, the Vila-Manzano group, through Supercanal Holding SA and other firms, controlled the following cable-TV enterprises in the locations indicated:
- Buenos Aires: Rawson Cable SA, Inversora Antena Comunitaria Trelew SA, Antena Comunitaria SA, Inversora Atelco Comodoro SA, Atelco SA, Cablesur SA, Cabledifusión SA, Comunicaciones Austral SA, SMR SA, Transcable SA, Patagonia on Line SA, ART TV SA, SHO SA, SCH SA, DTH SA, Arlink SA
- Mendoza: Trinidad Televisión SA, Telecable SA, Mirror Holding SRL, Cable Televisora Color SRL, Pehuenche Cable Televisora Color SRL, Sucanal SRL, Horizonte SRL, Nuevo Horizonte SRL, Etemsa SA, TTV SA,
- Tucumán: Monteros Televisora Color Mercedes SRL, Aconquija Televisora Satelital SRL, ACV Cable Visión SRL, AT Sat SRL, Nueva Visión Satelital SRL, Telesur SRL, Lules Cable Color, ICC
- Córdoba: Telesat, Tajamar Sistemas Electrónicos, General Levalle, Vicuña Mackenna TV, lntegra Cable SRL
- San Juan: Televisora del Oeste SA
- San Luis: Cable Televisora Color Mercedes SRL, Carolina Cable Color SA
- La Rioja: TV Cable La Rioja SA, Facundo TV SA, TV Cable Chilecito, San Luis Cable SA
- Catamarca: TV Cable Catamarca SA
- Santiago del Estero: Tele Imagen Codificada SA
- Santa Cruz: Cable Max SA
- Tierra del Fuego: Televisora Austral SA
- Río Negro: BTC SA, Visión Codificada SA
- San M. de los Andes: San Martín de los Andes Televisora Color SA.
The group also owns or has owned the magazine Primera Fila, in Mendoza; the daily newspapers La Capital and El Ciudadano, Rosario; el periódico Nueva Hora de Paraná; Canal 7 in Mendoza, Canal 8, Radio AM Calingasta and Radio FM Nuestra, in San Juan; Megavisión SA (Siempre Mujer) and Radio Rivadavia, among others.
Energy and oil
Manzano and Vila also participate in the electricity sector through Edemsa a private-public company that provides electricity to Mendoza province.
The businessmen also created Andes Energía, a Latin American energy group dedicated to the exploration, development and production of conventional and non-conventional oil and gas.The company operates in Argentina with 24 licenses, 13 in association with YPF, 6 in Vaca Muerta and 4 in the Agrio formation.In Colombia, it currently has 11 licenses for oil investments. In 2016, production, which is listed on the stock exchange London and Buenos Aires, is part of an operating holding company with its subsidiaries Kilwer, Ketsal, Grecoil and Interoil.
In July 2017, Andes Energía merged with Petrolera El Trebol (PETSA), a subsidiary in Argentina of Switzerland's Mercuria, creating Phoenix Global Resources, a new company with a strong presence in the country's most prolific conventional and non-conventional oil basins. Its main objective will be the development of the Vaca Muerta field in both Neuquén and Mendoza.
Vila-Manzano managed to close an agreement between the Andes and Mercuria, one of the largest hydrocarbon traders in the world, consisting of two loans totaling US $60 million, the first of which will allow it to settle a debt of u $ s 20 million to finance drilling activities in Chachaheun, Argentina, and the second is a US $40 million credit line to finance drilling activities throughout the Andes portfolio, including its Vaca Muerta surface, also in Argentina.
For this year, 2017, the oil companies Andes Energía, of the Vila-Manzano group, and the state-owned YPF project joint investments to increase hydrocarbons production in Argentina.
In addition, Manzano has investments in the oil sector through the firm Ketsal/Kilwer. YPF se asocial con Vila Manzano en la exploración Within the last few years, the business has been awarded exploitation contracts in southern Argentina, an area of great oil extraction potential.
They also control Hidroeléctrica Ameghino S.A. in Chubut province. This electricity generating plant is connected to the Patagonic Electric System and provides an annual 174 Gwh of electricity.
In 2013 Daniel Vila and Manzano bought 49.9% of the UTE (Transitory Union of Companies) led by El Trebol to exploit the Chañares Herrados and Puesto Pozo Cercado deposits in Tupungato, concessioned until 2017. The operation was carried out with Mercuria, The holding company owner of El Trébol. They signed an agreement with a Brazilian oil company named Imetame Energia to explore their fields in Brazil.
Building
José Luis Manzano participates together with Daniel Vila in the construction sector through Pamar SA, a construction company specializing in gas pipelines, which has more than 35 years of experience in the market. Latin American countries, specializing in oil and gas pipelines, process plants, electricity distribution networks, fiber optic networks and sanitation works.
The company of the entrepreneur managed to position itself as the leader of the" Central West Gas Pipeline System ", the largest of its kind in Argentina, covering more than 500 kilometers. The main customers are YPF, TGS, TGN and EDEMSA.
The Vila-Manzano group became part of Metrogas, after British Gas (BG) agreed to sell its holdings to the company Integra Gas Distribution LLC, owned by the Mendoza holding company. Integra is the second largest shareholder (17% of total shares) of the company after YPF.
Metrogas distributes more than 19% of the total gas supplied in the country. It is the only gas distribution service provider in and around Buenos Aires. It covers more than 2,150km2 and has 15,800 kilometers of pipeline. It has more than 2.3 million customers (which provides the service for more than 7 million people).
Wine production
In 1998, Manzano entered the wine industry. He created Grupo Vitivinícola de Tupungato, which operates Los Algarrobos estate in San Juan, and vineyards and a winery in Tupungato, Mendoza.
The winery owns 1533 hectares of fields which are located around 1200 - 1500 meters above sea level. Thirty hectares are taken up by vineyards, which produce raw materials for the wines that are sold in domestic and foreign markets. The winery has an output capacity of 1 million liters of wine.
In the same building also operates the restaurant La Tupiña in Gualtallary, owned by the Viticulture Group of Tupungato.
Political activities
Manzano was active in Argentinian politics during the 1980s and 90s. A member of the Peronist Party, "La Renovación Peronista." he was a founder and an active member of the group which consolidated and strengthened the party after the electoral defeat that Peronism suffered when democracy returned to the country. One source describes him as "the symbol of the late-80s renewal of Peronism."
In 1983 he was national deputy. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation, he participated in the approval of the legislative bill on the modification of the civil marriage regime, being one of the main speakers of the discussion sessions prior to the sanction of Law 23,515 (Divorce Law) in 1987.
His defense of the possibility of marrying after separation and of individual liberties was documented in his speech of August 19, 1986, in which he affirmed the importance of responsible liberty: "We want adult liberty, responsible freedom for the Argentines, and that those who want to re-bet on love and family, instead of having the comfortable situation of separation without assuming responsibilities, to assume together with Argentine society these two issues, that we do not understand separated because in the justicialismo we learned to live them together: freedom and responsibility (...) When we speak of liberation, we are referring to the fact that as a nation and as a people each of us has to opt for more things every day, that every day he must make the renunciation that he must make to his individual freedom in order to build together collective freedom. He also referred to the importance of consensus for the country. "When they say that it is not possible, we will say that it can. And that day, when we finish learning the lesson that the motor is the consensus, what better is to close the ears to the lobbyists and open them to the clearest voices of Argentine society - those who come from the people, the only legitimate source - we can together rediscover many things (...) And then we can rediscover together that dreaming is not crazy and that dreams are possible.
He became infamous in Argentina after a hearsay that claimed that he said "I steal for the crown"in April 1989, the manifest intention of which, to quote one source, was "to give an air of legality to corruption." Manzano claimed that he didn´t say that phrase ("only a stupid person could have said that"), but it became the title of a 1995 book about the corruption of the Menem regime, Robo para la corona: Los frutos prohibitos del arbol de corrupcion (I Steal for the Crown: The Forbidden Fruits of the Tree of Corruption). Beside that, there is no evidence he made that quote, not in any tape or interview. .
In 1991, as minister of the Interior and political leader of the federal security forces, he played a key role in clarifying the abduction of the businessman Mauricio Macri.
In 2008 Manzano was honoured in the Argentine parliament with other former members, for helping on the reconstruction of the democratic system in the country.
United States
From 1993 to 1995 Manzano lived in California, in the United States, where he began to develop his career in the private sector acting as an international consultant. He lived in Washington, D.C in 1994 where he joined the Republican Party. In 1995, he studied English and American domestic policy at the University of San Diego, and created a consulting firm known as Integra Investments S.A., where he serves as the president of the company. Integra has offices located in Washington, Miami, Buenos Aires and Mendoza. In late 1995, after spending two years away from his country, he returned to Argentina with plans of pursuing a business career. He is partner of the second largest broadcasting network in Argentina. He also has investments in the energy and oil sectors, wine and clothing industries, among others.
In the U.S., Manzano lived first in California, where he studied English and American domestic politics and finance at the University of San Diego, and then in Washington, D.C., where he forged a business alliance with Jose Mas Canosa, an anti-Castro Cuban. Manzano became an "operator" in Argentina and Central America for Mas Canosa, who died in 1996. Some reports indicate that it was Manzano who secured a sizable contribution by Mas Canosa to Menem's 1995 re-election campaign. In 1995 Manzano, whose friends ironically nicknamed him "the fugitive tyrant," created a consulting firm, Integra, headquartered in Washington, Miami, Buenos Aires, and Mendoza.
Corruption allegations
The Vila-Manzano media group, and its principals, have been repeatedly accused of fraud, censorship of TV programmes, money laundering, unfair dismissal, wire tapping, and tax evasion. There is no evidence that those accusations had moved forward.
In 2000, for example, Orlando Vignatti, holding member of La Capital Multimedios, sued Manzano and Vila, charging them with fraud and conspiracy in a deal involving shares of several radio stations and the newspaper La Capital de Rosario. The next year, Carlos María Lagos, the former owner of the newspaper, filed a complaint in which he accused Manzano and Vila of depleting the company's funds. Both businessmen had their own issues with the justice, when Vignatti´s properties were attached in 2016 or when Lagos was investigated for his management on La Capital
Also in 2001, Manzano and Vila were reported to the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP) by a former associate of theirs, Bernardo Martín Rutti, for purportedly laundering more than $400 million that Manzano, he said, had illegally obtained during his time in public service. Noting "the prodigious growth of the Vila-Manzano group," Rutti raised questions about the true ownership of, and source of the funds for, some of the Vila-Manzano companies, and outlined the ways in which the group, according to his allegations, launders funds abroad.
Links to Kirchners and others
An August 2012 article in La Nación described Manzano as an "old political friend of current officials, legislators and judges" who, despite his "low public profile," is very actively involved with the powers that be. For instance, the relationship of Group One with the banker Raúl Moneta has been the subject of attention. A March 2001 article in La Nación about the "scandals" surrounding Moneta's "dubious" banking group noted Moneta's business relationship to Manzano, while adding that it is "difficult to determine" precisely what the nature of that relationship is.
Journalists mentioned Manzano's "very close connections to the Casa Rosada" during the administrations of the late Argentine president Néstor Kirchner and the former president, Cristina Férnandez Kirchner. Newspaper La Nacion, who was in a strong dispute with the former government, has identified as Manzano's "concrete achievements" under these presidencies his ability to secure cable television licenses beyond the legal limits, the government's pardoning of his tax debts, his obtaining of government advertising on the media he owns, and a privileged position in regard to obtaining a mobile-phone concession.
Cablevision raid and aftermath
In December 2011, in response to a complaint by Manzano and Vila, Judge Walter Bento of the province of Mendoza ordered gendarmes to occupy the headquarters of Cablevisión, the cable television company owned by Grupo Clarín, even though Cablevisión did not even operate within his jurisdiction. In turn, Cablevisión accused Bento of rank incompetence and of manifest favoritism toward Manzano and Vila.
A report by Clarin accused Manzano and Vila of trying "to enter Cablevision...through the Controller Enrique Anzoise" and noted that one of the gendarmes sent into Cablevision headquarters was a security escort for Manzano and that another was a computer spy. On December 23, 2011, Cablevisión pressed charges against Bento with the Judiciary Council, calling for his impeachment. A press release by Cablevision declared that Bento, "with manifest lack of jurisdiction and abuse of authority, ordered that the company be broken into by gendarmes, at the request of Grupo Vila Manzano, one [of] the multimedia groups most favored by the National Government."
A July 2012 report indicated that Manzano and Vila had been in contact with Kirchner in recent days in connection with an impeachment action taken by Cablevision against Bento, and that both the Manzano-Vila group and the Casa Rosada were exerting pressure to dismiss Cablevision's action. It was further reported in August 2012 that Bento had worked for a foundation owned by Vila and Manzano. Yet another report indicated that Rudy Fernando Ulloa Igor, an "intimate friend of the Kirchner family" and an associate of Grupo Vila-Manzano, had been instrumental in persuading Bento to order the Cablevision raid.
Social responsibility
José Luis Manzano contributes with social, cultural and educational causes. He integrates the Vendimia Solidaria program, which aims at the integral development of children and adolescents in the Province of Mendoza providing financial assistance and promoting actions for the benefit of hospitals, neighborhood sports clubs and schools.
He also participates in the La Capital Foundation, a Rosario organization whose objective is to promote and disseminate spaces for cultural production, debate and academic formation and promote volunteering and social responsibility.
Manzano is sponsor of the House of Chinese Culture in Buenos Aires and president of the foundation of the University of Congress. She has contributed with the Clinton Foundation, an organization created to help the neediest, promote gender equality and raise awareness of climate change, and with the Al Gore Foundation, which seeks to raise awareness in society about the problem of global warming and The need to change the habits of life.
Personal life
On February 21, 2015, José Luis Manzano married with Teresa Jordan, who is his partner since 2000. The event was held at his estate in Gualtallary, Tupungato. The businessman has 4 children.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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