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       T R O U B L E D   C O M P A N Y   R E P O R T E R

                   L A T I N   A M E R I C A

            Wednesday, March 21, 2001, Vol. 2, Issue 56

                           Headlines


B E R M U D A

RSL COMMUNICATIONS: Commences Insolvency Proceedings in Bermuda


B O L I V I A

COTEL: Bolivian Government Dumps Plans For Second Auction


B R A Z I L

CESP: More Companies Show Interest As Privatization Looms
CODESP: Registers R$92M Loss In 2000


C H I L E

TELEX-CHILE S.A.: Company Profile


M E X I C O

CHRYSLER: Renews Efforts to Hide Lemon Documents
CHRYSLER: To Concentrate Parts Production In Brazil
CINTRA: To Be Put Up For Sale July
GMD: On The Road Again, Commences $200M Highway Project Soon


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B E R M U D A
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RSL COMMUNICATIONS: Commences Insolvency Proceedings in Bermuda
---------------------------------------------------------------
RSL Communications, Ltd. (OTC: RSLCF) announced that insolvency
proceedings were commenced in the Supreme Court of Bermuda today.
The Bermuda proceeding could result in either a restructuring of
the Company's obligations or the sale of its assets. Joint
Provisional Liquidators were appointed by the Bermuda Court to
oversee the process. At the same time, the Company announced that
its wholly owned, non- operating subsidiary, RSL Communications
PLC, and its indirect subsidiary, RSL COM Europe Ltd., initiated
insolvency proceedings in the London High Court. The process will
be administered by Joint Administrators who were appointed by the
London Court.

Other than in the U.S., the business and operations of the
operating subsidiaries are not involved in any formal insolvency
or reorganization proceedings, and all are continuing to provide
ongoing services to customers. RSL COM U.S.A., Inc., the
principal operating subsidiary in the U.S. and its subsidiary RSL
COM Primecall, Inc., filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the
U.S. Bankruptcy Code on March 16, 2001 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court
in the Southern District of New York.

In a related announcement, the Company said that a petition to
commence an ancillary proceeding under section 304 of the U.S.
Bankruptcy Code has been filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of New York. RSL Communications Ltd. maintains
executive offices in New York City.

The Company said that Peter Spratt, Randall Eisenberg and Peter
Mitchell, partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers, have been appointed
Joint Provisional Liquidators in the Bermuda proceedings.
Similarly, Peter Spratt, Neville Kahn and Steven Pearson, also
partners in PricewaterhouseCoopers, have been appointed Joint
Administrators in the London proceedings.

RSL Communications, Ltd., is a facilities-based communications
company that provides a broad range of data/internet, voice and
value-added product and service solutions to small- and medium-
sized businesses in selected markets worldwide.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on
management's current expectations or beliefs and are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those set forth in such statements.
Factors which may affect actual results include, but are not
limited to, the impact of the insolvency proceedings involving
the Company and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries,
the Company's limited liquidity, capital requirements, general
economic factors, the impact of rapid industry changes, increased
competition, pricing pressures, government regulation, the
ability to find potential buyers of assets with sufficient
financing, the ability to consummate asset sales on a timely
basis, including obtaining necessary governmental and other third
party consents, as well as other risks referenced from time to
time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. For a detailed discussion of these and other risk
factors, please refer to the Company's filings with the SEC,
including the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 1999 and the Company's registration statement on
Form S-4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in
July 2000. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking
statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its
behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these risk
factors. The Company does not undertake any obligation to release
publicly any revisions to such forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to
reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.



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B O L I V I A
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COTEL: Bolivian Government Dumps Plans For Second Auction
---------------------------------------------------------
The Bolivian government has decided against launching a second
international tender to find a strategic partner for the
country's largest fixed line operator Cotel. Rene Bustillo, the
government-appointed Cotel manager made the announcement in a
BNamericas.com report published Monday. The news came after so-
called interested parties failed to make an offer. Subsequently,
the government also shunned a second alternative involving an
international tender offer for an administrator to take over the
management of the company.

"After looking at it from different angles, it will not
necessarily solve Cotel's financial problems. You can have a very
good administrator, but without investment the administrator is
limited on what it can do," Bustillo said.

The first auction attempt on February 7 was abandoned when none
of the 15 registered bidders presented a bid. Bidding rules
stated that a strategic partner would have had to double the
company's 165,000 installed lines in exchange for a controlling
51-percent stake in the joint stock company to be created from
Cotel's assets. The company is saddled with debts of US$32
million and needs the financial backing of a foreign investor to
ensure its future.



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B R A Z I L
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CESP: More Companies Show Interest As Privatization Looms
---------------------------------------------------------
Likely to be added in the list of interested bidders for the
acquisition of Sao-Paulo based power utility Companhia Energetica
de Sao Paulo (Cesp) are Belgium's Tractebel, RGM of the U.S., and
Brazil's VBC Energia. Andr, Montoro Filho, the Sao Paulo state
planning and finance secretary, made the news public in a Brazil
Financial Wire report released Monday. He also confirmed that
Portugal's Electricidade de Portugal, Spain's Endesa, France's
Electricit, de France, as well as Southern, Duke and AES, all of
the U.S., continue in the race for CESP. The final timetable for
privatization is expected to be released next week, as soon as
the filling of CESP's S,rgio Motta dam (formerly Porto Primavera)
is completed. CESP reportedly had debts of US$40 million coming
due May 2001, that have been resolved by the issuance of US$500
million in new financing by the Sao Paulo state government.


CODESP: Registers R$92M Loss In 2000
------------------------------------
Santos port authority Codesp (Companhia Docas do Estado de Sao
Paulo) posted R$92-million in losses in 2000. The poor results
are an increase of 14-percent compared to the previous year's
loss, South American Business Information said Monday. The
company is currently awaiting the tender of Tecon, two containers
terminals and Itatinga mill, which produce energy for the port
and companies held by the chain. In November, the company
reportedly requested for a US$25.9-million bail out from the
Brazilian federal government. A large percentage Codesp's debts
date back to taxes that were not collected in the 1970s.



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C H I L E
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TELEX-CHILE S.A.: Company Profile
--------------------------------------
Name:  Telex-Chile S.A.
Rinconada El Salto 202, Huechuraba
Santiago, Chile

Telephone:  (562) 382-5793

Website:  http://www.telex.cl/english/index.html

Type of Business:  Telex-Chile S.A. is a telecommunications
company in Chile, a supplier of national and
international long distance services in
Chile, several Latin American countries and
the United States. In Chile, through its
subsidiary Chilesat S.A., the Company is a
supplier of long distance public services,
domestic and international and, through its
subsidiary, Chilesat Servicios Empresariales
S.A., provides corporate or entrepreneurial
services. The Company is the parent company
of Texcom S.A., which supplies through its
own subsidiaries, public and private
telecommunications services in the United
States and in different countries in Latin
America, and through Telsys S.A, provides
services and IT developments both locally
and internationally to the above  mentioned
companies.

SIC: Telecommunications-Diversified Telecom
Service Provider

Employees: 1,177 (last reported count)

Capital:  Underwritten and paid-in capital, re-valued
in terms of fiscal year 1999, amounts to Ch$
93,707 millions, and net worth, to Ch$
41,127 millions.-

Net results consolidated: loss of Ch$5,442 million
(US$9.66 million) during the first nine
months of year 2000

Trigger Event: In October 1999, investment banks and
creditors took over 51 percent of Telex from
the Ibanez and Radic families as part of a
series of measures designed to recoup their
investments. Telex posted debts of some
US$220 million and was prompted to sell its
mobile and local telephony subsidiaries as
part of its financial restructuring.

CEO: Fernando Poch

CFO: Rafael Wilhelm Matthei

Legal Counselor: Sergio Mandujano

Last TCRLA Headline DATE: March 20, 2001



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M E X I C O
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CHRYSLER: Renews Efforts to Hide Lemon Documents
------------------------------------------------
Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler is cranking up the volume in
its efforts to prevent distribution of papers documenting the
extent of its lemon recycling practices. The automaker has filed
an unprecedented request that the North Carolina Court of Appeals
reconsider its decision last week to vacate a temporary gag order
it had placed on the documents.

"The North Carolina Court of Appeals has already endorsed Judge
Cashwell's rulings. Secrecy is the only reason Chrysler is able
to continue its outrageous behavior. Several North Carolina
courts have already told Chrysler that 'the jig is up'. They
might as well comply with the courts' orders." said Doug Abrams,
the attorney representing a Raleigh, North Carolina couple suing
Chrysler and a local dealership for selling them a previously
owned vehicle without disclosing its past problems.

Last Friday, March 16, Chrysler, acknowledging that their request
is so unusual that there is no formal procedure for them to
follow, nonetheless, asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to
reconsider its earlier decision to let the public see the
Chrysler documents that Judge Cashwell ordered be made public in
February. Earlier the Court of Appeals temporarily stayed Judge
Cashwell's order. It lifted that temporary stay March 13.

On the same day that Chrysler renewed its attempt to shield the
documents, The Raleigh News and Observer and Safetyforum.com
disclosed how the documents establish in detail Chrysler's lemon
recycling program. During the seven years between 1993 and 2000,
Chrysler bought back more than 50,000 vehicles that it hadn't
been able to fix. It immediately auctioned more than 40,000 of
those vehicles to dealers who sold them, often without disclosing
the extent of the vehicles' past problems, if at all. Chrysler's
auctions managed to recoup almost 70 percent of its buy-back
costs. The documents show that a few of the vehicles were
scrapped or "donated."

The Chrysler documents are available from Safetyforum.com, some
of which are posted on its website. Safetyforum.com does research
for attorneys suing Chrysler and other automakers. "Chrysler is
whining that these documents reveal 'confidential business
information.' Who can blame them? No business that engages in
such practices would want the public to know about its shameful
behavior," said Ralph Hoar, Director of Safetyforum.com.

"Until now Chrysler, and other manufacturers, have managed to
hide their behavior by facing-down judges, attorneys and their
clients. Few attorneys, or their clients, have the resources to
withstand more than a year of the stalling and obstructions that
have typified Chrysler's behavior in this -- and other -- lemon
litigation cases. It is unfortunate that these battles usually
get fought on such uneven playing fields. That may be about to
end," Hoar said. Doug Abrams is a partner in the Raleigh, N.C.
firm, Twiggs, Abrams, Strickland & Rabenau. The firm recently
became Safetyforum.com "Attorneys of Record" for Lemon
Laundering.


CHRYSLER: To Concentrate Parts Production In Brazil
---------------------------------------------------
Brazil is where DaimlerChrysler will focus production of parts to
motors, gears, axels and power steering used in it trucks. The
automaker's vehicles are assembled at various locations in the US
and Germany, South American Business Information reported Monday.
The company invested part of the US$200 million earmarked in its
Sao Bernardo do Campo-based unit. Meanwhile, the Campo Largo-
based plant in the state of Parana is set to produce cabin and
painting the light truck model L-200 assembled by Mitsubishi in
Catalao (Goais). The company is trying to avoid having to close
the unit, which would result on the dismissal of 250 employees.


CINTRA: To Be Put Up For Sale July
----------------------------------
Government-owned Mexican airline holding company Cintra will go
on the auction block in July, according to bank bailout agency
IPAB chief Julio Cesar Mendez in a Reforma/Infolatina report
Monday edition.

"What we would like is to be able to have the public auction
process ready at the beginning of the second half of the year,
around July. What's being done at the moment is work inside the
companies (controlled by Cintra) -- reviewing their situation,
their assets, their finances -- everything implied by having
information required for the sale," Mendez said.

According to Mendez, Cintra-controlled leading carriers
Aeromexico and Mexicana, would be sold separately rather than as
a package. Several regional airlines and air-transport service
companies, also controlled by Cintra, may be sold individually or
as part of larger packages. Bids for the companies will soon be
invited publicly.


GMD: On The Road Again, Commences $200M Highway Project Soon
------------------------------------------------------------
Manuel Gomez-Daza, president and CEO of the Mexican construction
company Grupo Mexicano de Desarrollo (GMD) announced late Friday
that the company would begin its new $200 million highway project
in the next two to three months, according to a Reuters report.
The highway project is a government contract to build a 33-mile
(55-km) road linking the northern part of Mexico City to the city
of Ecatepec. The highway will also link up with the central
Mexican city of Queretaro, said Gomez-Daza. The company hopes to
obtain a loan of $120 million to help fund the construction, its
first in Mexico since the government's failed plan to expand the
road network in the early 1990s.

GMD underwent debt-restructuring in 1997 and was able to resume
trading on the local stock exchange in November after a two-year
suspension because of its financial losses. However, the company
is gradually regaining its financial health. According to Gomez-
Daza, GMD's recent highway project in Argentina has regenerated
confidence in the company and that it already has letters of
intent from banks to provide the new loan. Earlier this month GMD
said it had made payments of $35 million and 350 million pesos on
promissory notes as part of its financial restructuring.




S U B S C R I P T I O N   I N F O R M A T I O N

Troubled Company Reporter Latin American is a daily newsletter
co-published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Trenton, NJ,
and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, DC. John D. Resnick, Edem
Psamathe P. Alfeche and Janice Mendoza, Editors.

Copyright 2001.  All rights reserved.  ISSN 1529-2746.

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