Ricardo H. Bueso

Ricardo Humberto Bueso Deras (1946 - ) is a Guatemalan businessman and politician.

, 62 years old, married, of Christian faith, is the oldest of three children, Maria Dolores and Roberto, all born to Ricardo Bueso and Carmen Deras de Bueso.

He was born in the Barrio de le Recoleccion, a neighborhood in the northern part of Guatemala City, the Guatemalan capital, on March 26, 1946. After studying in Liceo Guatemala, an all-boys school, he obtained his high school diploma, granted by the Ministry of Education after passing proficiency exams, at the age of 15. That same year Bueso traveled to the United States seeking a college education and new opportunities for development.

At the age of 17, before entering the university, he enlisted in the United States Armed Forces, and fought in Vietnam. His participation in conflict began in 1965 when he arrived at the Tonkin Gulf aboard the USS Midway, to become part of the initial support task in Vietnam. Around the middle of the year, Bueso was assigned to Mekon River, where he was wounded in combat at the end of 1966 and sent back to the United States to receive medical treatment, until his retirement from the US Navy.

In 1971 he graduated from the University of California, obtaining a degree in Electronic Engineering. In the same University he began post graduate studies in marketing and finances, which he did not conclude because he accepted an executive position in the multinational corporation, Colgate-Palmolive. Considered a successful man and one of the main businessmen in the country, he kept a relatively discreet profile in the Guatemalan economic environment until 1998, when, at the head of the group, Luca S.A., he was responsible for the planning and creating of the business strategy to acquire the national telephone company, Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala, Telgua. In this venture he received support from the investment bank Salomon, Smith Barney. Derived from the acquisition of Telgua, Bueso and a group of local businessmen developed an unprecedented modernization process in the history of the telecommunication sector in the country, which today benefits millions of Guatemalans. Later on, due to incompatibility with the policies of the Alvaro Arzu administration, he was forced to sell his participation in the company America Movil, property of Telmex group. His professional development occurred between 1971 and 1977 when he occupied different executive positions in multinational corporations in Guatemala and Central America such as marketing executive for Colgate Palmolive, sales director for Warner Lambert, and founder of the Central American branch of Avon Company. Afterwards, he created Gruppo S.A., Empresas Asociadas, his own corporation dedicated to carrying out business in industry, commerce, construction, and real estate development. With Gruppo S.A., he built the medical office building of Centro Medico and Bella Aurora hospitals, both in the capital of Guatemala as well as various important housing projects.

In 1985 he founded and presided PEBCO, the Pepsi Cola bottling company in Belize and in 1988 he founded and presided the Belize Brewing Company; in the next two years he built the hotels Belize Baltimore in Belize City and the Sun Breeze in Key Saint Peter, and presided their board of directors.

In the middle of 1991 he was appointed Ambassador of Guatemala to the Belizean government, office he held for five months, until his resignation.

In 1994, he acquired INLACSA, a dairy company and in 1996, he acquired La Pradera, another dairy company, constituting one of the leading groups in this industry in the country.

Around the middle of 1997 Ricardo Bueso became a shareholder of Banco Americano and Financiera de Inversion, S.A. At the end of that year he retired and began receiving pensions from all his companies with the purpose of initiating his main project: producing economic and social development in Guatemala.

On February 13, 2003 he was declared a pre-candidate by the Executive Committee of the party Democracia Christiana Guatemanteca for the general elections to be held in Guatemala of that year.

On May 25, 2003 the National Council of Democracia Christiana ratified him as their presidential candidate before a National Assembly that included 185 municipal councils. However, later that year he resigned his candidacy due to fraudulent elections. When the National congress broke the constitution by allowing ex-Guatemalan dictator, Efrain Rios Montt to run for president, he believed that if he were not to give up his candidacy, he would be compromising what he believed to be right.

After leaving the elections, Bueso retired yet again to join his family which was currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the father of ten children and has always been dedicated to them. His wife, Sara Suzanne Matheu de Bueso, is a natural born Guatemalan and has lived the last 19 years in the United States with their youngest three sons and their youngest daughter, Melanie Jane and her daughter, Mickaela. Bueso has currently been out of the Guatemalan spotlight since his resignation from the general elections in 2003. He is now enjoying his prime years with his family and in retirement. However, it is the dream of thousands of Guatemalans for Bueso to return to the country and run for president again. Many believe that he knows how to bring reform to the nation and could potentially bring hope to thousands of Guatemalans.