Venezuela, the last redoubt of Telefónica in Latin America

MadridVenezuela has been Telefónica's last stronghold in Latin America since Wednesday. It is the only country where the "telecom" telecom maintains its business after reaching an agreement to divest its subsidiary in Mexico for approximately 389 million euros. Specifically, Telefónica has reached an agreement with the consortium Melisa Acquisition, made up of Oxio and Newfoundland Capital Management, for the sale of its stake in the Mexican subsidiary, as the company has communicated to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

This sale adds to the rest of the sales executed so far as part of the withdrawal from the Latin American market. Telefónica has already exited Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Uruguay, operations that impacted the results of 2025, while the exits from Colombia and Chile will impact the fiscal year of this 2026. Already during the presentation of the annual results for 2025 –Telefónica lost 4,318 million euros–, the telecompresided over by Marc Murtra ratified its intention to leave Mexico, but also Venezuela, despite the political changes in the country after the intervention of the United States. "It is true that the situation in Venezuela has changed, but our roadmap [in the country] has not," assured Murtra last February.

These divestments are part of the company's strategic plan presented last November, which envisages moving away from Latin America to focus on the four markets it considers strategic: Spain, Germany, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. In fact, its intention is to grow in these markets, and for this reason it has already made a move in the United Kingdom, where it has executed the first major acquisition after the association with two more firms to acquire the British company Netomnia for 2,294 million euros.

Telefónica's landing in Latin America occurred in the nineties thanks to the privatization of the business in Spain, but also on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where many countries were also experiencing privatization processes of state telecommunications operators. Chile was the first country where it kicked off its international expansionism in 1989. For a time, the bulk of Telefónica's revenue came precisely from this market.