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SIGNATURE MICHAEL PIGNATARO
TITLE CFO
<TABLE> <S> <C>
<ARTICLE> 6
<CIK> 0000879357
<NAME> THE LATIN AMERICA EQUITY FUND, INC.
<S> <C>
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<FISCAL-YEAR-END> DEC-31-1998
<PERIOD-END> DEC-31-1998
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</TABLE>
To the Board of Directors of
The Latin America Equity Fund, Inc.:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements and
financial highlights of The Latin America Equity Fund, Inc. (the
"Fund") for the year ended December 31,1998, we considered the Fund's
internal control, including control activities for safeguarding
securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for the
purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements and
financial highlights and to comply with the requirements of Form
N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal control.
The management of The Latin America Equity Fund, Inc. is responsible
for establishing and maintaining internal control. In fulfilling this
responsibility, estimates and judgments by management are required to
assess the expected benefits and related costs of controls. Generally,
controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to the entity's objective
of preparing financial statements and financial highlights for external
purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted
accounting principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets
against unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness
of the design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design
or operation of one or more of the internal control components does
not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements caused
by error or fraud in amounts that would be material in relation to the
financial statements and financial highlights being audited may occur
and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal
course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no
matters involving internal control and its operation, including controls
over safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses
as defined above as of December 31, 1998.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management,
the Board of Directors of The Latin America Equity Fund, Inc. and the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP
2400 Eleven Penn Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 19, 1999
