How Paraguay Can Lead the Way in Latin America: Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano

a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with the president of Paraguay Santiago Peña he shared why Paraguay is one of only 12 countries in the world to recognize Taiwan instead of communist China and one of only six countries in the world to have moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem We cannot put economic interests ahead of the values and the principles now I'm sitting down with his foreign minister Ruben Ramirez Lano to learn more about Paraguay the region and lano's candidacy for Secretary General of the organization of American states OAS I think that America abandon a lot of time Latin America the last year H United States lost a lot of Market a lot of investment and a lot of opportunities I think that that is the time to work close again this is American thought leaders and I'm Yan Kell Minister Ruben Ramirez Lano such a pleasure to have you on American thought leaders really John is a pleasure to be here in your program with your audience all welcome to America here in the US since the inauguration of President trump it seems to me like the state department has been quite active the Secretary of State Rubio and president Trump himself has been uh quite active on issues related to Latin America and perhaps Paraguay as well so how do you view what's happened in the last 20 days the F soul is a very clear message that Latin America matter for the government of President Trump and Marco Rubio coming from the Latin family he is very clear about the future of of our relations I think that uh the visit the recent visit of secretar ruvio to Central America is starting the relation among the region in which United States was very absent in the last years you yourself have uh announced uh your candidacy for the Secretary General of the organization of American states so I think you're viewing this uh both from a paraguayan perspective but also from a broader perspective yes well uh my candas respond to the priorization that President Santiago Peña gave to the multilateral system and also with the fundamentals of our principles and values about Freedom about human rights democracy and rule of law the organization of American state is an organization that was created in 1948 but was born before of that with the interamerican system and that is quite important for us because our main proposal is the integration not only in economy on trade but also political integration so there's a lot of Suspicion of multilateral Institutions clearly here in the US with uh you know the US would recently withdrawing from The Who U UN Human Rights Council um maybe explain to me why this multilateral structure of the OAS is so important for you it's important because we are discussing about four pillars for the development and for the political stability in our hemisphere the first one democracy we need to extand democracy in the last years the OAS lost three country members venez nicara and Kua the first one and we need to work strengthening institution working on education on democracy and strengthening the election system program that we have in Latin America yesterday we celebrate the election in Ecuador for example and that means that is quite important to have all the institutions uh supporting those Democratic process uh secondly we are working in human rights human rights is very important because deal not only with the Democracy deal also with development because job opportunities the the income of the people in their own countries and dealing also with security issue those four pillars that we are talking about democracy human right Dev velopment sustainable and also security are the most important challenge that we have in our Hemisphere and those challeng doesn't have any relation with the size of the country that have a relation with the needs of every country every country united state is dealing with security migration is dealing with uh trade The Exchange and that means that we have we need the space to the debate and to build consensus among those countries in our hemisphere the Western hemisphere is quite important not only for our country but also for the United States well right clearly and because of this interest that we that we've just been prescribing of course and you know let's talk about the migration situation for a moment so there's been a lot of movement of course you know over the last recent years into America from Latin America broadly some specific countries Guatemala notably but what about now there's going to be a return right and that's actually kind of a huge operation that it's not really clear how it's going to work um that is the reason why OAS is important because we we understand each country have the sovereignity to deal with the illegal people then came to their territory we need to discuss how to deal with those challenges and those challeng have two relation with the Democracy why democracy you say well we are looking how the situation in Venezuela have 8 m million of Venezuelan going outside the country 8 million and the impact is not not only in the United States is in Peru is in Chile is in Ecuador and that is a challenge for the whole hemisphere uh have relation with uh the development the development challenge means that people are going to look for the opportunity to get jobs to to get better Wellness in other countries have to relation with the human rights when the democracy is weak in a country the human right don't have the safe and have relationship with security also because you have human trafficking traffic of people you have drug trafficking Landry money you have the challenge of uh the crime organizations a institution and me institution because they became multinationals they're most integrated than the states and we have several organization multinational Premier Commando capital from Brazil Commando Vero from Brazil trenwa from Venezuela they are working in the whole Hemisphere and there are others Cals working the most important is to have the conditions to discuss the solutions to this Challenge and the solution through the Integrations of our authorities with the organizations not only the institution the financial institution for for give the financial support to the program but also we need to our uh security system in our country to work with that you know you raised a really interesting point that I don't think a lot of people even grasp that some of these what we here call gangs right are actually you know function more like Multinational Enterprises almost like a corporation with you know Lawless Corporation or you know transnational but bigger than even some states in Latin America absolutely it's a huge and then you have the corruption because those operation of the organized crime organizations uh they are dealing with all the resources that they have and they are working in land money they are working in weapon traffic uh they are working on on also in human traffick that means is amazing the challenge that we have before us and we the only way to deal with this problem is altogether the Govern government against those organizations well so this is a good opportunity to talk a little bit about Paraguay M um so you know a lot of people don't know that much about Paraguay and that that it is a of course a very strong democracy um and well why don't you tell me what the lessons of Paraguay can offer to the organization of American states for all par uh all the history have had a foreign policy based on principles democracy human rights uh rule of law and uh Freedom well at the same time we work very very heavy on to keep again democracy we have had the oldest dictatorship in Latin America the regim of Alfredo St during 35 years last February 2nd we accomplished 36 years of democracy and the difference among a regime of strer when at the end the par were 60% of the population on the poverty and up to now we appro to have less than 20% of poverty that is one point that give you the democratic system and we have the moral right to discuss about the importance of democracy secondly our economy we work a lot to be very independent in our region we have two continental countries and neighbors Brazil and Argentina and they're a bit bigger than you absolutely yeah parway we say is a small country but the size of the our territory is the same than France or or even in Spain um but we are only 6 and a half million habitants in our history we have had two important Wars the tri Triple Alliance when Argentina Brazil and Uruguay go to the war against Paraguay and Paraguay receives five years and we lost the 90% of our male population and 60% of our territory and Par when the war end in 1970 doesn't see Ron's institution to help him the par emerg alone and that is a reason why we have a very special culture the 90% of the paragan people we speak wani our currency is guani and our uh main music is guani and really is very interesting we respect our Origins secondly working hard during those years parag arrived last year to investment grade we have a lot of challenge but we have the most important resources in the world today a risk on the world is about food security well Paraguay with 6 and a half million habitants produce food for 100 million people and that means we have very strong uh opportunity to develop our potential on food security fighting against secondly parag have the most important reserve of water Sweet Water and Paraguay is the country that produce more energy renovable per capita in the world that is a very interesting position to develop technology and we are working on that also the average of the age of our population is 26 the 70% of our population is younger than 50 years old I mean the potential of the country is quite important but the challenge that we have is very important on logistic for a sample we have the resources the third biggest flu in the world after China United States and the third is parway that's that's the third largest uh set of the of freshwater barges right the river the rivers the river par and Parana 33 so 200 kilomet of navigable rivers and to go up to the La Plata River in Argentina to the Sea ports and we have all our tray through the rivers the transportation our production is the 90% is going through the river um also we have the opportunity uh to uh increase our Market because we have uh trade agreements as mercosur and integration economic integration system uh with Brazil Argentina and uru and now Bolivia is added and looking other country like Panama to join us uh as a country member of mercosur that is important because we are increasing our Market access at the region level so you mentioned Panama earlier as of course one of one of the countries Panama has been B featured recently of course right because the discussion of the Panama Canal and um you know some tough exchanges perhaps and uh you know Panama shifting its policy how do you view it well first all there are very interesting discussion between the Panama government and the United States uh the rule of law also is important the international rights is important and this discussion among two government that Marco Rubi started if few we ago visiting Panama is a good time to to go to resolve the progr that we have before us I think always that being Secretary General of O can help strongly both government to arrive to an understanding you know uh the the problem that as articulated by President Trump was you know too much Chinese Communist party control of the Panama Canal and I can't help but notice that uh that um Paraguay actually has you know formal relations with Taiwan one of only 12 countries that does and that's you know kind of fascinating to me and so you explain to me why well first all par started his relations 68 68 years ago never recut the relation with Taiwan is a decision on principles we need and we always support Taiwan because they have the Democracy they have the human right rules and protection they have the freedom and they have a very clear rule of law I mean we need to protect this country and we feel the same in Taiwan we are an island surrounded by land say our Rider austo rasos and they are an island well we are not against China and we will have diplomatic relation or commercial relation of or Consul relation with China but without conditions um but we will still recognizing Taiwan because those principles and we have a very close relation with Taiwan and it's important to paru to keep this relation it's not easy at all uh but um is important to to understand and to promote those principles always now let me see if I understand this right I mean you're putting this very high value on Democracy rule of law human rights in a sense though you're saying this is a pragmatic wish like maintaining those things keeps uh whole society that that's what I hear you telling me so there's principle but it's also a very pragmatic principle is that right absolutely it's pragmatic because we need to keep those principes for ourselves we need to follow those principles because we need to be to build a very serious country and our strength is based on those principles our development the the challenge for parway Is the social inclusion today to fight against poverty that we have this less than 20% but it's huge people for us and we have to give him the opportunity to create job to for investment and National investment also to develop our country to transform production to give add value for our production and to increase and how we are dealing with that first of all education education is the first priority for our government health care and also security those three issue we are working as a priority in our country then the macroeconomic fundamentals and the tools for the economic growth and given uh the best conditions of fiscal policies we have the rule of triple 10 t% er value 10% on income and 10% to corporative that means we have the lowest taxation maybe in the world well and I I can't help but notice that both the president and the Finance Minister of Paraguay are economists yes which which tells me something and I Economist also Minister of Foreign Affairs well you know the president he was former minister of Finance M uh my colleague the Minister of Finance today is Economist and the minister of for foreign affairs myself I an economist also and the the the development uh is our challenge always and our priority how has your uh Paraguay's relationship with uh Argentina changed since uh president mle became president we have a very close relation we have a a lot uh of uh challenges sharing together ER for Paraguay the economic situation of Argentina is quite important because they need to improve the solution uh on the economic growth that Argentina know uh the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Argentina hero won is also a very close friend of mine we are working closely together always and we have the same relation with Brazil the president Lula is very close friend of President Santiago Peña as well as Kier M and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mao via and we have a lot of interest sharing with both country and on the re on the regional level we share the Highway of the river par Parana we share the mercosur we shared the dams we share the trade exchange we share Investments I mean we share the markets and uh we are working very close with those were jamori he is very close friend of us also we met uh the elected president from uai uh three times and discussing about the integration he is very close to us also and we share the view even that if they have a different ideological position from us and that mean we are very practical we don't think about the left or the right we are going straight I say always president Sano well and so it's interesting but but you don't compromise your principles either never well and that's so that is a as we say in English a tough needle to thread right a tough uh tough balance to find at the right you are in the corner at the left you are in the corner but in the center both forces look to to put your from their side being in the center give us the opportunity first to protect our principles secondly to work close from those countries because we are looking our people interest protection we have the inter relation not in interdependence relation with our neighbors and really we respect each government because they was elected for the people decide democratically and we have to respect that and we are looking always the the common denominator for our relations and we work on that and even if uh they have a in the position for example the president s and the president boric from Chile they have a very close relation and that don't have any relation with ideology they have very close relation because they share they share very several point of view together and we concentrate our relationship on those common point of view and that give her the opportunity to rest strin our relations what about your hopes for how the US in particular of course will engage with Paraguay and Latin America what would what is your kind of you know dream situation my dream situation is that parag is the most important Li that United States have in South America because we share those value with the government of President Trump especially with the people in the Secretary of State starting with Marco Rubio Christopher L Christopher is a very close friend of parw and and all the people working around the the the this uh Trump government and just if I may comment Christopher orando he speaks guani yes from what I understand that is remarkable Christopher father he was Ambassador to parway Christopher started his education in parway then he study at the International College in aunion and he learned war and he speak waran and I very proud of he War because he speak very well in those day because he are in hearing process I can speak with him uh but before his nomination we were talking about his expence in paraway ETC he is very very good friend of parway but we are not looking for friend only the most important is that par matter in the agenda of the United States why because paray is a very important and key partner for the United States and so what about the region now more broadly in terms of you know what you hope America's role will be I think that America abandon a lot of time Latin America in the last year here United State lost a lot of Market a lot of investment and a lot of opportunities I think that that is the time to work close again well Minister Ruben Ramirez lascano such a pleasure to have had you on it's my pleasure John it's a pleasure to be with your audience and hope to see you again here in Washington absolutely thank you all for joining the foreign minister of Paraguay Ruben Ramirez Lano and me on this episode of American thought leaders I'm your host Yan Kell [Music]