A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the President Santiago Peña of Paraguay. He shared why Paraguay is one of only 12 countries in the world that recognizes Taiwan instead of communist China and one of only six countries that have moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Now I’m sitting down with his foreign minister, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, to learn more about Paraguay, the region, and Lezcano’s candidacy for secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Watch the video:
“Paraguay matters in the agenda of the United States. Why? Because Paraguay is a very important and key partner for the United States,” says Lezcano. “I think that America abandoned for a long time Latin America. In the last year, the United States lost a lot of markets, a lot of investment, and a lot of opportunities. I think that [now] is the time to work closely again.”
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jan Jekielek:
Minister Ruben Ramírez Lezcano, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
Minister Ruben Ramírez Lezcano:
Jan, it’s a pleasure to be here on your program with your audience.
Mr. Jekielek:
Welcome to the United States. Since the inauguration of President Trump, the State Department with Secretary of State Rubio, and President Trump himself has been quite active on issues related to Latin America and Paraguay as well. How do you view what has happened in the last 20 days?
Minister Lezcano:
First of all, it is a very clear message that Latin America matters for the government of President Trump. Marco Rubio, coming from a Latin family, is very clear about the future of our relations. The recent visit of Secretary Rubio to Central America is restarting the relationship in the region from which the United States was very absent in recent years.
Mr. Jekielek:
You have announced your candidacy for the Secretary General of the Organization of American States [OAS]. You are viewing this both from a Paraguayan perspective, but also from a broader perspective.
Minister Lezcano:
Yes. My candidacy responds to the prioritization that President Santiago Peña gave to the multilateral system and also to our principles and values about freedom, human rights, democracy, and rule of law. The Organization of American States was created in 1948, but was born before that with the inter-American system. That is quite important for us, because our main proposal is integration, not only with economy and trade, but also political integration.
Mr. Jekielek:
There is suspicion of multilateral institutions here, with the U.S. recently withdrawing from the WHO and the UN Human Rights Council. Please explain to us why the multilateral structure of the OAS is so important for you.
Minister Lezcano:
It’s important because we are discussing four pillars for development and for political stability in our hemisphere. The first one is democracy. We need to extend democracy. In recent years the OAS lost three country members, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. We need to work on strengthening the institution, working on education, democracy, and on strengthening the election system program that we have in Latin America. Yesterday, we celebrated the election in Ecuador and that means that it’s quite important to have all the institutions supporting those democratic processes.
Secondly, we are working on human rights. Human rights are very important because they deal not only with democracy, but also with development, job opportunities, the income of the people in their own countries, as well as security issues. Those four pillars that we are talking about, democracy, human rights, development, sustainability, and security, are the most important challenges that we have in our hemisphere.
Those challenges don’t have any relation with the size of the country, they have a relation with the needs of every country. The United States is dealing with security, migration, and trade exchange. That means that we need the space for 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.
Mr. Jekielek:
Let’s talk about the migration situation. There has been a lot of migration in recent years into America from Latin America, and more specifically, Guatemala. But now, the migrants will be returning to their home countries. It’s not really clear how that operation will work.
Minister Lezcano:
That is the reason why OAS is important, because we understand each country has the sovereignty to deal with the illegal people that came to their territory. We need to discuss how to deal with those challenges, and those challenges have a relationship with democracy. Why democracy, you say? We are looking at the situation in Venezuela where they have 8 million Venezuelans going outside the country—8 million. The impact is not only in the United States, it’s in Peru, it’s in Chile, it’s in Ecuador, and that is a challenge for the whole hemisphere.
It has a relationship with development. The development challenge means that people are going to look for the opportunity to get jobs, and to get better wellness in other countries. It has a relationship with human rights. When democracy is weak in a country, human rights are not safe. It also has a relationship with security, because you have human trafficking, drug trafficking, and money laundering. You have the challenge of the crime organizations, because they have become multinational institutions. They are more integrated than the state governments.
We have several crime organizations that are multinational; Primeiro Comando da Capital from Brazil, Comando Vermelho from Brazil, and Tren de Aragua from Venezuela. They are working throughout the whole hemisphere. There are also other cartels working. It is most important to have the conditions to discuss the solutions to this challenge by integrating our authority with the OAS. We need to not only give financial support, but also to have the security system of our country working with them.
Mr. Jekielek:
These gangs are multinational enterprises, almost like lawless corporations. They are transnational and even bigger than some states in Latin America.
Minister Lezcano:
Absolutely. You have corruption, because with those operations of the organized crime organizations, you are dealing with all the resources that they have. They are working in money laundering, weapons trafficking, and human trafficking. It’s amazing the challenge that we have before us.
The only way to deal with this problem is for all the governments to come together against these crime organizations.
Mr. Jekielek:
Paraguay is a very strong democracy. What lessons can Paraguay offer to the Organization of American States?
Minister Lezcano:
First of all, Paraguay, for all its history, has had a foreign policy based on the principles of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and freedom. At the same time, we work very hard to keep democracy. We once had the oldest dictatorship in Latin America, the regime of Alfredo Stroessner, for 35 years. Last February 2nd, we accomplished 36 years of democracy. We are different from the Stroessner regime.
When that regime ended, 60 percent of the population of Paraguay were in poverty. Now, we are proud to have less than 20 percent in poverty. That is one point about the democratic system. We have the moral right to discuss the importance of democracy.
Secondly, with our economy, we work to be very independent in our region. We have two continental countries who are neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. Paraguay is a small country. The size of our territory is the same as France or Spain, but we have only six-and-a-half million inhabitants.
During our history, we have had two important wars. There was the Triple Alliance, when Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay went to the war against Paraguay. Paraguay resisted for five years. We lost 90 percent of our male population and 60 percent of our territory. When the war ended in 1970, Paraguay didn’t receive the aid of the Bretton Woods system. Paraguay emerged alone.
That is the reason why we have a very special culture and 90 percent of Paraguayans speak Guaraní. Our currency is Guaraní and our main music is Guaraní. Really, it’s very interesting. We respect our origins. Working hard during those years, Paraguay arrived last year at investment grade.
We have a lot of challenges. But we have the most important resources in the world. Today, a big risk in the world is food insecurity. Our 6.5 million inhabitants produce food for 100 million people. That means we have a very strong opportunity to develop our potential in fighting against food insecurity.
Paraguay has the most important reserves of water. Paraguay is the country that produces the most renewable energy per capita in the world. We are in a very interesting position to develop this technology, and we are working on that also. The average age of our population is 26-years-old, and 70 percent of our population is younger than 50-years-old. The potential of our country is quite impressive, but we have challenges with logistics. We have the third biggest fluvial vessel fleet in the world after China and the United States.
Mr. Jekielek:
That’s the third largest set of freshwater barges for the river system.
Minister Lezcano:
The Paraguay and Parana rivers have 33,200 kilometers of navigable water and go up to the La Plata River in Argentina on to the sea port. We have all our trade going through the rivers. Our transportation and our production is 90 percent going through the river. We also have the opportunity to increase our market with our trade agreements with Mercosur, an economic integration system with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, and now Bolivia is added. We are looking at other countries like Panama to join us as a country member of Mercosur. That is important because we are increasing our market access at the regional level.
Mr. Jekielek:
Panama has recently started shifting its policy on the Panama Canal. How do you view this?
Minister Lezcano:
First of all, there are very interesting discussions between the Panama government and the United States. The rule of law also is important. International rights are important. This discussion between two governments that Marco Rubio started a few weeks ago visiting
Panama was a good time to start resolving the problems that we have before us. I believe the Secretary General of OAS can strongly help both governments to arrive at an understanding.
Mr. Jekielek:
President Trump said the Chinese Communist Party has too much control over the Panama Canal. But Paraguay actually has formal relations with Taiwan, one of only 12 countries that does. Please explain to us why.
Minister Lezcano:
Paraguay started this relationship 68 years ago. We never cut relations with Taiwan. It’s a decision made on principles. We always support Taiwan because they have democracy. They have human rights, freedom, and a very clear rule of law. We need to protect this country and we feel the same as they do. We are an island surrounded by land, said our writer, Augusto Roa Bastos. Taiwan is also an island.
We are not against China. We will have diplomatic relations, commercial relations, and consular relations with China, but without conditions. We will still recognize in Taiwan because of our principles. We have very close relations with Taiwan and it’s important for Paraguay to keep this relationship. It’s not easy at all, but it is important to understand and always promote these principles.
Mr. Jekielek:
You’re putting a high value on democracy, rule of law, and human rights. You are saying that maintaining those things keeps the whole society together. It’s really a very pragmatic principle. Is that correct?
Minister Lezcano:
Absolutely. It’s pragmatic because we need to keep those principles for ourselves. We need to follow those principles, because we need to build a very serious country. Our strength is based on those principles. The challenge for Paraguay is social improvement and fighting against poverty. We have a poverty rate of less than 20 percent, but it’s a huge achievement for us. We have to have the opportunity to create jobs, to attract foreign and national investment, to develop our country, to transform production, to add value to our production, and to focus on how we are dealing with all this.
First, it is education. Education is the first priority for our government. There is also healthcare and also security. Those three issues we are working on as priorities in our country. Then macroeconomic fundamentals will give us the best conditions for our fiscal policies. We have the rule of triple 10; 10 percent value, 10 percent on income, and 10 percent to corporate. That maybe means we have the lowest taxation in the world.
Mr. Jekielek:
Both the president and the finance minister of Paraguay are economists.
Minister Lezcano:
I’m an economist, and so is the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well. Our president was the former Minister of Finance. My colleague, the current Minister of Finance, is an economist. As the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, I also happen to be an economist. Economic development is always our challenge and our priority.
Mr. Jekielek:
How has Paraguay’s relationship with Argentina changed since President Milei became president?
Minister Lezcano:
We have a very close relationship. We have a lot of challenges that we share together. For Paraguay, the economic situation of Argentina is quite important because they need to improve the solution on the economic road that Argentina knows. The Minister of Foreign Affairs from Argentina, Gerardo Werthein, is also a very close friend of mine. We are always working closely together. We have the same relationship with Brazil. President Lula is a very close friend of President Santiago Pena. We are also friends with the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, as well as with Javier Milei. We have a lot of interest in sharing with both countries.
At the regional level, we share the highway of the river Paraguay-Paraná, we share the Mercosur, we share the dams, we share the trade exchange, and we share investments. We share the markets. We are working very closely in those worlds. Yamandu Orsi, the elected president of Uruguay, is also a very close friend of ours. We have met three times and discussed integration. We share common views, even if we have a different ideological position. That means we are very practical. We don’t think about the Left or the Right. We are going straight ahead.
Mr. Jekielek:
But you don’t compromise your principles either.
Minister Lezcano:
Never.
Mr. Jekielek:
That is a tough balance to find.
Minister Lezcano:
At the right, you are in your corner. At the left, you are in your corner. But in the center, both forces look at you from their side. Being in the center gives us the opportunity to protect our principles. Secondly, it helps to work closely with those countries, but we are always looking out for our own people’s interest. We have a close relationship with our neighbors. And really, we respect each government, because they were selected by the people democratically, and we have to respect them.
We are always looking for the common denominator in our relations, and we work on that. For example, President Santiago Peña and President Boric from Chile have a very close relationship, but it is not based on ideology. They have a very close relationship because they agree on several points of view. We concentrate on common points of view and that gives us the opportunity to strengthen our relationships.
Mr. Jekielek:
How do you hope the U.S. will engage with Paraguay and Latin America? What is your dream situation?
Minister Lezcano:
My dream situation is that Paraguay is the most important ally that the United States has in South America, because we share those values with the government of President Trump, and especially with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau. Christopher is a very close friend of Paraguay.
Mr. Jekielek:
Christopher Landau speaks Guarani. From what I understand, that is remarkable.
Minister Lezcano:
Christopher’s father was ambassador to Paraguay, and Christopher started his education in Paraguay. He studied at the International College in Asuncion where he learned Guaraní, and he speaks Guaraní. I’m very proud of his Guaraní because he speaks very well. In recent days, because he was in the hearing nomination process, I couldn’t speak with him.
But before his nomination, we were talking about his experience in Paraguay. He is a very good friend of Paraguay. But we are not looking for friends only. The most important thing is that Paraguay matters in the agenda of the United States. Why? Because Paraguay is a very important and key partner for the United States.
Mr. Jekielek:
What do you hope America’s role in the region will be?
Minister Lezcano:
I think America abandoned Latin America. In recent years, the United States lost a lot of markets, a lot of investment, and a lot of opportunities. It is now time to work closely again.
Mr. Jekielek:
Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show.
Minister Lezcano:
It’s my pleasure, Jan. It’s a pleasure to be with your audience and I hope to see you again here in Washington.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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