American Thought Leaders - Why Paraguay Can Lead the Way in Latin America: Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

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).“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.

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 Lescano, to learn more about Paraguay, the region, and Lescano's candidacy for Secretary General of the Organization of American States, OAS. I think that America abandoned a lot of time Latin America. In the last year, the 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. YANI QUIEROZ- This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanni Kelek. Minister Ruben Ramírez-Lizcano, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Ruben Ramirez- Really, John, it's a pleasure to be here in your program with your audience. All the best. John Jay Welcome to America here in the U.S.

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 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 frail soul is a very clear message that Latin America matters for the government of President Trump. Marco Rubio, coming from a Latin family, he is very clear about the future of our relations. I think that the recent visit of Secretary Rubio to Central America is starting the relation among the region in which United States was very absent in the last years. You yourself have announced

your candidacy for the Secretary General of the Organization of American States so I think you're viewing this both from a Paraguayan perspective, but also from a broader perspective. Yes. My candidacy responds to the prioritization 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 States is an organization that was created in 1948, but was born before of that with the Inter-American system and that is quite important for us because our main proposal is the integration not only in economy and trade but also political integration. So there's a lot of suspicion of multilateral institutions clearly here in the US.S. with the U.S. recently withdrawing from the WHO, UN Human Rights Council. 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

extend democracy. In the last years the OAS lost three country members, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, the first one. And we need to work, strengthen the institution, working on the education and democracy, and in strengthening the election system program that we have in Latin America. Yesterday we celebrated the election in Ecuador, for example. 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 is very important because it deals not only with democracy, it deals also

with development because job opportunities, the income of the people in their own countries, and dealing also with security issues. Those four pillars that we are talking about, democracy, human rights, development, sustainable, and also security, are the most important challenge that we have in our hemisphere and those challenge doesn't have any relation with the size of the country that have a relation with the needs of every country. United States is dealing with security, migration, is dealing with trade, the exchange, and that means that we have, we need the space to 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 because of this interest that we've just been describing 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. 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 to be related to democracy. Why democracy, you say? Well we are looking how the

situation in Venezuela have 8 million of Venezuelan going outside the country. 8 million. And 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. Have relation with the development. The development challenge means that people are going to look for the opportunity to get jobs, to get better wellness in other countries. Have to relation with the human rights. When the democracy is weak in a country, the human rights don't have the safe. And have relation with security also. Because you have human trafficking, traffic of people, you have drug trafficking,

laundry money, you have the challenge of the crime organizations, the institution, and institution because they became multinationals. They are more integrated than the states. And we have several organizations, multinational. Primeiro Comando Capital from Brazil, Comando Vermelho from Brazil, Trenaragua from Venezuela, they are working in the whole Hemifere. And there are others, cartels, working. The most important is to have the conditions to discuss the solutions to this challenge and

the solution is through the integrations of our authorities with the organizations, not only the institution, the financial institution, for give the financial support to the program, but also we need to our security system in our country to work with that. You know, you raise 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 operations of the organized crime organizations, they are dealing with all the resources that they have. And they are working on money. They are working in weapon traffic. They are working also in human trafficking. That means it's amazing the challenge that we have before us.

And the only way to deal with this problem is altogether the government against those organizations. Well, this is a good opportunity to talk a little bit about Paraguay. So a lot of people don't know that much about Paraguay and that it is, of course, a very strong democracy. And why don't you tell me what the lessons of Paraguay can offer to the Organization of American States?

For us all, Paraguay, all the history have had a foreign policy based on principles. Democracy, human rights, rule of law, and 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 regime of Alfredo Stessner during 35 years. Last February 2nd, we accomplished 36 years of democracy. And the difference among regime of Stroessner when at

the end, the Paraguay were 60% of the population on the poverty. And up to now, we are proud 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. Paraguay, we say, is a small country. But the size of our territory is the same as France or even Spain. But we are only 6.5 million inhabitants. In our history, we have had two important wars. The Triple Alliance, when Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay

go to the war against Paraguay. Paraguay receives five years. We lost the 90% of our male population and 60% of our territory. And Paraguay, when the war ended in 1970, doesn't receive return with institution to help him. The Paraguay emerged alone. And that is the reason why we have a very special culture. The 90% of the Paraguayan people, we speak Guaraní. Our currency is Guaraní and our main music is Guaraní. And really, it's very interesting. We respect our origins. Secondly, working hard during those years, Paraguay arrived last year to investment grade. We

have a lot of challenge. But we have the most important resources in the world. Today, the risk on the world is about food security. Well, Paraguay, with 6 and 1 half million inhabitants, produce food for 100 million people. And that means we have very strong opportunity to develop our potential on food security fighting against. Secondly, Paraguay has the most that produces more energy, renewable per capita in the world. That is a very interesting position to develop technology.

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 logistics, for example. We have the resources, the third biggest fleet in the world, after China, United States,

and the third is Paraguay. That's the third largest set of freshwater barges, right, for the river systems. The rivers, the rivers Paraguay and Parana, 33,200 kilometers of navigable rivers, and to go up to the La Plata River in Argentina to the seaports, and we have all our trade through the rivers.

The transportation, our production, is the 90% is going through the rivers. The transportation, our production, is the 90% is going through the river. Also we have the opportunity to increase our market because we have trade agreements as Mercosur and integration economic integration system with Brazil and Argentina and and Uruguay, and now Bolivia is added. And looking 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 region level. So you mentioned Panama earlier as, of course,

one of the countries. Panama has been featured recently, of course, because the discussion of the Panama Canal and some tough exchanges, perhaps, and Panama shifting its policy. How do you view it? Well, first of all, there are very interesting discussions between the Panama government and the United States.

The rule of law also is important. The international rights is important. And this discussion among two governments that Marco Rubio started a few weeks ago visiting Panama is a good time to go to resolve the problem that we have before us. I think always that being Secretary General of OAS can help strongly both governments to arrive to an understanding. The problem, as articulated by President Trump, was too much Chinese Communist Party control of the Panama Canal.

I can't help but notice that Paraguay actually has formal relations with Taiwan, one of only 12 countries that does. That's fascinating to me. And so explain to me why. Well, first of all, Paraguay started its relations 68 years ago. Never we cut the relation with Taiwan. It's 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 writer Augusto Roabastos, and they are an island. Well, we are not against China. And we will have diplomatic relation or commercial relation

of our consular relation with China, but without conditions. But we will still recognize in Taiwan because those principles. And we have a very close relation with Taiwan and it's important 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, you're saying this is a pragmatic wish like maintaining those things keeps a whole society and 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 principles for ourselves. We need to follow those principles

because we need to build a very serious country. And our strength is based on those principles, our development. The challenge for Paraguay is the social inclusion today. To fight against poverty that we have these less than 20 percent but is huge people for us and we have to give him the opportunity to create job to foreign investment and national investment also to develop our country, to transform production, to give a 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. Healthcare and also security. Those three issues we are working as a priority in our country. Then the macroeconomic fundamentals and the tools for the economic growth given the best conditions of fiscal policies. We have the rule of triple ten, ten percent value, ten percent on income, and ten percent to corporative. That means we have the lowest taxation maybe in the world. Well and I can't help but notice that both the president and the finance minister

of Paraguay are economists. Yes. Which tells me something. And I'm an economist, also Minister of Foreign Affairs. Well, you know, the president, he was former Minister of Finance. My colleague, the Minister of Finance today is an economist. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs, an economist, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, myself, I am an economist also.

The development is our challenge always and our priority. How has your Paraguay's relationship with Argentina changed since President Millet became president? We have a very close relation. We have a lot of challenges sharing 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 Huerten, 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 a very close friend of President Santiago Pena as well as Javier, we share the highway of the river Paraguay-Paraná. We share the Mercosur. We share the dams. We share the trade exchange. We share investments.

I mean, we share the markets. We are working very close with those who are. Jamando Orsi, he is very close friend of us also. We met the elected president from Uruguay three times discussing about the integration. He is very close to us also. And we share the view, even if they have a different ideological position from us. And that means we are very practical. We don't think about the left or the right. We are going straight.

I say always precedence at the opening. Well, and so it's interesting, but you don't compromise your principles either. Never. Well, and so that is a, as we say in English, a tough needle to thread, right? A 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 put you from their side. Being in the center gives us the opportunity, first, to protect our principles. Secondly, to work close from those countries because we are looking at our people's interests protecting. We have the interrelation, not an interdependent relation with our neighbors. And really, we respect each government because they were selected for the people decide

democratically, and we have to respect that. And we are looking always the common denominator for our relations. And we work on that. And even if they have in the position, for example, the president Santiago Pena and the president Boric from Chile, they have a very close relation. And that doesn't have any relation with ideology. They have very close relation because they share very several point of view together. And we concentrate our relationship on those common points of view.

And that gives us the opportunity to strengthen our relations. What about your hopes for how the U.S. in particular, of course, will engage with Paraguay and Latin America? What is your kind of dream situation? 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 especially, with the people in the Secretary of State, starting with Marco Rubio, Christopher Landau, Christopher is a very close friend of Paraguay and all the people working around the this Trump

government. And just if I may comment Christopher Landau he speaks Guarani. Yes. From what I understand that's remarkable. Christopher's father he was ambassador to Paraguay. Christopher started his education in Paraguay, then he studied at the International College in Asuncion, and he learned Guaraní, and he speaks Guaraní. And I'm very proud of his Guaraní because he speaks very well. In those days, because he was in the hearing process, I couldn't speak with him. But before his nomination,

we were talking about his experience in Paraguay, etc. He is a very, very good friend of Paraguay, but we are not looking for friends only. The most important 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. And so what about the region now, more broadly, in terms of what you hope America's role will be? I think that America abandoned a lot of time Latin America. In the last year, the 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. 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-Lazcano and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Jan Jekielek.