EXCLUSIVE: President Santiago Peña on What Trump’s Return Means for Paraguay and Latin America

American Thought Leaders

Jan Jekielek

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we have a special guest: Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña.

Paraguay is a unique country. It is one of only 12 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan instead of communist China.

It is also one of only six nations in the world, alongside the United States, that have moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Peña said he made the decision despite immense opposition from other world leaders.

An economist, Peña served as Paraguay’s minister of finance before he was elected president. He assumed office in August 2023 after a landslide victory. During his tenure, Paraguay has seen robust economic growth, outperforming many other Latin American nations. Last year, Moody’s awarded Paraguay an investment grade rating.

In this episode, I ask President Peña about what President Donald Trump’s return to the White House means for Paraguay and Latin America more broadly, his hopes and economic strategy for Paraguay, why he’s concerned about communist China’s influence in the region, and what he thinks about Trump’s recent comments about controlling the Panama Canal and renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Many of the countries in South America who decided to move from having a relation with Taiwan,
0:06.0	to have a relation with China, many of them thought that making this move,
0:11.4	my country will be much more developed and the reality is not that.
0:15.2	It's quite the opposite. They are less developed.
0:17.7	In this episode, I have a very special guest, the president of Paraguay, Mr. Santiago Pena.
0:24.6	Paraguay is a very unique country.
0:27.6	It is one of only 12 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan instead of communist China.
0:33.6	We cannot put economic interests ahead of the values and the principles.
0:39.3	Paraguay is only one of six nations in the world, alongside the United States, that have moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
0:48.3	Peña said that he made the decision despite immense opposition from other world leaders.
0:54.6	An economist, before he was elected president, he served as Minister of Finance, he assumed
1:00.1	office in August 2023 after a landslide victory.
1:04.4	President Trump is a great opportunity not only for the U.S., but for the entire war, to
1:09.5	improve and give more visibility to a positive agenda.
1:13.2	We need to make ourselves stronger. And you make stronger by investing in the people.
1:19.1	This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Janja Kelek.
1:24.4	President Santiago Peña, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
1:28.3	I'm very happy to be here.
1:30.3	So we're just sitting here one day after the inauguration of President Trump.
1:36.3	You must be thinking a lot about what a future cooperation between America and Paraguay might look like.
1:42.3	What's on your mind? I think that this could be the
1:46.1	greatest moment of, I mean, we have a more than 150 years relation between Paraguay and the US. But I think
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -19 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jan Jekielek, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jan Jekielek and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.