Santiago Pea, 46 years old, assumed the presidency of Paraguay on August 15. He is an economist who completed his training at Columbia University.
He is a "Mercosur fan." Security on the triple border and the conflict over the Waterway are his top concerns. The president was patient with the Argentine debt of US$ 200 million in Yacyretá. He said, "We understand the Argentine situation and we are patient" and that he is not in favor of dollarization in Paraguay. The president also said that the country has a very prudent fiscal policy with debt levels that are at the lowest levels of Latin America, then from the perspective of a Paraguayan economist, as is my case, dollarization does not make sense in our case. He also said he was not in favor of dollarizing in Argentina, which he said was a risk that left the country defenseless against external shocks. He was speaking to journalists at the Llao Llaa Forum. I am a fan of Mercosur, I believe in integration. This is the neighborhood we are in; we cannot move, so the best thing is to get along with our neighbors. It has been a difficult relationship with two very large countries, Brazil and Argentina, but I am convinced that together we will always be better than apart. If we look at the integration processes at a global level today, the processes are block negotiations. Obviously, few countries like the United States and China can afford to be alone. But then there are regions, the European Union, Southeast Asia, the Central American countries, all move based on trade blocs. I believe that we will always have greater strength if we negotiate as a bloc. There was a meeting a few days ago in Buenos Aires where all the representatives of the Hidrova met, and we are moving forward. I think there is a lot of optimism on the Paraguayan side. We see with optimism that Argentina has made the decision to rely on the experience of the US government's engineering corps.