Fox Sees Bright Future for Mexico

0:02

I've discovered there's life after the presidency.

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>> [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: Two evidence, President Fuchs and I.

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It's a great privilege to be part of the Freeman Spogli Institute and the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, which have been very kind enough to provide me the degrees of freedom to process and digest such an intensive ten years in politics.

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Now I'm beginning to understand how crazy I was- >> [LAUGH] >> When I make the jump from academia to politics.

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Really, Stanford, the dish- >> [LAUGH] >> The weather, high prestigious university.

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You have to be a Michigan to be able to do- >> [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: I have talked to Chip Blocker and Michael McFowl, and my friend Larry Diamond.

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And I thought that it would be a good idea that this country, who is so much absorbed by Iraq, by Iran, by China, India, that maybe we can steal a little bit of your attention to turn, you look around and look at your neighbor.

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And we are also very impatient to have a new look at the United States, particularly during this presidential election.

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It is with great honor that I have the pleasure to present one of my colleagues, my friends, Marta Vicente Fox.

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We both coincide our presidential terms.

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He had one more year, he's six, I'm just five- >> [LAUGH] >> Years in a term of office.

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And so we have consolated each other of how crude.

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With all due respect to the press, I'm not referring to you, the press in Peru and in Mexico had been, because Mexico, Peru, and the continent has such high expectations as to what the president is able to do.

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And so when I was fighting in the streets, leading a democratic coalition, once we concluded that task and I had a headband and long hair walking in the streets, when I became president, people asked me, Cholo Toledo.

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>> [LAUGH] >> You gave us democracy, now I need a job, and I need it now, and I need it now.

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This is to emphasize the enormous difficulties we went through.

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President Fuchs comes from a background of entrepreneurship.

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He was very successful, I'm not.

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He was the CEO of Coca-Cola, I was CEO of China Jews in the streets.

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>> [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: But we both loved our country and have great dreams for the region. And I'm very hopeful.

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President Fuchs have done an incredible job in Mexico.

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We are not good judges of our administration.

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Let history say its word.

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The one thing I can say for President Fuchs.

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In 72 years, he was the only one who was able to win an election against a semi democracy in Mexico.

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It was a president that also paid the price of a responsible management of the economy.

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It was the president who was able to handle the economy at the same time to take care of the social turmoil that is very representative of our region.

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The economy is stable in Mexico.

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The economy has not grown as fast as Latin America, but that's because it didn't come from a deep point of view.

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So history will judge him well.

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And I ask Mike FSI, I persuade him that if what about we invite President Fuchs to share with us his thought, his experience in a country that is so close to the United States, so close that now you're trying to build a big wall.

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[COUGH] In any case, I'm proud of presented to you when time goes by, one of the greatest presidents of Latin America, President Vicente Fox.

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>> [APPLAUSE] >> [FOREIGN] >> [APPLAUSE] >> Speaker 2: [FOREIGN] Alejandro Toledo Colega, Presidente.

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And we found together that there's life after the presidency, and we're very, very active.

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This is a new trend in Latin America.

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It's something well known here in the States that former presidents keep active, keep working on their values, beliefs, keep working for their nation and for the globe, for all of the world.

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But this new trend in Latin America, surprising in just a few years lately.

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We see many, many former presidents in Latin America now very active with dynamism and working for our nations, for our communities, for our people.

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And this is great to happen because in Mexico, we still have that culture.

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Cheerer, after those 72 years of the prix that former presidents must retire, must keep quiet or run away to cover their fortune through their corruption acts, but things are changing.! [FOREIGN].

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Very proud to see all of you here in this room and to see all of those Hispanos, Latinos, or I call them my dear, dear and beloved Paisanos and El Paisanas, which I respect, which I admire, they are my heroes.

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And no doubt that immigrants have a very special way of being, they have a very special attitude.

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They are a different cast of people, willing to take risk, willing to move anywhere, looking for opportunities, ready to fight with courage, to bring in a better life to their families.

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I'm very proud to be also a heritage of migration.

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My family moved originally from Ireland to Strasbourg, from Strasbourg to Cincinnati Ohio, and from Cincinnati Ohio to the state of Guanajuato in Mexico.

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Always looking for their American dream, always looking for a better life for them and their families.

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Let me now retake some of the words of Alejandro Toledo, what he mentioned, that Iraq, Iran, India, China are the interests of this nation and a lot of time and attention is invested on them.

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I guess we have in Latin America our own way of calling attention, fighting among brothers, like is happening right now with Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

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And it's very unfortunate that, that is happening today.

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But we must see the center of the problem.

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The center of the problem is that, there is Guerilla there in Colombia, has been there for over 40 years.

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And that nation has been trying hard to control the situation, to abolish Guerilla, and get into a constructive path towards development.

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And very unfortunately, nations like Ecuador and Venezuela, or better said, not the nation, but their leaders have been participating.

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There's enough signals, information and messages that they've been involved with that Guerrilla.

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I make public from this place, a call for peace, harmony, dialogue and solution of the problem, and a call for respect among our Latin American nations.

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A call to put a strong front altogether to defeat terrorism, to defeat organized crime, to defeat drug trafficking, which is the cancer of some of our nations.

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And now let me get into the issue that we are here for.

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And I'm not going to speak very long because I get bored and tired when I listen to Hugo Chavez speaking for hours and hours.

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>> [LAUGH], [APPLAUSE] >> This 21st century is the century of Latin America, and it's not only my deep desire, all signals and all information indicates that Latin America finally is ready to move ahead.

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And as I say this, because it was very unfortunate what happened in our nations during the 20th century.

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When you look at the statistics and see our processes of development, they're very poor, especially when we compare with other regions of the world, Europe, Asia, even Africa, in relative terms, they advance more than our region of Latin America.

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And I always question myself why this happened?

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And I think the answer is easy to attain.

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We spend most of the century, our nations spent most of the century in hands of dictators, military dictators, in hands of authoritarian governments, or personal dictators.

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And this took us into high levels of corruption and inefficiency in government and budget investments.

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But at the end of the century, we woke up and went into profound changes in Latin America.

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First of all, we democratized our nations.

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We got rid of the dictators and the authoritarian governments.

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And a good example is Peru with President Toledo.

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Another one is Mexico after 72 years of an authoritarian government, people decided to go for change.

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And change is a magic word, moves people into action.

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But we better be sure what is the change we're talking about and where the change is going to be taking us, and make sure that change is well founded so that it works as is promised, especially when campaigning.

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So Latin America has consolidated its democracies.

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And in these late 80s and 90s we also went into profound economic reforms.

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They were very painful to each of our nations and they were more so with the poor, the lower income groups and families in our countries, they paid the price.

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But fortunately, today we know that democracy and freedom works, we know today that sound economic policies, responsible budget investing works, and we know today that stability, consistency works and renders results. Why I say this?

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Because the statistics show that today Latin America is back to rates of growth of over 5%, close to 6% of as a region, and that's a good pace of growth.

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But more important than growing, increasing per capita, as it has happened in the case of Mexico, from US$3,500 10 years ago, to more than US$8,000 per capita dollars today.

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Also income of families and people increased, but the most important accomplishment of Latin America is the reduction of poverty.

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If we take into consideration the measures used by the United nations, the CEPAL and the World bank, the $2 a day per capita establishing the line of poverty, and the $1 a day per capita income, the extreme poverty line.

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There are figures very recent that Latin America reduced by 10%, going from 45 to 35%.

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The amount of families and people below the $2 a day mark is an important improvement.

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The case of Mexico, it's solid, the amount of people or families under the line of poverty, the $2 a day, now is 18%, coming down from 45% 10 years ago.

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And the extreme poverty line, the $1 a day now, is below 4%, the number of families that are in that situation.

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So people, by its own effort, poor because of their energy, their capacity, and their will to progress, have overcome their situation in this figures that I have already showed.

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So what is the future for Latin America?

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What can we expect now in this 20th century and what we have to do to get there?

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First, I'd like to mention that the forecast of Goldman Sachs recently made public but five, six months ago, the forecast for year 2040 shows very interesting figures.

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Number one, the US economy is not going to be the largest in the world as it is today.

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That is going to be China's economy with great difference over United States, which will become the second largest economy.

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Third economy will be India, and fourth will be Japan, which today is the second largest worldwide, and the fifth economy will be Mexico.

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And for some it's difficult to believe, but to me I'm certain that if we do the right job, if we work with consistency on the right path, Mexico will get there together with Brazil, we're both about the same size of economy.

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And all of Latin America will have this opportunity of growing and expanding, of reducing poverty, and improving distribution of income.

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But this is not for granted, we do have big challenges, and we have a lot of work to do in the future.

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Number one, we have to consolidate our democracies and freedom throughout our nations.

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And democracy is not a value that is here for granted, it has to be nourished, it has to be taken care of, it has to be promoted, and this is what we have to do in Latin America.

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Because if we see today the consolidation of most of the nations as democratic, we see this worrying signs of populism, demagoguery, and cheating to people, or giving away the fish and not teaching how to fish.

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And I have to make myself very clear, I don't have anything against socialism, or social democrats, or these smart, talented governments that have been emerging from socialist parties.

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And we have many success stories, and many successful leaders which come from socialism, or are social democrats.

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Like the case of my friend Lagos in Chile, or President Bachelet, or President Felipe Gonzalez in Spain, and many other good examples that the strategy of commitment with people do work and work pretty well.

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What I'm against is this personal aspiration to full power in different governments in Latin America today.

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They are way out of the framework of ideologies, way out of the frame of political parties, either socialist center, or center right parties.

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But except that worrying trend in Latin America, we are consolidating our democracies, we are guaranteeing freedom to all people.

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And this will give us the basic, the fundamentals to develop our economies, to develop our.

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Per capita income, to develop human capital and to work on those powerful social policies.

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And no doubt that the two tools to move ahead have to do with a sound market economy, with social responsibility and human faith.

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But that's not enough, in Latin America we need this powerful social policies to make sure that everybody participates on the growth and the wealth that is created by the economy.

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So we need to consolidate our economies by making sure the presence of fiscal discipline, making sure responsible investment, making sure transparency and accountability.

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And making sure that people participate on that kind of economy by promoting entrepreneurship, promoting this marvelous small world of little, of little businesses, which is the best way to democratize the economy and to bring in opportunities to everybody in Latin America.

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But together with this, we have to work on this package of powerful social policies. Number one, education.

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Now everybody agrees that education is the way to solve our problems and it is the way to have solid economies and successful nations.

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But the problem in Latin America is the capacity to retain every young person and kid within the system.

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And even though we have all throughout Latin America public education systems that are totally free, no cost is not enough.

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Because families withdraw their kids from school on a short-sighted vision that by bringing in the kid to help in working with the family, they will improve income and improve quality of life.

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When the best thing to do is to keep kids in school, to commit with investing on them on the long-term so that they will then bring in a real solution to the problems of that family.

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So we need to add to the public school system in our nations a very strong scholarship system where we guarantee that all kids stay in a school up to the level of university.

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Number two, we need quality education.

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And this is a most in Latin America.

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Quality on the contents, quality on the teachers, quality on the facilities and infrastructure.

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And that's the only way we can compete globally having that educational quality and excellence.

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And here we have big, big challenges to meet in these next years.

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And thirdly, evaluation is a key component to quality because that, that you don't evaluate, you don't know how much is progressing.

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So evaluating our education system both in quantity and quality, making sure that those evaluations are made public and are shared with society, with people, with families, so that we are sure that we are going on the right path in education.

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Together with education we need very solid social safety nets, very solid housing programs, very solid Medicare systems available to everybody in our nation, and very solid development of income sources to people.

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And again, it's a big, big challenge that we have in Latin America on this area.

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Finally to say that Latin America needs new leadership.

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New leadership like the one that is emerging from universities of equality and the excellence like this.

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Stanford is like many, many universities all throughout Latin America that have the quality and the excellence to prepare, generate that kind of leadership.

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Leadership not only with deep knowledge and talent to meet the challenges that Latin America faces, but that have the values, that have the emotions, that have the commitments to work for people.

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Leadership that looks at the future, building a new generation and not just thinking on elections or thinking on its own election interest.

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That kind of leadership is the one we have to get all throughout Latin America.

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Today, only 22% of kids of young persons in Latin America have the opportunity you have here in this university or here in this nation.

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So 4 out of 5 kids in Latin America move out of school before they finish their preparatoria or their high school.

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And this must be corrected.

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I say this because maybe leaders like you will be meeting these challenges, even though we are talking about United States because all of the American continent has to move together to meet the challenges of the future.

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And we need to build bridges between the north and the South.

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We need to tear off walls and bring in comprehension, bring in compassion, bring in an attitude of unity among ourselves.

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Latin America needs its talent back to our nations.

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There are many, many Latin Americans all over the world.

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President Toledo frequently speaks about this, this diaspora, this all over the world, and specifically here in the United States.

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Our nations have a lot of talent outside our own countries.

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And that talent will be very, very useful to meet the challenges that we have to the future.

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A final word about this This library, presidential library that we're building in Guanajuato Mexico for the first time outside of United States, for the first time in Mexico, first time in Latin America.

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We're trying to build a bridge to connect the North with the South.

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We're trying to build a bridge to connect the developed with the underdeveloped.

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A bridge for technology, a bridge for education, a bridge for research and knowledge.

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It's a challenge that is being built right there in Guanajuato.

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And any of you that will be visiting Mexico soon, and if you don't have plans to do so, please try to program a trip there.

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We would love to show you what is going on there and what we're trying to build and who we're trying to associate with.

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All these former presidents of Latin America, we are encountering each other very frequently.

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Just two weeks ago I met with President Toledo in Panama, and that frequent I see President Lagos or President Cardoso or President Gonzalez or Aznar from Spain.

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And we're trying to conform a group, a group that is highly committed with Latin America, trying to build up and implement the democratic and social agenda for Latin America for the next 20 years, and this is an initiative of President Soledo.

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He was explaining us today that all that wisdom and talent comes out when you walk on the forest on this community of Stanford, when you and have lunch with smart, talented people like we did today.

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When you sit down and reflect so that you develop ideas, so that you share those ideas with other groups here in campus, is that where those ideas take form?

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But ideas need to be implemented, ideas are part of the challenge to leaders, to make sure that ideas come to being, that the American dream or the America's dream come to reality in each one of our nations.

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So thank you for your patience and I think we're now going to spend some time on a Q&A, totally open Q&A part of this presentation.

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Every issue is open, so please feel free to bring in your comments, to bring in your questions, and thank you again for your invitation.

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>> [APPLAUSE] >> Thank you.

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>> [APPLAUSE] >> Speaker 2: Why don't you just do the Q&A yourself?

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Is that okay or do you want me to do it?

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>> Speaker 1: Yes, please.

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>> Speaker 2: So I'm Michael McFaul, I'm President Toledo's boss.

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>> [LAUGH] >> Not so used to having a boss.

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I'm going to help with the Q and A, we do have microphones on the side, so we need them to get to you before you speak.

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And I think it would be courteous if you introduce yourself before you ask your question.

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Ayesha, I think there was one right on the side over here, please.

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>> Speaker 3: First of all, I would like to thank you all for organizing this, it's very important for me, especially being from Latin America and even more so from Venezuela.

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The point I want to touch with you is existence of the Organization of American States La Hoya, and with today's crisis that is facing Venezuela, that with President Chavez meddling with the affairs between Colombia and Ecuador, we feel that the American states should act more for democracy, and we haven't seen that.

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So I would like to know your opinion as ex president of Mexico and the opinion of President Toledo, why the American states are not acting for democracy and for really stabilizing the region?

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>> Speaker 1: Yes, This global institutions and in this case this America's institution according to my understanding, have to be renewed, have to be re engineered.

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Although they have their charter, they have their mission, they have their obligations, we see pretty frequently this vacuum.

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I'm also speaking about the United Nations and other global or regional institutions.

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Part of the problem is that they don't have teeth to represent and to act.

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So yes, I'm always for multilateralism and the obligation of these institutions to immediately get involved and try to convoke all different actors to dialogue, to problem solving and to harmony, which is needed.

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I'm sure that the Organization of American States will play a role, they have already been convoked, they already have appointed a date for their first meeting, and I hope they will be of use.

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I also hear many voices of different leaders in Latin America and different nations willing to participate, to promote dialogue and solutions, that's the democratic way of approaching.

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I think it has to be made clear that terrorism and guerrillas are pretty difficult to explain and pretty difficult for a nation to progress with them, the best approach will be the dialogue and solution of problems.

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>> Speaker 3: [INAUDIBLE] In the far back.

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>> Speaker 4: Thank you again, President Fox for coming here to Stanford, my name is Hirav Gandhi and I'm an undergraduate here, it's nice to be in the Graduate School of Business.

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I think you made a reference to the giant fence that is planning to be erected between the United States and Mexico border, there's been recent proposals in the Congress.

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Congress and the Senate here in the United States.

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And one of the issues it seems to focus on is the influx of drugs coming in from Mexico into the United States, such as methamphetamines and other drugs.

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Your successor seems to have tried to find a solution by deploying federal troops in Mexico in order to capture drug cartels.

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But what do you propose or what do you see as a solution or one of the solutions for the United States stopping or at least hampering the inflow of drugs coming into the country and violent crime coming along with those drugs in the form of drug cartels?

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>> Speaker 2: This is one more of the issues that are shared responsibility between our nations.

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We have to look at both ends, the consumption and the production of drugs, as well as the distribution and the moving of the drug in between.

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Mexico just happens to be right on the middle.

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And Mexico was not a drug producing country.

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Mexico was, not until very recently, a drug consumer nation.

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And very unfortunately, today things have changed.

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Originally, the drug would come from the south through Mexico in transit, coming to the largest consumer market in the world of drugs.

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And as long as you have the demand, you will have the supply.

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So it's a shared responsibility.

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Mexico is working hard with dedication, with passion in trying to refrain both production and distribution of drugs.

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And I understand that United States is also doing the same effort.

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There is an intense dialogue and communication between our two nations and the nations on the south.

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But I always ask myself a question when you're referring what is Mexico doing or what United States could do to limit the transit and the traffic of drugs?

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And the question is, once the drug crosses the border, who moves it?

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Who takes it to New York, to Chicago, to Seattle, to San Francisco, or to everywhere else in the United States?

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This is not a case to blame each other.

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The case is we have to work together because it's a highly complicated issue, it's a threat to our nations, and Mexico is paying a severe price right now, undergoing this war.

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We're in the middle of a war.

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Every day you read on the Mexican newspapers tens of people killed among the same cartels.

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And you see this war between cartels and government.

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And many people are being killed every day, every week, every month.

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But I think Felipe Calderon I, is called to be the best president that Mexico has had.

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He's a young person with talent, with experience, a Harvard graduate, he could be a Stanford graduate with all the capacities to meet the challenges that he has got.

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And he has taken this very firm step and government Commitment to make sure that drug cartels, organized crime is defeated in Mexico.

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And being in the middle of this war is the best sign that the strategy will work and that at the end government will succeed and Mexican people will succeed.

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And he's taking the step, and we started with that at the end of my government, it was very complicated of transferring, of moving those that have a commitment with Jewish justice, and by extraditing them to United States is part of the solution that President Calderon is looking for.

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So at the very end, I'm sure, I'm absolutely sure and convinced that pretty soon we'll see this problem under control in Mexico and that hopefully, drug consumption will be reduced by affecting the supply side of the drug.

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But still a greater effort has to be done to reduce the demand side of the equation.

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>> Speaker 3: [INAUDIBLE] President Fox, thank you very, very much for coming here.

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My name is Andre Vazquez.

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I was born and raised in Mexico City.

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My family moved to the states in 1995 after the economic crisis, after crime started skyrocketing.

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Actually, members of my family had an express kidnapping, as it was common in Mexico at the time.

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I recently spent five days in Mexico City last week, and to my surprise, I felt very safe.

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I saw a lot of public works, a lot of new construction.

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What really made me feel good about Mexico and the possibilities for the future.

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Now, your party having won six, seven years ago for the first time, and now with your successor, I guess we were at the brink of almost having an extreme socialist government.

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And when you speak about the statistics of Mexico being the 5th largest economy by 2040, I'm just afraid that the stability that is in place right now, I mean, could very easily be derailed in the next election and so forth.

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My question to you is, how do you see the best way to continue this long-term trend of stability and for responsible government growth?

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>> Speaker 2: Well, first a word about stability, I already mentioned.

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That was the last mammoth crisis that we had in Mexico back in 1994, in December, where every family in Mexico lost well over half of their patrimony in one night through that mammoth devaluation.

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The increase in interest rates, the problems for people to pay their debt, their mortgages were just impossible to solve.

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Fortunately, since then, 1994 up to 2008, it's almost 14 years in a row where we have not had that kind of crisis anymore.

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This is a story that ran all the 20th century in Latin America, 1 step forward and 4 steps backwards.

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Backward three years of consistency, of growing, of wealth planning, and then the crisis and recurrent crisis coming back again every other year.

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That was our problem in the 20th century.

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I'm sure now that Mexico will put together 18 years in a row of stability, of no crisis, of no devaluations, of no high interest rates.

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And of course, we have to work for that.

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But 18 years in a row will bring in a different picture for Mexico.

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If in this last 12 years Mexico has been able to reduce, as was already mentioned, by 40% families in poverty or extreme poverty.

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If it has been able to increase income, per capita income from $35 USD up to more than $8,000 USD.

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If it has been able to move from the seventh largest or highest per capita income in Latin America 12 years ago, today is the number one per capita income.

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If it has been able to move from a trade balance of around $120 billion USD to a trade balance that has overpassed $500 billion USD this last year.

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That trade balance is larger than the trade balance of all of Latin America together, just Mexico's trade balance.

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In Mexico's trade balance itself is significant to this economy in the United States because Mexico trades imports, products and services from United States in more amount, in more US Dollars than what Italy, France, Germany and Britain do together.

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So Mexico has become a very solid partner of this economy.

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And by those who are so xenophobic and so aggressive against migrants and against Mexico and Mexican government, those imports of $200 billion USD mean hundreds of thousands, millions of jobs to US citizens for the products that we import into Mexico.

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So that's the kind of thing that we want to construct. Now, the antidote. How do you say antidote? Antidoto. >> [LAUGH] >> Good.

50:52

Well, the antidoto against demagoguery, against populism, its education.

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And it is information, and it is middle class.

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And this is what Latin America has to build the human capital with enough information, with enough education.

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And the families with enough income to be owners, to have properties and to have a middle class.

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So this is the challenge.

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And we have to work fast because, yes, as long as we have those two problems, ignorance and poverty.

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Messianics will come very frequently to talk to people of change, to talk to people of promises without the fundamentals and the support for those promises.

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So it's in the hands of everybody to work for these values for democracy, for freedom, for sound economic market policies, with social responsibility.

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To work for powerful social policies, to work for gender equity.

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And gender equity is a key ingredient the day we can joining the women of all of Latin America to leading our nations to commit on prosperity and development.

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We will do much better than what we did on the 20th century by discriminating women.

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Women have a lot to bring to our nations.

52:47

Vision, compassion, love, care, commitment that we don't frequently have in our nations.

52:56

>> Speaker 2: So I have the gentleman in the far back venue note the woman over here will be second, you will be third, and this gentleman will be fourth.

53:04

And we're doing it democratically, Mr.

53:06

Sir, we're doing it democratically I saw him first. Okay.

53:12

>> Speaker 3: My name is Vasant Ramachandran and I'm an undergraduate here at Stanford. You mentioned.

53:18

>> Speaker 1: Excuse me, I'm not listening too well.

53:22

>> Speaker 3: I'm an undergraduate here at Stanford and my name is Vasant Ramachandran.

53:27

And you mentioned in your lecture today that one of the key components of a growing economy in Mexico, for example, would be the development and consolidation of small businesses.

53:38

And as I'm sure you're probably aware, the growing trend in society today is to talk about the potential for micro financing.

53:45

Especially with the win of the Nobel Prize of Dr Muhammad Yunus in 2006, who kind of popularized that model in Bangladesh.

53:52

I was wondering, since microfinance seems to be a buzzword that most people talk about in the context of Asia and other countries, perhaps in Africa, what potential microfinance has for the development of small business in Latin America.

54:08

>> Speaker 1: Bingo, and that's the answer.

54:10

>> [LAUGH] >> I do believe pretty much on that strategy.

54:19

I'm proud to be a friend of Muhammad Yunus.

54:22

I know him since 15 years ago.

54:26

I think he came with one of the greatest tools to defeat poverty, to dignify women and persons all over the world. And it's a key strategy.

54:39

Figures in Mexico, 48 million people wake up every day to go to work every day.

54:48

48 million out of the 105 that we are all together.

54:56

And out of those 48 million, only 15 million work and have a job, a permanent job with a corporation.

55:09

15 million, two and a half million have a job with government.

55:15

So we have 17 and a half people working with Social Security programs, earning a salary every week.

55:27

But the rest is entrepreneurs, it's underground economy.

55:35

But it's people that also wake up every day to go to work and make a salary.

55:43

That energy of those 30 million is impressive and many people claim that they should disappear, that they should not be allowed to exist.

55:58

To work or to have their small business on the underground economy, but those who claim for that have never brought an answer to the problem.

56:11

Where are these 30 million going to work?

56:15

I don't think that they will ever get a job in a formal corporation, those 30 million.

56:26

So we have such richness there, so much human energy there, that if we can put it to work, the economy as a whole will be very successful, what we need, what you already said, a financial system.

56:48

When I took over in government, only 30% of Mexican people were bankable 70% were not, had never crossed the door of a bank.

56:58

Today it's well over 80%, those who are bankable, have a credit card and a check account so it's close to 80% today and that's a big change.

57:11

That's why we have to keep on working, building a successful democratic economy through this entrepreneurship and massive energy that our countries have.

57:24

We have to do it orderly, bring in a legal framework for it to be productive, but that's in our hands to build and we have to give them also a system of a safety net, medicare, access to a home, schools and that's what we have to work on.

57:50

>> Speaker 2: The woman in the back and then Aisha, the gentleman right here next to her.

57:54

>> Speaker 3: Hi, my name's Alice Nam, I'm an undergrad here at Stanford.

58:00

I only asked this question because two years ago I was a volunteer with an NGO in San Francisco del in Guanajuato and that was summer 2006.

58:10

And since there was a question earlier about elections instability, I was wondering if you had any insight about the last election and what happened and what your government did to sort of restabilize the country and at the same time adjust the needs of the people who are unsatisfied with the results of the election.

58:28

>> Speaker 2: The question is, what did you do about the last election and how did you stabilize the situation after the election, particularly those that voted for the.

58:40

>> Speaker 1: Yeah, that election.

58:47

>> Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that question.

58:50

>> Speaker 1: That election 2006 put on proof our institutions in Mexico, because number one, it was a very tight election, the result were of minimum difference.

59:07

And although we all know that in democracy with one vote you win many times, it's very difficult to assure that vote was fair and was equal opportunities to all participants so it becomes very difficult when election processes are so tight.

59:29

Most everywhere in the world that's happening today happens in Mexico,it will happen in Spain when you see the polls there, it's really tight, what is going on here on the democratic primaries, Same thing.

59:47

So each time it's more difficult for our institutions to make sure that we have fair elections and that every single vote is counted.

59:59

Number two, we have a participant that although he claims that he's very democratic at the very end, he doesn't like any results against His cause or participating, and he challenged every institution in Mexico during that year.

1:00:18

He challenged the Supreme Court, electoral authorities, president, the legislative, and fortunately our institutions came along, and I'm very proud of those institutions that we have in Mexico today.

1:00:36

These institutions, the electoral institutions in Mexico were called by the United Nations to prepare and develop the whole electoral process in Iraq just four years or five years ago, so they do have that capacity.

1:00:57

What I did myself, behaved like president.

1:01:02

In Mexico the president today does not have anything to do or intervene in the electoral process.

1:01:12

In Mexico if I would have done what President Bush did this morning, I would have been accused by everybody of being undemocratic or misleading the electorate and moving the election to my own candidate.

1:01:35

But this is a misleading culture that we have in Mexico because I don't think there was nothing undemocratic on President Bush attitude this morning, when you have a mature democracy and mature electoral processes, that is welcome, no problem with it.

1:01:59

And at the very end, you know the results, 250,000 votes difference, we have one and a half presidents in Mexico, or I should say we only have one president in Mexico, which is Felipe Calderon and another person saying that he is also the president.

1:02:23

The key factor is that our institutions proved to have the capacity to handle very difficult situations.

1:02:35

>> Speaker 4: Thank you for the democratic opportunity, Senor Presidente Fox, Muchas graspenido. Good afternoon, sir.

1:02:43

I'm Nawi Olin, a reporter based in San Jose, California for a bilingual newspaper, you mentioned a lot of things, and I will have the opportunity one on one because we have so many questions.

1:02:55

But I'm going to go to one, JuJo's Heredo inherited, I think is the right word in English, the NAFTA deal, now the beans and corn subsidized here in the US and Canada is floating, not just Mexico, pretty soon will be Peru too, where it's called chocolate my memory is not that bad.

1:03:25

And all our campesinos now are in the problem that they don't have how to sell their grains, fare, whatever the products are and since then, all this NAFTA is where all Mexicans and Latin Americans are coming to the US in the last 10 years, what technically should now, because the NAFTA is not going to change Clinton, McCain, Obama, whoever comes, they're not going to change it, so now whats.

1:03:58

As the solution for all those workers that needs to feed their family, that can have to take their kids out of the school to help them in the field to try to survive.

1:04:12

And there's no way to get education if your stomach is empty because here is healthy people, wealthy people, but not all of them.

1:04:21

So what is now the stage step in all Latin America to deal with this NAFTA totally unfair. Thanks so much.

1:04:31

>> Speaker 2: As you said, NAFTA needs a change to the better.

1:04:39

Needs to further integrate because it's been very, very successful for the three of us, for Canada, United States and Mexico.

1:04:52

And we need that new vision to further integrate.

1:04:57

And there's a good example which is the European Union.

1:05:03

I mean, with the Marshall Plan, Europe was put back on its feet 60 years ago and a total success.

1:05:17

This process of uniting, this process of integrating, nobody can deny that it's been very, very successful.

1:05:26

And mostly successful for the underdeveloped, for the poor nations of Europe, like Greece, like Portugal, like Ireland, like Spain, which they have per capita incomes of 2,500 then, they enjoy per capita incomes today that go from 25,000 up to 40,000 in the case of Ireland.

1:05:52

So working together, trading together, integrating with sound values into that integration works and works well, same as NAFTA has worked.

1:06:06

Now today Mexico has a strong super habit on our trade balance with the United states.

1:06:14

Close to US$100 billion super habit in favor of Mexico because of NAFTA.

1:06:21

By the way, with the rest of the world, Mexico's economy and trading is deficitary.

1:06:31

It's with a deficit with the rest of the world, but with the United States, because we have NAFTA is a very strong super habit.

1:06:39

Even in farm products today the trading between Mexico and United States is in favor of Mexico.

1:06:49

Unfortunately, the case of corn and wheat, which is the two products that will come into opening the market and no duties on those products, after the 10 years of NAFTA that they were left to the very end to protect precisely the campesinos, the people that produces them.

1:07:11

Fortunately, Mexico has prepared itself for this situation.

1:07:17

And fortunately prices of corn are better than ever.

1:07:21

They have never been as good as they are today because of the demand specifically coming from China, because of the fuel, the biofuel coming from corn, bioenergy, which has increased prices of corn way beyond what they have had historically.

1:07:46

But I still question myself if it is a good trade off to trade food for energy.

1:07:55

When I think that we should be developing alternative sources of energy not derived from food because everybody's excited about getting gasoline out of corn.

1:08:09

But what has happened with that is that tortillas are more expensive than ever and corn is becoming very expensive.

1:08:18

So I don't think it's a wise decision on the long term.

1:08:23

On the meantime, the vanguard on this field is Brazil.

1:08:27

Brazil has a very, very strong, interesting and up to now successful policies in diversifying its sources of energy and mainly by going into bioenergy and by getting out of corn and out of other products that they have other food products.

1:08:49

The claim is right now that they are creating jobs in rural areas that did not exist before.

1:08:57

And that is true, that they are expanding their frontiers of production way beyond what they had before. And that is true also.

1:09:07

So for the meantime, it seems a very successful strategy.

1:09:12

Again, this is a personal point of view.

1:09:15

I'm not sure if it's going to be so wise of a decision in the long, long term in the case of energy.

1:09:26

>> Speaker 3: This gentleman next, when you ask your question, can you then pass it to the woman in the orange? Six down, seven down.

1:09:35

>> Speaker 4: Okay, show me. Mr.

1:09:37

President, it's an honor to have you here in Stamford.

1:09:40

My name is Gustavo Blejer.

1:09:42

I was born in Argentina, but I'm a citizen of Mexico right now.

1:09:45

I'm studying here at the Graduate School of Business.

1:09:48

And my question to you is, during your government you try to pass very important reforms in the energy sector, in the tax policy sectors and the opposition, then the pre block it, sometimes without logic grounds.

1:10:05

Felipe Calderon's government is facing the same problems with an opposition, in this case built mainly by the Perede.

1:10:13

And my question to you would be, how do you build on that, respecting the democratic institutions and how do you keep the people's support and trust if Accion Nacional is not able to get those reforms that the country needs? Thank you.

1:10:31

>> Speaker 2: Yes, very important question.

1:10:33

I tried hard during six years, those four reforms.

1:10:39

The energy reform, the tax reform, the labor reform and the pension plan reform.

1:10:49

We advance partially on the pension plan reform.

1:10:54

On the other three, the initiatives are still there in Congress and they're not moving.

1:11:01

Here comes Presidente Calderon with a new try and he already advanced pension plans reform considerably.

1:11:13

He is right now working on the energy bill.

1:11:18

Bring this cost and debated right now in Mexico.

1:11:24

He came through with the tax reform not as much as needed, because in Mexico, income tax or tax derived from income, from income derived from taxes is only 11% of gross product.

1:11:41

That's one of the lowest in the world. In the world.

1:11:46

United States will be on the range, close to 30% of gross product as fiscal income.

1:11:52

Europe moves on the range of 40% or higher.

1:11:56

Argentina, Brazil moves On the 25 to 30%, and Mexico is still on 11%.

1:12:03

And that's why we're milking the cow of oil.

1:12:06

That's why Mexico uses the income of oil to support its very poor, very weak tax system.

1:12:18

So we do have a problem there.

1:12:21

The difference here is that Calderon is smarter than I am, Calderon is wiser than I am.

1:12:32

Calderon has a colmillo, political colmillo that will give him the edge in trying to accomplish these challenges.

1:12:43

And I wish him the best because it's urgent, absolutely urgent, that Mexico comes with these reforms.

1:12:53

And I mean listening to Manlio Fabio Beltrones just a week ago saying that is not the right time, the right political time for our reform in energy in Mexico, I question him.

1:13:12

When is the right time where every single nation in this planet has gone through a reform.

1:13:21

Cuba right now extracts its oil from deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico through private investment.

1:13:32

China works its energy with private investment.

1:13:36

Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, you name it.

1:13:43

And everybody is on sort of an association, a strategic association between public and private investment.

1:13:52

I'm not for privatizing Pemex, absolutely not.

1:13:58

And much less, I would be in favor of privatizing the oil.

1:14:02

The oil belongs to all Mexicans.

1:14:04

But that makes a huge difference from the position of not accepting private investment.

1:14:13

Today, we that are tall now, we can see ten years from now in Mexico will not have any oil to export.

1:14:24

Ten years from now, ten years from now we'll only have oil to provide for its own needs.

1:14:31

If we don't move ahead, and we don't move fast, there is no way we can do it.

1:14:37

Another confusing argument in Mexico.

1:14:41

The solution proposed by opposition that government transfer more money to Pemex and to the oil industry.

1:14:51

And that's what they are after.

1:14:53

Authorizing Mexican government to invest more on oil.

1:14:58

Where the hell is Mexican government going to get the money to invest in oil?

1:15:04

What these people don't see is that it's the same pocket.

1:15:10

Either you use the money to build a university or to build a school, or you use it for drilling in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

1:15:20

We don't have money to do both.

1:15:23

And it's one single pocket for all the money resource of Mexico is at.

1:15:31

So I wish that opposition in Mexico will have a little bit of wisdom, will have less and selfishness with the country itself and open for this kind of formulas.

1:15:49

Look at Petrobras in Brazil.

1:15:52

I mean, they place in the market.

1:15:56

I understand that first 15% of the ownership of Petrobras, they put it on the market.

1:16:03

They raised the money to invest for years and years and then they went a little bit further.

1:16:10

They have not lost the sovereignty, the property on the oil resource.

1:16:18

And on the contrary, I wish we could compare Pemex and Petrobras, and we will see the difference.

1:16:25

What a difference it makes when you have money to invest, when you have rigorous administrative boards and management in a company which Petrobras is obliged to have because their stockholders are the people.

1:16:45

And Pemex does not have that transparency and that accountability.

1:16:51

So in Latin America, and specifically in Mexico, we have to take decisions, and we have to take them fast, or we'll be in problems.

1:17:04

>> Speaker 2: Hello, my name is Ana Diaz Hernandez, and I am actually a citizen of Mexico.

1:17:08

I've been living here for the past eight years, but as a victim of the brain drain from Mexico, I was wondering, kind of, regarding his question, what are the incentives for people living here to go back to Mexico, especially regarding there's still corruption, there are still problems in the academia.

1:17:29

So if you could address that.

1:17:33

>> Speaker 1: By traveling here in the United States, I get the feeling that there is very little information about what's going on in Mexico and what's going on in many of our Latin American economies. I gave some figures.

1:17:48

We're not doing that bad.

1:17:51

And the claim is, wait, why Mexico's not creating the number of jobs to retain our own people with their own families in Mexico?

1:18:01

And there are several answers to this.

1:18:04

Number one, we come from growing at 3.

1:18:08

5% of our population every year.

1:18:12

Somebody spoke about China here.

1:18:15

In China, they came out with a law years ago that nobody, no couple can have more than one kid in their life.

1:18:25

And now they're facing the problem of a huge reduction in of their energy, their working force that they need today.

1:18:34

There is no economy in the world that can cope with a population growth rate of 3. 5%.

1:18:43

It's just too many mouths to feed, too many homes to build, too many spaces in universities to have.

1:18:50

That economy is pretty difficult that it can do that.

1:18:55

But yes, we learned the hard way.

1:18:58

And now instead of growing at 3.

1:18:58

5%, Mexico is growing at less than 1%.

1:19:06

And as a matter of fact, Mexican population doubled three times during the 20th century.

1:19:14

We went from 20 million to 40 million to 80 million to 105 million in one century.

1:19:22

That will never repeat again in Mexico, that will never repeat again.

1:19:28

We will reach a level at the maximum of 135 million Mexicans. We're 105 today.

1:19:36

So we will go up as high as 135.

1:19:39

And this is real projections with hard facts of what's going to happen.

1:19:46

And so that what is expectied in Mexico.

1:19:50

So pretty soon, Mexico will be using all of its working force and energy to support our Growth in our economy.

1:20:00

And I don't think we're going to have people to share with other nations.

1:20:05

Still, it's very important to keep open the opportunity for any person that has aspirations, that want to migrate, that wants to move somewhere else.

1:20:15

There's hundreds of Mexicans in China today looking for opportunities, working there, putting a small business and doing the work.

1:20:26

And same thing is true most everywhere and that.

1:20:30

But then population growth has been a limiting factor in Mexico.

1:20:36

Number three, what I said, as well as other Latin American countries spent the 20th century in hands of authoritarian governments or corruption or military dictators.

1:20:48

It happened to Mexico, it happened to Mexico, we lost our best opportunities.

1:20:54

I remember I was a kid then, and maybe some of you remember that the 60s, part of the 50s and the 60s in Mexico, crecimiento con estabilidad, growth with stability.

1:21:10

That great men, Ortiz Mena, that later became the managing director of the Inter-American Development bank, he was a genius running the economy.

1:21:22

And we grew those 12 or 14 years at rates of 10% on the average.

1:21:32

So we did have our opportunity, but later came this wise guy called Don Luis Echeverria, our first populist president.

1:21:46

And he told Mexico, wait, wait, wait a second, wait a second, we have to change, we have to move to another.

1:21:54

And he said, let's take a left turn, and he took Mexico all the way to the left on a very populist proposal, 35 years later, we're still paying the price.

1:22:11

And I think that Venezuelan Hugo Chavez should look at this case to learn that you have to invest the oil money in infrastructure, you have to invest the oil money in education.

1:22:27

You have to invest the oil money in building a very strong manufacturing capacity of the nation, you have to invest the oil money in technology and not give it away.

1:22:40

He likes to give away the money because it's not his, >> [LAUGH] >> It's the Venezuelan people money.

1:22:47

But he puts it, he just throws away and not only Venezuela, not only Venezuela, he intervenes in most electoral processes everywhere.

1:22:57

He sends money here to support there to do this.

1:23:00

And that's what I said and I sustained it, that he's been too close to the guerrilla and that he's part of the problem and he's not part of the solution.

1:23:13

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Speaker 2: President Fuchs, I'm Araceli Martinez, a reporter for La Opinion, is a Hispanic newspaper in LA.

1:23:27

No one can deny all the accomplishment that you could get during your government.

1:23:34

But at the same time, we have seen, or we saw a huge exodus of Mexican immigrants coming to this country, during your government, during your term.

1:23:46

There are some figures from Mexican institutions, like INEGI, that said that we saw like 500,000 Mexicans coming every year.

1:23:55

And many times during my job, when I'm reporting on the fields, I have talked many Mexicans.

1:24:01

And when I asked them, do you have a job in Mexico?

1:24:04

Most of them tell me that they have a job, but the money that they receive is very poor, 70 pesos per day, 100 pesos per day.

1:24:15

So I don't know if you have had time to reflect about your government.

1:24:20

What missed and indeed what Mexico needs to do now to stop these huge quantities of Mexican immigrants coming here and working here like the new slaves of this country, with no protection at all.

1:24:36

So what Mexico needs to do to stop this exodus, thank you.

1:24:40

>> Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for your question.

1:24:45

Alejandro and myself will oppress everywhere.

1:24:48

>> [LAUGH] >> Migration is a hundred year old issue.

1:24:59

Migration is a centennial and centuries issue.

1:25:05

Migration started with Adam and Eve, maybe because they didn't have water on paradise and they had to go and look for it somewhere else.

1:25:16

So nobody to blame for migration.

1:25:21

Migration is an asset, the migrant spirit is within each person that want to upgrade themselves.

1:25:29

That's why I say I admire every migrant, they are my heroes.

1:25:36

And yes, they have come here, many of them, the figure that I have is around 350,000 on the average every year.

1:25:47

And that's very possible, the figure, or it could be 500.

1:25:51

Yes, it's a lot of people moving out of Mexico.

1:25:56

Last year, my last year in government, we retained 250,000 Central Americans that came into Mexico illegally, looking for their American dream, looking for a job, looking for income.

1:26:18

Tens of thousands of Marroquies, Algerians, Africans moved to Europe every year and so on and on.

1:26:31

People moved from Bolivia to Brazil or to Argentina trying to work.

1:26:36

The people from Nicaragua moves to Costa Rica.

1:26:40

The people from our rural areas moves to the cities.

1:26:43

So it's just human nature to be aggressive, to trust yourself and to go out looking for a better life.

1:26:55

Now, I'm not claiming, well, let me finish first on the part of Mexico.

1:27:02

Mexico is doing all that is at its hand, trying to retain our people and bringing to them the opportunities they need.

1:27:14

Our people much better, rather would they stay with their families in their own home, in their own land.

1:27:24

They like much better tacos in Chile- >> [LAUGH] >> Than hot dogs and hamburgers.

1:27:29

>> [LAUGH] >> So if they are here, it's not because they like, it's because they are on a purpose, looking for something.

1:27:38

Like my grandfather did when he took a horse and moved from Cincinnati, Ohio, down to Mexico.

1:27:45

Hundreds of thousands of US Citizens move out, you should question them.

1:27:51

What are they doing in China?

1:27:52

What are they doing in Mexico?

1:27:54

What are they doing in Europe?

1:27:55

What are they doing everywhere?

1:27:56

Because they want better. Better.

1:28:00

Another good reason is the gap on income.

1:28:03

We were talking this morning, somebody said it's six times difference on income.

1:28:09

In the case of Mexico on the border right now is about four and a half times more income, a worker makes in McAllen, than a worker makes in Reynosa.

1:28:20

And four and a half times more, instead of gaining $1 in Mexico, they gain $4. 50 in McAllen.

1:28:28

Of course they want to move to McAllen.

1:28:30

Of course they want to go there.

1:28:33

And of course they go there because they have a job.

1:28:36

And this is the other side of the coin, that is being denied today on the debate here in the United States.

1:28:44

Most of these people, I would say 90% of them have a job here. They work for families.

1:28:51

The homes of those who are campaigning right now that are going against migrants, might be provided by, supplied by or worked by immigrant.

1:29:04

And the construction industry and the farming industry and the farming sector and the service sector.

1:29:12

And what Bloomberg said in New York, I mean, that city would collapse, if migrants were not there anymore.

1:29:24

Not claiming for open borders.

1:29:25

What I'm saying is, why don't we use our common sense?

1:29:31

Why don't we use the figures and the numbers?

1:29:35

Why don't we use the old formula of supply and demand?

1:29:39

If there is a job, let it be, let them come and work.

1:29:45

And this economy needs 500,000 additional jobs every year.

1:29:52

Additional jobs, it's not my figures.

1:29:55

These are US Government institutions in the United States.

1:30:00

That's what this economy needs to keep moving.

1:30:05

So, what is the solution, the proper framework through which we bring order to this situation, that we don't leave this issue in hands of the xenophobic's, in hands of the fearful.

1:30:20

Because that's what I perceive in this nation, fear after September 11th.

1:30:24

And fear is not a good advisor for taking decisions.

1:30:29

In hands of Lou Dobbs imagine, God bless you.

1:30:32

>> [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE] >> He is running the debate, and he's extremely aggressive against Mexicans, against Mexican government, against migrants.

1:30:51

So, the absence of decisions, those in Congress, federal Congress, because this is a federal issue, it's not a local issue, it's a federal issue.

1:31:03

But when federal government and US Congress don't take a decision, then the Ludov, the oralis, the xenophobics and else, they take control and they decide what to do.

1:31:17

My call has been recently and time ago, you as Congress can take a very wise decision, come up with a solution that is not only good for United States, Mexico, Canada, and Latin America.

1:31:34

A needed solution for Spain, for Germany, for France, a needed solution in Asia.

1:31:41

Today, we have to come with this framework, this new idea on how to handle migration, and do it orderly, do it with full respect to human rights.

1:31:55

And finally, I mean, building a wall, I mean, who was the smart guy?

1:32:02

>> [LAUGH] >> Building a wall.

1:32:06

I mean, when we all remember President Reagan, right in front of the Berlin Wall, Mr.

1:32:14

Gorbachev, tear off this wall.

1:32:19

>> [APPLAUSE] >> And now, we're building a wall.

1:32:24

There's a lot of confusion, because immigrants are not terrorists.

1:32:31

I can put my hand on fire, for Mexicans here in the United States.

1:32:35

They are loyal, they're hardworking, they love their families, they love this nation, they love Mexico.

1:32:43

And they are doing the best they can, and they're contributing to the better being of this economy, and the quality of life.

1:32:51

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Speaker 1: The quality of life, that US families enjoy mostly comes from these hard working loyal people.

1:33:13

And I'm not referring to the wealth that they generate by working.

1:33:20

I'm referring to the love, the care, their attitude, to treat a sick old man in the hospital, to attend the customer that is buying a McDonald's.

1:33:37

To clean the bathrooms and the hotels, they're bringing quality of life to this nation.

1:33:48

And I wish pretty soon, a reform will come along.

1:33:55

And I don't like the way the debate went on, in relation to this issue and to NAFTA here.

1:34:04

Because politicians have to think long-term, have to make sure that they're working for the next generation, and not for the polls or for the next election, which is what we heard here happening. Now, I know politicians.

1:34:24

>> [LAUGH] >> I know myself.

1:34:28

The way you're campaigning, well, you give yourself some freedom.

1:34:32

You open your mouth and you say a lot of things, and then you try to cope with what you said and you committed.

1:34:39

>> [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: But first you have to get there.

1:34:44

So I understand what is going on.

1:34:48

I respect a lot, all opinion.

1:34:51

I know what you do for our people here, and how you support them.

1:34:57

And I pledged you to keep on doing that, and to keep demanding good treatment for them, to keep demanding for them their Social Security and their Medicare.

1:35:11

To keep demanding for them fair conditions at work, to keep demanding all those Social Security funds that were taken away from the Mexican workers that came right after the World War, to sustain this economy.

1:35:31

And when this economy needed them, brought them by the thousands, and gave them a contract, a contract to pay them their salary and to retain their Social Security.

1:35:44

Which never was provided to them, never was granted to them, and that money should be somewhere, somewhere here in the States, either in government or in the economy or I don't know where.

1:35:58

So please keep helping them.

1:36:02

>> Speaker 2: So, President Fuchs, we have a problem with supply and demand here as well. >> [LAUGH].

1:36:05

>> For those in the front that keep asking for the questions, know that there are 50 others behind you that also want to have questions.

1:36:12

We are out of time, I think this is a good indicator of why this was your first visit here at Stanford, but I most certainly hope it's not your last.

1:36:20

This, to me has been really a historic occasion for Stanford University to have President Fuchs here.

1:36:26

It's a real honor that we hosted you, but the real reason he's here is because of President Toledo, and I think President Toledo wants to close our session right now.

1:36:34

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Speaker 1: This is truly a very strange feeling because I never thought that could be John Stewart's of the Daily Show.

1:37:14

Normally they introduce me before I talk, but it couldn't have been such a privilege to do this for the first time for my friend Vicente Imarta Fuchs.

1:37:34

You have inspired a lot of people, academia by definition means you have different points of views, and it only requires the level of tolerance to entertain our differences.

1:37:56

If somebody has the truth under his sleeve, he has no chance to learn.

1:38:10

Let me reinforce something that President Fuchs have said in order to conclude this session.

1:38:22

Latino American is a land of promises for the next 15 or 20 years, and I would like to speak to the Mexicans, to the Peruvians, to the Colombians, to all Latino Americans.

1:38:40

Latin America is a land of promises for the next 15 years, you that have the privilege to attend such a prestigious university as I accidentally had that opportunity, I beg you to prepare yourself to go back to Latin America.

1:39:07

The region needs you, I know that the temptation is very big to go to New York to marry lynch >> [LAUGH] >> To marry whom?

1:39:21

>> [LAUGH] >> I know the temptation is to go and to make money in the banks at a big firm, that's fine.

1:39:35

But remember that Latin America in the next 15 or 20 years is going to need you much more than the United States, and you're going to be an actor of your own land.

1:39:49

And to do that, you don't have to lose your tacos, you don't have to lose your enchiladas, you don't have to lose your pupusas, you don't have to lose your sancochos, and you don't have to lose your ceviche with Pisco Sour.

1:40:14

>> [LAUGH] >> [APPLAUSE] >> The continent is putting a lot of faith in this human capital that is in a Jasper in the world.

1:40:25

And it's in the responsibility of the leaders of the region to be intelligent enough to create a scheme to attract them, to provide them the facilities and the relative income so that they can realize themselves and their own lands.

1:40:47

President Fuchs, and I want to thank you very, very much to FSI Mike, who has been tolerant with me, Larry Diamond.

1:41:02

I wasn't quite sure about Chip Blocker, because I couldn't read his expression, but he has been extremely generous.

1:41:15

If we have brought President Fuchs, believe me, maybe we can have President Lula.

1:41:22

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Maybe if we can expose the experience of those who have already went through the responsibility of conducting the destiny of our country, maybe we can persuade you to go back to Latin America.

1:41:43

I wouldn't have said this now if I wouldn't be the first one to go back to Latin America, thank you very much. >> [APPLAUSE]