 Welcome back, welcome back to Think Tech. I'm Jay Fidel. We are joined today by Emily Medina of Eprink. She's in Mexico City, and we're going to talk to her about Joe Biden in Mexico and how they will connect or not. Welcome to the show, Emily. Nice to see your smiling face. Hi, Dave. Great to be here today with Think Tech Hawaii. Always a pleasure. So, you know, I think sometimes people in the US forget that the world watches our media and probably everything that I can get here in Honolulu you can get in Mexico. All the cable channels, all the news, all the programs and all the, you know, all the print press too, and the websites whatnot. And I think we forget that sometimes but that means that you are presumably as well aware of what's going on as we are. And the question then is how you feel about it. So, obviously, we're in crisis, we're in a constitutional crisis. This is always troublesome for a constitutional democracy that people throw aside the Constitution and, you know, undermine the Constitution and what's happening. And, you know, Mexico is, you know, Mexico is close to us and we're close to Mexico. If a lot of people including me, we're closer to Mexico now than we were before. Trump has somehow made us closer and more appreciative of Mexico. I want to see Mexico succeed. I want to see a better, closer partnership relationship with Mexico more than ever. So I'm very interested to know how you feel and how the country feels about what is going on in our constitutional crisis. So let's talk about you first. Your reaction. How did you find out about this? When did you find out about it? What was your reaction? What is your reaction now? Well, I mean, we were following the US elections very closely here in Mexico. You know, it lasted a whole week. It's been a lot of suspense and it's been very, very tight and there's no doubt about it. And, you know, when we found out about the results, I think it was Friday, Saturday, you know, it seemed pretty obvious at that point that the victory, you know, the Biden resulted, you know, the winner of the elections. Yeah. So how do you feel about it? Well, I am optimistic about this new chapter in US-Mexican relations. I believe that, you know, this will freshen up the relation that's been pretty stagnant over the, you know, past few years, given, you know, that Mexico wasn't, you know, Trump's priority during his administration. So right now, I think you're being very nice about that. I would put it differently. I would say he took every opportunity to beat Mexico up for reasons that were never, ever clear just to make a scapegoat out of Mexico and Mexican people. And the shlugging a wall. Let me digress for a moment and ask you, does this mean maybe we can take the wall down? Should we take the bloody wall down? Well, you know, on the downside is that right now, the Mexican president has, you know, has toughened his position on migrants. You know, he's increased the presence of militarized police in the border with Central America, as well as in the northern border with the US. So right now, you know, although Trump, you know, will be replaced in the incoming months, we're going to see, you know, how Anla reacts to this change, which will be interesting. Because during Trump's administration, he's, I would say he's had a good relationship with Trump and aligned in many of his policy approaches, including increased, I wouldn't say so much security, but, you know, increased militarized, you know, Was that Amla's own idea or was he just getting pressured by Trump? He was getting pressured by Trump, who threatened to increase in Mexico, you say, Aranceles, but in the US, you would say something like, you know, a taxes on Mexican imports. Yeah. Okay, right. He didn't want to be involved in a one sided trade war, which Trump was doing all through his administration. So, okay, so then, you know, so we don't really know what Amla will do. Maybe maybe he'll linger in favor of whatever Trump was putting pressure on. I hope not. I hope he takes a fresh look at this. But what about the rest of the government? What about the people? I mean, you know, like in France, the mayor of Paris tweeted out to the world, she said, quote, welcome back America, which is very, very touching. What do the people in Mexico think about that? I think people in Mexico want to see a stronger dialogue with the US than what we had in the past, which was a very transactional approach between the Mexican, between Amla, the Mexican president and Trump. You know, so they've had a sort of a transactional relation that I think many in Mexico are right now, you know, looking forward to having back multilateral relation. You know, one of the remarkable things to me, many remarkable things have happened in recent weeks, but one of the remarkable things that says somehow Trump was able to turn the Latinos in this country, many of them who vote for him. This is after he has chased them around in the middle of the night with, you know, with Homeland Security arrests and incarcerations and the dreamers, you know, pull the dreamers program and just one thing after another, where he has discriminated against them and call them rapists and you know, on and on and on, we can spend the whole show just identifying all the things that he has done to, you know, beat up Latinos and yet at the end of the day he was able to get a lot of Latinos to vote for him. Do you understand that you must have thought about it because it is quite remarkable that they would have turned around and voted for somebody who was not serving them at all who is serving against them. What do you think about that? Yes, to be honest, I do not understand it at all. You know, and if you see most of the Latino borders and voting for Trump were based in Florida. So a lot of people, you know, especially, you know, from Cuba and other Venezuelan other parts, I guess, you know, the struggles they face politically in their countries, you know, with, you know, different political approaches, like communist approaches and what have you, I think Trump used that message of actually, you know, saying that the Democrats were leaning communists and you know, all that to target that population and have them, you know, actually vote for him. But that is my, you know, my opinion and, you know, to be honest, I don't really understand the, you know, the reason, the true reason behind the Latinos voting for Trump. Yeah, I don't, I don't understand it either. We have a show every couple weeks with Carlos Juarez, who is a Hawaii academic but who spends a lot of time in Mexico and overseas in general. And I asked him the same question, why? And he said, Well, you have to understand that the Latinos, it's not monolithic. There are various groups within Latino and they may feel different. And I suppose your point about the Cubans is very interesting. And one thing it sort of strangely connects is that, is that early in his administration, Trump reversed all the things that Obama had done to reconnect with Cuba. And, you know, it looked like we were going to have a robust and friendly relation with Cuba and so many levels and, you know, welcome back Cuba, if you will. And the Cubans could say welcome back America. But that is all dried up now because Trump has been dumping on Cuba ever since he was elected. And maybe, you know, the Cubans in Florida who are still mad, you know, about Castro and the like, maybe they encouraged Trump to do that. And maybe he does it in order to, you know, have them support him, you know, to assuage them in some way so that they support him over the issue of Cuba. It's very strange and it belies one lesson that I've learned about it. People too often in this country these days in the modern America, they don't see the national interest. They don't see or respect the wishes of their brethren. They only see their own interest, which leads you to a fragmentation. And I wonder, you know, I mean, does this recognize in Mexico the people understand that we are fragmented? Do they understand that we are having arguments about everything? You know, 86% of the people who voted for Trump still today feel that Biden stole the election because there was widespread fraud in voting. Which is no, no substance to that. No evidence of that. And yet 86% of the people who supported Trump feel that way. This is what I would call divisive. But meaninglessly, there's no reason for it. And yet it's divisive. Do people in Mexico understand the process, the troubles we are having and trying to come together? Well, you know, it's interesting because I think it's a global trend that we're seeing, you know, this increased polarization of populations and, you know, division and embedded division, you know. And I think this is largely due to the role that the media plays, you know. But more importantly, the undermining of the media by the own governments. And we see that in Mexico, we see that in the US, you know, where, you know, they undermine the media and they try to discredit the media by saying that, you know, that there's fake news when in reality, you know, facts are facts. And so I think this is playing an important role in creating division amongst populations and not only in the US, but also in Mexico. This trend has been increasing under Amla, who in his morning conferences, which he holds every day, he basically discredits the media, who criticize him, and this undermines our democracy and our institutions. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. So he's picking up on where where Trump is showing him the way. And he's not the only one I think it's a lot of, a lot of leaders, especially right wing leaders are following up on that too bad. I hope that when Biden, you know, gets into office, Amla will change his way of doing business as he should. I hope so too. So has Biden, I rather has Amla recognized Biden's election, has Mexico made an international statement that it accepts the results and many countries have, and it really shows you, you know, what side of the coin he's living on, has he. So at this point, Amla has not acknowledged Biden's victory. He is waiting until he sees that, you know, that is all of the legal implications are in place. So for him to actually go and acknowledge the victor of the election. That's troubling. Of course, I think Biden will probably forgive him for he's a forgiving person but you know another another person. But it prevents you know further crop it kind of. It puts us on the wrong foot, you know, what could be a very good next four years in our relation with the US. And because right now, as the Biden's team begins to take place and the transition of power begins. You know, just officials on Biden's team and requested to have a phone conversation with Amla's team and they rejected that call in the side of Mexico, because they haven't acknowledged his victory. This is troublesome and because we are losing time that we could be using to cooperate on health issues, environment issues, energy issues and what have you, and especially on the economic recovery, you know, that we have to take care of after the pandemic. Yeah, well you're still you're still in a pandemic to just like the US are you doing better or worse and you know percentages than the US is doing. Well, the cases are still increasing our number of that's right now are about 95,000 and reported debts, although I'm sure the toll is way higher than that. It's estimated to be three times higher than what's reported. So, we're still, you know, under severe stress from this pandemic and we haven't recovered from it one bit. So our people, you know, is there a national initiative about masks and distancing and tracing and tracking and the like. And does require you to wear a face mask in several states, then it's mandatory to to have a face mask and, and this is helping you know, withhold the virus. However, there's a lot of use of public transportation. And, you know, so this, you know increases the risk of people getting COVID and happy. Yeah, sure. Our people out of work, have they lost jobs. And if so, is anybody helping them pay the bills. Yes, there's been a huge job loss here in Mexico. And unfortunately, the government has not provided any help with has not provided any aid and to, you know, to citizens and he they haven't you know provided even for the private sector. So it's kind of each man to its own. Okay, so the, the economy has been hit hard but what about energy. I mean, for example, and this is a question that came in from a viewer in the United States solar stocks started to rise. In fact, all the stocks started to rise when Biden was elected when it, you know, it became, you know, national news. What what hopes do you have for the future of the economy the stock market solar stocks clean energy. Trump is gone and I guess that's a hard question, because he's not really gone yet. But could you talk about how you see the future in the Mexican stock market and its reaction. I'd like to know what its reaction was to Biden's election, and in clean energy of course. Well, right now we're seeing, you know, a big push in the energy transition. And I think this is going I mean, right now, there's a lot of pressure in the oil market, because of the collapse and oil prices that we saw earlier in the year. So the oil industry is really, and going through, you know, difficult times. However, and I don't think that we're going to see a shift and immediate shift, you know, from oil to renewables as soon as Biden takes office it's going to be a gradual transition. I think I mean, I mean, Biden has been very clear in his environmental and energy agenda, and he's basically pushing for investments of $2 trillion in building clean technologies and energy infrastructure. But it's going to take time. I don't think we're going to see, you know, an immediate shift, especially because a lot will depend on who holds the Senate majority in terms of how spending gets done. So what about Mexico itself? Is Mexico supporting that both the government and the people supporting solar? Is solar growing? Was it growing in 2019? Is it growing now? And in Hawaii we have a very robust solar market, believe it or not, even during COVID. How about Mexico? Well, Mexico is one of the 10 countries globally with the highest potential in renewable energy. However, this government is not in favor of renewable energy. Clearly, they said, you know, that they think that renewable energy, to put it in, Sophie's lies why he said renewable energy is, which is basically saying that it's a myth that, you know, renewable energy is not as great as, you know, people say it is. So, you know, he discredits renewable energy and he's undermined investment in further building renewable energy projects because right now a lot of our main energy regulator, Comisión Reguladora de Energía, is basically in court with several energy companies because they've suspended a lot of renewable energy projects. On what basis? On the basis that it caused unreliability on the grid, which there's no evidence for that. What is it with him? Is he opposed to, does he not believe in climate change? Does he not care about carbon emissions and greenhouse gases? Does he not think that Mexico has an obligation, as all countries do, to deal with climate change? What's his thought process? I think he is more interested in his political agenda than on any climate agenda. Because, you know, Mexico's identity is very, is linked to our oil sector in many ways. You know, Pemex is a symbol of, you know, our, you know, national strengths and what have you because, you know, and earlier on when it was created it expropriated all, or foreignly owned oil assets in the country to create Pemex, you know. So basically, Amlo right now wants to capitalize on Pemex, on CFE, both state owned oil and energy enterprises. And because, you know, there are national symbols. So this is very popular in his, in terms of, you know, I'm getting, you know, political support from voters who, you know, are workers in Pemex and CFE or who, you know, just have a very strong national identity. Well, what about the other voters? I'm wondering if you have a constituency in Mexico that believes in climate change, that wants to do something about climate change, that cares about renewable and clean energy and so forth, that votes the other way, that voted against him, and that would, you know, try to support and promote an expansion of clean energy. So do those groups exist? Are they in the newspapers also? Do they vote against him? Do they have, what do you call it, rallies and events to demonstrate their feelings on the matter? Well, actually, you know, we have several NGOs in Mexico who are working to, you know, combat these issues in the court, and they've already been successful. We had our judicial system, you know, has in many ways stopped a lot of the proposals that were, you know, sent to the courts in terms of suspending renewable energy projects. You know, actually, what's called the Environmental Organization Greenpeace, of course, everybody knows Greenpeace. So they actually were successful on suspending this issue and the courts. And, you know, we do have, you know, a strong presence of NGOs in the country and also the private sector is pretty much involved in this issue because it matters to their investments. And, you know, so the international community, I think, should put more pressure on Mexico to actually meet its objectives under the Paris Agreement. Is Mexico a party to the Conference of the Parties, the Paris Agreement? Yes, Mexico is a party to that agreement. However, I think we're going to be sure to meet our first target, which is to increase our share of renewable energy to 35% by 2024. Right now we're at about 18%, I believe. So we're, I think, going to be sure to meeting that goal. And especially because this administration has, you know, put so many obstacles in the implementation of a lot of renewable energy projects and interconnection of transmission lines that are important to be able to bring that renewable energy capacity up to the grid. So when does Amlos turn up? And do you think he will win again next time? So he still has four more years to go here in Mexico elections or presidential terms last six years. He still has four more years to go. And, you know, hopefully with, you know, the change in administrations in the US, we are going to see a change in messaging coming from the Mexican president in terms of his approach towards the environment and towards many different issues including, you know, security issues and all across the border. Yeah, sure. Well, we only have a couple of minutes left, Emily, and I want to ask you my two last questions here. Okay, so what is your advice to Joe Biden about dealing with Mexico? Let's assume for a moment, you know, that soon enough he gets to be the president. Knockwood, what is your advice to him about how to deal with Mexico, how to realize, you know, our destiny with Mexico? Wow, that's a good question. Well, I think my suggestion to Biden would be to be very patient with Mexico, especially with, you know, the government and his views do not reflect the views of all Mexicans. And so my suggestion would be to be very patient and to actually to increase cooperation in all different areas and increase dialogue with Mexico to be able to face some of the biggest challenges that we have today including the COVID pandemic and climate change issues. And then flipping it to the dark side, what's your advice to Trump? What advice would you give him at this time when the Constitution of the United States is under such broad-based attack? Wow, and can you repeat that question? That's, it's kind of, you know, surreal to be, you know, actually, you know, bringing that question. And your advice? Well, my advice would be in terms of how he faces this and legal battles would be to just and, you know, to listen to the institutions and respect the institutions and rule of law. There you go. Thank you, Emily. Emily Medina, our good friend in Mexico. It is so nice to talk to you and I so enjoy our conversations. All the best to you, Emily. Thank you, Jay. Always a pleasure. Aloha and vaya candios. Aloha.