I'm John Bachelorette, my colleague and friend, Evan Ellis, the professor at the US Army

War College, Latin American Research Professor, Strategic Studies Institute.

The President-elect, Pena, of Paraguay, has not only said that he would travel to Taipei,

he's traveled to Taipei, shaking hands.

What is notable here is that Paraguay is out of step with the rest of the region, that

either was or has switched its allegiance to Beijing in this odd contest that the Chinese

Communist Party conducts around the world, forests or against us.

Professor, why Paraguay?

Why does the President-elect feel that it's comfortable to step out on the whole region

and be friends with a democracy?

What was on that Paraguay is currently the last country in South America that continues

to recognize Taiwan and only one of seven countries in the entire Western Hemisphere.

So traditionally, those friends of Taiwan have traditionally sought to go to Taiwan to

reinforce the friendship.

Implicitly in the hope that there will be an expanded bag of goodies, loans and benefits

for them in the process.

Now, during Paraguay's recent election, there was some question of the future of the country,

the opposition candidate, had suggested the possibility of turning to the PRC.

Paraguay and agricultural interests, they have a big beef exports and soy export industry

had long said that if only we recognized the PRC, then we could have access to these

much greater Chinese markets, which is really only partially true.

But with that pressure from the agricultural sector, there was some question that when,

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