His wife recounted on Instagram that they took a trip with Elon Musk in a helicopter and saw the grounds. Was this decisive for him to finish deciding or was the decision already made and the lands were simply chosen?
I think it was already taken and just that trip they asked me to take it by helicopter to see about seven options. We went to the east side; first we were in Apodaca, Pesquería; then we went north: Zuazua, Ciénega, Salinas and we ended up in the western part, which is in Santa Catarina and there the Saltillo-Monterrey corridor was the one that had been mentioned the most as having the greatest connectivity to Austin, because it passes a highway, passes highway, the bypass, the peripheral, the 1 North. And when he sees the mountains, there in the Huasteca, (then) he took out his cell phone and took selfies and videos. I know because in front of me, he told his team that he already bought them; pointing at them, he would say ‘Buy It, buy it’; There are some wind energy turbogenerators out there, and I remember him saying ‘I want to connect to them’, ‘I want renewable energy’, ‘I want the photo with the mountain behind’ and that’s when he asks us to get down on the ground.
In the negotiation part with the federal government, the Chancellery. Was there accompanying work?
Little, but there was. Obviously, Tesla brings more projects, it’s not just the car factory. So, I do know that they were in other states looking at the issue of batteries, especially. And almost at the end of the course, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has already begun to communicate with the government of the state of Nuevo León as to make the last moorings and, well, fortunately Martha (Delgado) goes on behalf of Ebrard to Investor’s Day and we were already there in the afternoon talking about everything that is coming to Mexico.
Are you working hand in hand with other governors to bring investment together, perhaps to other states?
Yes, in fact –as president of international affairs– I go everywhere with a double cap: promoting Nuevo León and promoting Mexico. And there I have to speak well of all the benefits of all the regions and states of the country.
With Jalisco, in particular, do you have any deference to promote it more?
All. It is that each state has its forte, and I am in charge of soaking myself with my governor friends: what do they want me to promote. Many are tourism, others are agribusiness; others, such as Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, are exports. Well, there we are, helping the country and, in this case, Nuevo León was the winner with this historic investment by Tesla.
