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Saturday's
Lagniappe
Remarks
at the 36th Annual Washington Conference
of the Council of the Americas
AP
Photo/Chris Greenberg
U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivers remarks during
the 36th Washington Conference on the Americas at the State
Department in Washington, Wednesday, May 3, 2006. The conference,
titled 'Creating Jobs, Building Hope: The Hemispheric Growth
Agenda in a Changing World', was attended by foreign business
and political leaders. (AP Photo/Chris Greenberg)
By
Condoleezza
Rice
SECRETARY
RICE: Thank you. Thank you very much, Bill, for that wonderful
introduction. You're a good friend and I appreciate the nice
words. Thank you. Let me also thank Susan Segal and Eric Farnsworth
for their leadership of the Council. This organization's strong
commitment to active U.S. leadership in the Americas, of course,
began with David Rockefeller and David, you are a force and
we appreciate your commitment and the inspiration that you've
had for this organization, but also for U.S.-Latin American
relations. Thank you.
Lastly,
let me extend a warm welcome to a few of our foreign guests,
especially to President Vazquez of Uruguay. It was great meeting
with you when I was in Chile at President Bachelet's inauguration
and I look forward to seeing more of you. You're going to see
the President and he looks forward to that. Under your responsible
democratic leadership, Mr. President, I know that the people
of Uruguay are going to be able to have a more hopeful and a
more prosperous future. And I want you to know that the United
States of America will be a partner for you in that future.
I
also want to welcome Carolina Barco, the Foreign Minister of
Colombia, and also I understand that Minister Gil Diaz of Mexico
is here, the Finance Minister. Thank you very much for being
here.
Well,
I'm pleased to welcome back to the Department of State the Council
of the Americas. The Council serves as a reminder that we, the
men and women of the Americas, are more than just a partnership
of governments. We are an alliance of peoples. This year, approximately
89,000 students from our hemisphere will come to study at American
universities. People throughout the region will take about 66
million flights to visit one another, both for business and
for pleasure. And in just one year, hard-working men and women
here in the United States will send more than $40 billion in
remittances to their friends and families across the Americas.
The
peoples of the Americas are united by ties of language, of culture,
and mostly importantly, by our common aspirations, which are
perhaps best expressed in the founding charter of the Organization
of American States. "The historic mission of America,"
the charter says, "is to offer man a land of liberty and
a favorable environment for the development of his personality
and the realization of his just aspirations." And of course,
it's offered to women, too. (Laughter.)
President
Bush and I believe that we in the Americas have reached a decisive
moment in our shared history. And in order to truly understand
and capitalize on this opportunity, we need to be clear about
a few things. We have to be clear about the hopeful transformation
of the Americas. In just a matter of decades, the people of
the Americas have thrown juntas and caudillos out of power and
they have built democratic governments that reflect their own
cultures, their own traditions and their own unique experiences.
Next
month, when the 34 democratic members of the Organization of
American States gather in Santo Domingo, there will be only
one empty seat at the table, a seat that will one day be filled
by the free people of a democratic Cuba. In this young century,
a democratic consensus unites our hemisphere and together, we
have enshrined it in a groundbreaking document: The Inter-American
Democratic Charter, which declares that the people of our hemisphere
have a right to democracy and that their governments have a
responsibility to protect and promote that right. The Charter
also states that democracy is essential for social, political
and economic development of the people of the Americas. This
is a revolutionary new consensus for our hemisphere and it will
be all the more important as we confront the serious challenges
that remain in our path.
We
have to be clear, too, about what these challenges are and the
people of the Americas are telling us. They say that they, too,
believe in democracy, yet too many people still do not feel
the benefits of democracy in their own daily lives. The people
of our hemisphere do not want their governments to solve all
their problems for them, but they do want to know that their
governments are on their side, helping them to develop their
talents and share in the success of their countries. In essence,
our challenge is to better link democracy and human development.
Over
the past decade or so, the success of democracy in the Americas
has produced what President Bush has called a revolution in
expectations. The President has said that free societies --
in free societies, citizens will rightly insist that people
should not go hungry, that every child deserves the opportunity
for a decent education, and that hard work and initiative should
be rewarded. In much of our hemisphere today, free people's
expectations for a better life have outgrown the capacity of
their democratic institutions to fully meet those expectations.
If
democracy is to answer popular demands for development, if it
is to help reduce poverty and inequality, then democratic institutions
must be effective. Institutions like political parties and a
police force and an independent judiciary must be accountable
to the people. Institutions must be reformed to fight corruption
and to function transparently. And every democracy must have
the strength to create opportunities for improved health and
education for all of its citizens.
It
is important to be clear that this process has begun, but that
it will not happen overnight. The challenge is not unique to
Latin America. We, in the United States, have struggled for
centuries and we struggle even today to empower our democracy
to create opportunities for all Americans, men and women, rich
and poor, white and black, for our native populations and for
our native born, as well as for our newest citizens. Our democratic
development has sometimes been slow and it has often been fraught
with tension and anger and it has suffered some terrible setbacks.
But
ultimately, we have learned a crucial lesson. A country can
only reach its full potential and achieve lasting development
once all of its citizens have gained a voice within effective
democratic institutions. I know that the peoples of the Americas
are impatient with the development in their democracy. This
feeling is powerful and it's passionately felt. And our response
must be just as powerful and just as passionate. Through our
solidarity, through our assistance, and through our institutions
that we share in the Inter-American system, we can ensure that
the peoples of the Americas are not abandoned to demagogues
and authoritarians.
We
can help governments that are elected democratically to govern
democratically. We can help governments in crisis to meet the
challenge of building effective democracies. And we must do
so with urgency and yes, impatience because our people cannot
and will not live by hope alone.
Finally,
we have to be clear about one more thing and it is a powerful
cause for optimism. Under President Bush, the United States
is more engaged in the Americas. We are more committed to helping
people. And our strategy is forward-looking, perhaps more forward-looking
than ever before in our history. The President's vision for
this hemisphere is rooted in partnership, not in paternalism.
The citizens of the Americas are rightfully proud of their democracies
and they are ultimately responsible for their own success. The
United States has no desire to do things for our democratic
partners; we want to do things with our democratic partners.
The
United States charges no ideological price for our partnership.
And I want to emphasize this: We charge no ideological price
for our partnership. We will work with all governments from
the left, from the right, as long as they are committed in principle
and practice to the core conditions of democracy, to govern
justly, to advance economic freedom and to invest in their people.
This is not a matter of big government or small government.
It is a matter of good government.
The
goal of our policy is inclusion; the inclusion of every citizen
of the Americas, not just elites, in the opportunities and the
benefits of democracy. For men and women who are committed to
freedom, who work hard and play by the rules, democratic governments
must create opportunities for people to rise as high as their
talents will take them. That is how the United States defines
social justice. And we are not alone.
In
the Americas today, there's a strong consensus, one that spans
the political spectrum and one that we fully support about what
actions democracies must take to create lasting development
for their people. To reduce poverty and inequality, democracy
has to provide security. When people feel they can walk the
streets in peace and safety, they gain trust and a sense of
inclusion in their democracy.
In
just the past years, the United States has led the way in fundamentally
transforming the security agenda of Americas. We have expanded
our cooperation to confront old threats that have gained new
power in our increasingly integrated hemisphere: threats like
terrorism and weapons proliferation and natural disaster and
disease and drug trafficking and organized crime and gangs.
The democracies of the Americas have now forged a consensus
on the vital link between security and prosperity. And together,
we have brought this agenda firmly under the purview of free
peoples.
In
Colombia, for instance, we are rightly standing by Preside Uribe's
government as it defends it sovereignty from terrorists and
extends security to hundreds of thousands of Colombians who
formerly lived at the mercy of criminals. In Haiti as well,
hemispheric partners have rallied together to support democracy.
The International Donors Conference that we organized raised
$1.3 billion in assistance, which helped to train and transform
Haiti's police. With our support, the president that Haitians
freely elected in February will now lead a country facing its
first year of economic growth in a decade. We know too that
to reduce poverty and inequality, democracy has to encourage
economic growth and job creation and human development. Free
trade is the key and our vision remains a free trade area of
the Americas; the union of 800 million men and women from Northern
Canada to Southern Chile, in the world's largest free trade
community.
The
United States has recently made progress toward this goal of
free trade. We have signed free trade agreements with Central
America and the Dominican Republic in 2004, with Peru in 2005,
with Colombia just this year. And we hope to conclude negotiations
soon with Ecuador and Panama and to reach out to others. To
date, our 11 free trade agreements account for nearly nine out
of every 10 dollars that the United States trades with our entire
hemisphere. Clearly, we in the Americas are only scratching
the surface of what we can achieve by trading in freedom.
Increasing
trade is vital and it must be complimented by steps that help
all citizens to share in its benefits. At the 2004 Summit of
the Americas, President Bush won agreement from his fellow leaders
to cut in half the amount of time it takes to start a business
in their countries. This will enable more citizens in our hemisphere
to take advantage of efforts which the United States has helped
to facilitate with the Inter-American Development Bank to triple
the amount of available credit to small and medium-sized business
owners.
When
I visited Mexico last year, I met with a group of entrepreneurs
who are benefiting from these micro-finance loans, one of whom
is a seamstress named Maria Teresa Rojas. With a small U.S.-backed
loan, Maria Teresa plans to invest in new machinery that will
transform her business from stitching school uniforms to producing
high-value clothing. This will lead to economic growth, more
jobs, and a better life for her children and those who work
for her.
The
United States has also worked tirelessly to win debt relief
agreements for the most disadvantaged countries in our hemisphere.
We led the G-8 debt reduction initiative that will provide $4.6
billion in debt relief to the poorest countries in the Americas.
This comes on top of the $9 billion in relief received under
the Highly* Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the HIPC Initiative.
And we want to do more.
We
are currently seeking $5 billion in relief from the Inter-American
Development Bank. If we are successful, this would bring the
total debt relief for the region's poorest countries to $19
billion. That is about $620 for every man, woman, and child
in those countries. If just a fraction of that money is reinvested,
say, in health care, it could transform people's lives forever.
Finally
and most importantly, to reduce poverty and inequality, democratic
governments have to invest in their people. And on this front
too, the United States is an eager partner. Since 2001, President
Bush has nearly doubled our annual foreign direct assistance
to the countries of the Americas. This has enabled us to expand
development efforts that get results like our program in Mexico
which has provided electricity to a quarter million rural citizens
or our tuberculosis eradication campaign which has so far helped
eight countries in our hemisphere extend coverage to every one
of its citizens. The President has also boosted funding for
our Peace Corps, enabling us to recruit 1,000 new volunteers
who are now teaching English and helping people build homes
throughout the Americas.
Not
only are we giving more development assistance, we are taking
steps to make it more effective. Through the Millennium Challenge
Account initiative, we are directing new assistance to countries
that have proven their commitment to democracy but that need
help in building effective institutions. So last year, we signed
a compact with Honduras for $215 million and with Nicaragua
for $175 million, both of which will help revitalize the rural
roads and help farmers transport their goods to market. We are
now negotiating a compact with El Salvador and we are devoting
$35 million to help Paraguay fight corruption and move closer
to a compact of its own.
The
United States has forged a comprehensive strategy of partnerships
with our peoples -- with the peoples of our hemisphere. This
strategy is fueled with new thinking and new resources, but
it rests upon a shared aspiration that is as old as the Americas
themselves. It is the hope of the new world, a place where all
human beings would have the opportunity to live and flourish
in freedom, according to their God-given talents and that by
the power of their example, they would be like a light that
inspires all humankind to rise above injustice and poverty that
has defined too much of our past.
Ladies
and gentlemen, today the eyes of the entire world often turn
to the Americas in places like Burma and Zimbabwe, in Lebanon,
in Egypt, and yes, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Citizens are looking
for inspiration in their own struggles to overcome a past of
violence and tyranny and inequality. They are looking for an
example of other people whose freedoms were once denied, but
who won their independence and embraced democracy and created
new opportunities for prosperity. We must show impatient patriots
around the world that the historic mission of the Americas is
more than just a dream; it is a reality within reach and growing
closer.
I
want to thank the Council for your sustained commitment to this
vision, to the cause of democracy and the cause of development
in our hemisphere. And today I want to leave you with this challenge.
All of you, as intellectual and business elites, have a particularly
important role to play at this historic time for the Americas.
I would ask you to use your influence to make democracy a force
for inclusion and empowerment. Work for effective institutions
that will better people's lives in real ways and in real time,
especially the most disadvantaged, the most marginalized of
peoples in our hemisphere. And always, always make the case
that political and economic freedoms are not quick fixes, but
they are lasting fixes.
Our
commitment to effective democracy is the only way to meet people's
rightfully high expectations of their governments. Democracy
is a long road, but we are in it for the long haul. And it is
the only system of governance on the face of the earth that
is worth the patience and the sacrifice that it takes to succeed.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Condoleezza
Rice
is U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note: This speech was presented by Mrs. Rice to the 36th Annual
Washington Conference of the Council of the Americas, at The
Loy Henderson Conference Room, in on Washington, DC, May 3,
2006. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of
our readers.
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Petroleumworld 05/06/ 06
Copyright©2006
Condoleezza
Rice.
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