[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 23 (Thursday, February 27, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H672-H674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, EDUARDO FREI, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF 
                                 CHILE

  (The following address was delivered in Spanish, with a simultaneous 
translation in English.)
  President FREI. Mr. President, honorable Senators, honorable Members 
of the House of Representatives, officials of the United States 
Government, officials and members of my country's delegation:
  I thank you for inviting me to speak here. It is an honor for me and 
for the people of Chile to address you in this Chamber which has stood 
for more than 200 years as an uninterrupted symbol of freedom.
  I am deeply moved, not only because this House served as forum for 
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln, but also because 
it recognized the independence of Chile in the year 1810. It also gave 
strong support to the people of Chile in their struggle to restore 
democracy when it had been crushed, and to demand the observance of 
human rights when they were violated.
  Don Quixote de la Mancha, addressing his inseparable companion, 
declared: ``Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts heaven 
bestows on man--all the treasure of the earth and of the oceans cannot 
equal it. For our freedom, as for our honor, we can and must risk our 
lives.''
  I am grateful for the example this Nation has given the world in its 
unwavering commitment to freedom. Few people know as you do the high 
and exacting price that must be paid to safeguard that precious value.
  I want to share with you why we Chileans are ever more satisfied with 
the dividends of freedom, why we do not want to look back, why we wish 
to have a part in the new history, the history mankind is now beginning 
to write.
  Chile is a small country with an unbreakable will to be. Our recent 
history shows that clearly.
  Not long ago we seemed to be shattered by countless hatreds. But 
today we have built consensus and understanding. The strength of peace 
has triumphed over violence. We are seeking to understand and practice 
politics as the art of building and agreeing, not of destroying or 
paralyzing.
  We have suffered setbacks, but today we consolidate our advances. 
Reconciliation among us has taken root because we have reclaimed our 
freedom to look to the future. We have known the generous pardon of 
those whose most sacred rights have been trampled. We have recognized 
our common heritage. We move forward knowing that today we enjoy the 
fruits of the energy and work of many generations of Chileans, not just 
those of any specific government.
  In politics and in economics we have experienced extremes, rigidities 
and dogmatism. Today we seek our own path to a development that is 
balanced, independent and creative. We do not believe in fixed models 
or miracles but in creativity and in the courage to make changes.
  We have not attempted everything at once. We know that great 
initiatives have been defeated by asking for too much too soon. We want 
sustained, legitimate progress, even if the pace is slow. We know there 
is much to be done to make our democracy strong and resilient, but we 
want to move forward surely and safely.
  We have learned to be patient. Chile does not begin anew with each 
election. Rather, we build on our creativity and our work. We are well 
aware that we have a unique historic opportunity to achieve full 
development in a free market of political freedom. We value our 
achievements, but we give equal attention to the challenges ahead of 
us.
  Neither have we sought an easy bonanza. Instead we have chosen 
sustained growth. We have not promoted ephemeral advances but those 
based on the work and real effort of the people of Chile. We have not 
relied on miracles, but, rather, in hard, unflagging work.
  Today we have a stable economy that benefits the people: 14 years of 
sustained growth at a rate that has averaged 7 percent annually over 
the last decade; a rise in real annual wages of over 4 percent; our per 
capita income doubled in a decade; savings rates close to 25 percent; 5 
consecutive years of fiscal surplus. We hold international reserves 
sufficient to sustain a year of imports of goods and services. 
Productivity has grown almost 5 percent annually in the last 6 years. 
Our unemployment rate is close to 6 percent.
  We have resisted the temptation of easy promises. Our message has 
been frank and society has responded with discipline. Even while many 
of society's pressing needs remain unsatisfied, the conduct of our 
people has been exemplary.
  We seek today to resolve the age-old dilemmas of the State and the 
market, the private and public sectors. Both seek to be more effective 
and to offer services of higher quality in their respective capacities.
  Our people want no more paternalism. They are ready to forge their 
own destiny. They want the tools for progress. That is why my 
government has assigned education its highest priority. We want all 
elementary and high schools to have a full school day. We are devoting 
greater resources to develop a high quality teaching corps and modern 
educational institutions so that every region of the country can have 
centers of excellence in public education. We want total investment in 
education to grow from 4.5 percent of GNP to 7 percent within a period 
of no more than 8 years.

  The State is also making a direct effort to help the poorest, 
earmarking 70 percent of government expenditures for

[[Page H673]]

social spending. One million six hundred thousand Chileans, or 11 
percent of the population, men of flesh and blood, have moved out of 
poverty over the past 6 years.
  We are undertaking a profound modernization of the management of 
public services to increase the quality and coverage of services to the 
people. We are carrying out the most far-reaching reform in this 
century of the administration of justice to make it more accessible, 
flexible and equitable.
  In the health field there are two systems, one public, the other 
private. We have created a system of private health care with standards 
comparable to those of the most developed countries. Some 30 percent of 
our population participates in that system. More Chileans will join 
that as the country continues to grow. At the same time we are working 
on a complete overhaul of our public health system. We are making it 
more efficient, broadening coverage and improving quality. We have 
undertaken a massive investment in health infrastructure and introduced 
reforms in management methods and decision making, improving the 
quality of care. International health care indexes show that we are on 
the right track.
  In the area of social security we have established a system, and I 
know that this is a principal concern to many Members of this Congress, 
that has grown strongly over time. In the early 1980's Chile replaced 
its pay-as-you-go system with a private plan based on individual 
contributions. Pension funds are administered by private institutions 
chosen by individual workers on the basis of their profitability and 
the security they provide for individual savings. The amount deposited 
today equals 40 percent of GNP and is diversified in the broad 
investment portfolio. Profits have averaged 12.2 percent annually since 
its inception.
  To modernize our productive infrastructure we are opening up the way 
to private investment in the construction of highways and modernization 
of railroads, airports and ports. We work together in those areas so 
that our infrastructure can match our growth and extensions of our 
economic frontiers.
  Any objective, impartial observer must recognize the energy and 
dynamism that runs through Chile. People of Chile have left despair 
behind. We are worked hard for our progress and to solve our problems 
and broaden our horizons.
  With peace at home we can take a new look at the world. To this 
Congress, I bring the voice of a people who want to participate in 
mankind's new hopes.
  We have suffered the great dilemmas of mankind. For decades we have 
paid with our own flesh for the polarization of the cold war. We are 
aware that we have left the culture of conflict and division behind. A 
new world based on cooperation and freedom lies within our grasp. Chile 
wishes to leave behind its traditional isolation. We are a small 
country at the southern edge of the world that seeks to participate 
actively in this new era opening up to mankind.
  The struggle for human dignity in this century has had millions of 
anonymous heroes and victims. We do not want this universal suffering 
to have been in vain. Perseverance in the promotion of democracy and 
human rights throughout the world is the most fitting tribute we can 
give those who suffered totalitarian barbarity and genocide.
  Chile will persevere in that path. Last year it promoted a wide-
ranging debate on democratic governance that culminated in the 
Declaration of Vina del Mar, signed by presidents and heads of state of 
Ibero-America. That undoubtedly constitutes a landmark in the 
increasing efforts to consolidate democracy throughout Latin America 
and the Caribbean. Chile wants the torch of liberty to shine in every 
corner of the globe.
  We are actively committed to world peace. That was our objective when 
we were elected to temporarily chair in the United Nations. That was 
our role as guarantor in the conflict between Peru and Ecuador, and 
that is why we participate actively in United Nations peace operations. 
Today we are in the Middle East, Iraq and Kashmir. We will soon be 
sending police forces to Bosnia.
  We also encourage peace through mutual confidence-building measures 
and by signing international agreements to prohibit chemical, 
biological and mass destruction weapons, as well as to prohibit nuclear 
testing and to create denuclearized zones. Chile wants peace to be 
proclaimed decisively on the threshold of the coming century.
  The promises of peace, liberty and cooperation of this new era must 
be ensured. Today neither Hitler nor Stalin threaten us. A threat comes 
from the drug traffickers who sap the energies of our youth and enrich 
themselves by poisoning our people. We are threatened, too, by 
terrorism that acts in the dark, without compassion, without reason, 
against the innocent, acting in the name of politics, religion or race, 
leaving frequently a wake of impotent grief around the world.
  In our country and beyond we have engaged in the decided battle 
against those scourges. Therefore, in compliance with our own 
legislation, we are establishing procedures for judicial and police 
cooperation and coordination in addition to broadening bilateral and 
multilateral conventions on this subject. Chile wants to cooperate 
actively to make our world a safe place.
  We believe also that the democracy is illuminated when honesty and 
transparency characterize public office and political activity. Those 
displaced by democracy hope corruption will weaken faith in democracy. 
Let us not allow economic power to buy political power or the latter to 
establish questionable relationships with economic power. We are alert 
to the need to safeguard the longstanding and honorable tradition of 
honest public service in our country, especially in a time of economic 
growth. We are updating our national legislation and have participated 
actively in measures our region is developing, such as the Inter-
American Convention on Corruption and others. Chile wants clear and 
transparent politics and business.
  We step into the new century with the knowledge that the universal 
habitat of humanity is fragile. When forests disappear, the destiny of 
nature and our own are one and the same. We have an inescapable 
responsibility. Future generations have a right to material progress, 
but they have a right also to a healthy environment. Chile is taking 
appropriate measures. We have renewed and updated our legislation so 
that all planned production is subject to environment standards. We 
have launched a massive plan to clean up urban pollution and to set 
aside almost 19 percent of our territory as state-protected forest. 
Chile is going to cooperate responsibly in caring for our planet.

  We have a commitment to free trade. These are not mere words. It is 
entirely consistent with our development strategy and opening our 
economy in the generation and exploitation of new competitive 
advantages and in our entry into numerous new markets.
  Twenty years ago Chile exported to 50 countries. Today it is 152. 
Where before we had 200 exporters, now we have 6,000. Before we 
exported 500 products. Today, 4000. Seventy percent of our GDP is 
linked to foreign trade.
  We have diversified that trade. Of our total trade, Asia, including 
Japan, represents 24 percent; North America, 22 percent; Latin America, 
23 percent; and Western Europe the remainder.
  Our Congress voted unanimously in favor of the Uruguay Round 
agreement of the GATT and for joining the World Trade Organization. 
With that political mandate, we have developed our policy of open 
regionalism, including nearly 30 bilateral agreements for economic 
cooperation. With most of the countries in Latin America and the 
regional bloc we have signed free trade agreements. Negotiations to 
establish a free trade agreement with Mercosur, were successfully 
concluded in June, 1996. Today that regional bloc is the third largest 
economic bloc in the world and the one that offers the best prospects 
for growth. Chile has also seen a significant increase in Chilean 
foreign investment. In 1996 alone, Chile invested over $6.3 billion 
abroad in our neighboring countries.
  In April of 1996 we concluded a new economic framework agreement with 
the European Union, signed in Florence at the European summit of heads 
of state in Florence. Another important milestone in our economic 
progress was our joining APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 
forum in late 1994. We have signed a free trade agreement with Canada 
based on the NAFTA

[[Page H674]]

rules in November 1996. Next month we will open conversations with 
Mexico to review the free trade agreement currently in effect.
  When we speak of free trade, we speak from experience and with ideas 
and practice. We speak from a country that changes daily, and it is 
becoming a platform for trade, a gateway to Latin America, where a 
significant trade flow is just beginning.
  In that context our trade negotiations with the United States are of 
great interest to us, and we believe that they should advance to higher 
levels. As an individual country the United States has some 20 percent 
of our foreign trade, is our principle trading partner. In the last 2 
years alone that trade has grown by over 50 percent. The United States 
enjoys a favorable trade balance of $1.5 billion with Chile.
  Investors are our chief foreign partners, with 45 percent of total 
foreign investment in Chile. We are particularly proud of the joint 
enterprises undertaken by American and Chilean firms in our country as 
well as in other Latin American countries, and even in the United 
States itself.
  Because of this promise and relationship we accepted with enthusiasm 
the invitation in December 1994, at the conclusion of the Miami summit, 
the invitation from three NAFTA partners. Before this Congress, let me 
reaffirm our interest in those negotiations. We consider complete trade 
liberalization between Chile and the United States a natural step as 
well as an encouraging signal in the task of achieving free trade in 
the Americas, a process in which both our countries are engaged.
  In recent years we have witnessed a unique historical process. An 
unprecedented number of countries sought to establish democratic 
regimes and economic integration with free trade as the common 
denominator.
  Chile embraces this course and works to promote it actively. We hope 
it will not be as difficult to initiate free trade talks as it was so 
often to initiate peace talks during this century. Delays today could 
mean the weakening of many democracies, resurgence of closed markets 
and the consolidation of hunger and migrations in many corners of the 
world.
  Honorable Members of Congress, my presence here symbolizes a new era 
in friendship with the people of the United States. We wish to leave 
fears and distrust behind. We know that we live in a precious time, an 
opportunity we must not squander, a time between two historical 
processes. We are neither an economic nor military power, but we want 
to be a part of the history that is unfolding. Allies in the solution 
of the most pressing problems that confront us all, partners in 
furthering freedoms, brothers in the promotion of peace and democracy.
  We do not wish simply to move from a world of ideological 
confrontation to one of economic competition. We do not want a soulless 
world. We must be sure that the new history we write together is one of 
cooperation, creativity, change for the good. We know that 
globalization is not guided by compassion or solidarity. We know it has 
two faces, one desirable and the other is not. It is our responsibility 
and our task to make it right, to make it just, and not to blame it for 
our ills.
  Economic and political change is never easy. The temptation of short-
term profit can turn significant numbers of businesses and workers into 
enemies of the future. Some politicians and voters resist any change 
that crosses their interests. However, we know that change is not 
possible without new actors emerging, without a new distribution of 
political and economic power. It is for that reason that we aspire to 
strong democracies and economies with opportunities for everyone.
  In March next year, our country will hold the Second Summit of the 
Americas. Before long, the population of the Americas will exceed 1 
billion. Our combined revenues will be more than $13 trillion. Let us 
turn the page on our fears, our wars, and our distrust. Let us leave 
the days of threats and sanctions behind us. Frank and open dialogue is 
the instrument of international democracy. The principles and values we 
share must be our only parameters.
  It is crucial for us to write a new page in the history of the 
Americas. It is a page of confidence in the future, a page of mutual 
understanding, a page of free trade, a page free of hunger, a page of 
democracy, a page from Bolivar and Jefferson.
  In concluding, I wish to say that throughout our shared history, 
many, many Latin American presidents have come to this country. 
Traditionally, the success or failure of those missions has been 
measured in concrete assistance and contributions that each president 
has garnered from this country. With great ease, on behalf of my 
country, I wish to say to you today we have not come here to ask for 
anything. On the contrary, we come to extend to you an invitation to 
invite you to a shared undertaking.
  Let us travel together down a path that includes, but is not the 
only, classic form of economic cooperation. Let us together build a 
vision of the future for this hemisphere, a political, social, 
scientific, cultural future based in our roots and our history.

  Over the last few days I have heard with pride and gratification of 
the praise of the progress that Chile has made in recent years. It is 
true that we have come far. It is the truth of the work of generation 
upon generation of Chileans. But we know in our hearts that the 
principal obstacle and challenge to us must be to overcome extreme 
poverty, and there is no more valuable legacy that we can leave to 
future generations than to eradicate this ill that besets so many of 
the people of Latin America; to speak to those who have suffered from 
hunger of democracy have nothing.
  Let me finally on this very privileged occasion share a personal 
thought with you. When my father held the same office that I hold 
today, so many of the United States and the Americas shared a great 
dream of the future. It was the Alliance for Progress. The world has 
changed dramatically since that time. What has not changed is the need 
to again have an American dream for the coming century. The dreams of 
individual nations may change in the details, but what is truly 
important is that you and we share the ethical and moral underpinnings 
of such a dream.
  I have said repeatedly that Chile has an historic opportunity. Many 
times in our history we have stood at the threshold of development and 
we have squandered those opportunities as we did late in the last 
century. That is our responsibility today as political leaders, to move 
forward with the people of Chile, to make progress with our hemisphere, 
to make that dream a reality, to be capable of building in Latin 
America a solid democracy, overcoming poverty, opening our markets to 
the rest of the world.
  If we have strength, courage, and political resolve, we can build 
that dream, we can achieve that dream, and that is the task before us, 
and I call upon the people in the United States and the Congress to 
work with us toward that dream. Thank you.
  [Applause, the Members rising.]
  At 10 o'clock and 40 minutes a.m., the President of the Republic of 
Chile, accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall of 
the House of Representatives.
  The Assistant to the Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests 
from the Chamber in the following order:
  The Vice Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

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