[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5889-5893]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         TRIP TO COLOMBIA, PERU, BRAZIL AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, during the period of April 7-16, 2006, my 
colleague on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions, and 
I traveled to Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic for a 
firsthand view on issues of immigration, drug enforcement, and trade.
  On April 7, 8, and 9, we traveled to Bogota and Cartagena, Colombia. 
Upon exiting the plane, we immediately met with Ambassador William 
Wood, who has been U.S. Ambassador to Colombia since August 13, 2003, 
and is a graduate of Bucknell University.
  I was looking forward to returning to Colombia in that I had not had 
an opportunity to visit there since December 1999. At the time, 
President Pastrana was the President of Colombia, and I had the 
opportunity to discuss with him my concerns about the forcible 
eradication of the supply of narcotics and the status of peace talks 
between the Colombia Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia, FARC.
  Traveling to Colombia this time, I was aware that Colombia was still 
facing many serious challenges. Many of these suspicions were 
corroborated by Ambassador Wood. Ambassador Wood stated that the United 
States sent Colombia $600 million in aid in 2005. The purpose of this 
aid is to assist Colombia against various drug cartels and guerilla 
groups which threaten Colombia's security. Colombia faces two leftist 
and one rightwing insurgent group that wage guerilla warfare, carrying 
out kidnappings, hijackings, attacks on civilians, and political 
assassinations. The primary threat that Colombia faces is from FARC. 
Ambassador Wood estimated that FARC is composed of 17,000 members and 
operates in approximately 40 percent of Colombia.
  Senator Sessions and I were also made aware of some recent changes 
that have occurred to Colombia's justice system. Ambassador Wood stated 
that the new Colombian Justice system has instilled in the Colombian 
people a new level of confidence in the prosecution of criminals. The 
new system provides for live testimony through the implementation of an 
oral accusatorial system, whereas the previous system was 
nonadversarial and operated almost exclusively on the basis on written 
testimony. Ambassador Wood stated that the new system is now in Bogota 
and three other municipal areas. Over 17,000 prosecutors and judges 
have received intensive training in the new accusatory system in 2005 
from various U.S. agencies. The implementation of this new justice 
system demonstrates that the Colombian Government is serious about 
cracking down on crime and will no longer serve as a kangaroo court for 
the benefit of the cartels.
  Ambassador Wood also noted several other significant areas where the 
Colombian Government has improved in the area of law enforcement. 
Specifically, Ambassador Wood noted that the number of annual homicides 
were at their lowest number in 18 years. The number of kidnappings is 
down 39 percent, and terror attacks are down 42 percent under President 
Uribe's administration.
  Later during the trip to Colombia, we had the opportunity to meet 
President Alvaro Uribe and Colombia's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
Camilo Reyes. I came away extremely impressed with President Uribe and 
his agenda for Colombia. President Uribe is a true Colombian patriot 
who has elected to take the battle to FARC and to try to eliminate the 
cultivation of illegal narcotics in his country. Based primarily on his 
success against narcotic groups, President Uribe was reelected 
President of Colombia on March 12, 2006, on a platform to defeat 
guerillas, eliminate paramilitary organizations, end narcotrafficking, 
and enhance Colombia's domestic security.
  The first issue that Senator Sessions and I broached with President 
Uribe was the issue of narcotics. Approximately 90 percent of the 
cocaine that enters the United States and 80 percent of the heroin east 
of the Mississippi comes from Colombia. President Uribe agreed with us 
that the biggest problem in the war on drugs was lowering the 
consumption of drugs. President Uribe believes, as do I, that so long 
as there are consumers of drugs, people will keep producing it. Despite 
this concern, President Uribe was adamant that Colombia, with continued 
assistance from the United States, would be able to win the war on 
drugs. President

[[Page 5890]]

Uribe felt that so long as the United States supplied financial aid to 
Colombia for another 5 years, they will have taken significant steps 
towards eliminating cocaine production from his country.
  During our meeting with President Uribe, Senator Sessions and I also 
discussed the recent actions that the U.S. Senate and House of 
Representatives have taken on the issue of illegal immigration to the 
United States. I was very curious to hear President Uribe's opinion on 
how we might deal with the issue. President Uribe stated his belief 
that it was important for the United States to legislate carefully in 
this area in order to maintain a positive relationship with Colombia. 
President Uribe noted that the United States needed friends in South 
America in order to serve as a counterweight to Venezuela and President 
Chavez. The comprehensive Senate bill that originated in the Judiciary 
Committee, President Uribe noted, appears preferential to the House 
bill.
  Senator Sessions and I also asked President Uribe about the problem 
of seasonal workers that emigrate from Colombia to the United States in 
order to work temporarily on farms and don't return to Colombia once 
their appointed working time period has elapsed. I was interested to 
hear President Uribe state that he understood the concerns that the 
United States has with seasonal workers that overstay the work period 
in the United States. President Uribe stated that Colombia currently 
has a good working relationship with both Canada and Spain and that he 
would like to implement that same system with the United States. I 
asked President Uribe to explain how Colombia was able to get their 
seasonal workers to return from Canada and Spain after their designated 
work period had elapsed. President Uribe stated that whenever Colombia 
sends seasonal workers to Canada or Spain, they keep very close track 
of where the temporary worker is working and for what time period he is 
permitted to stay. Seasonal workers also have learned that if they 
don't return to Colombia at the conclusion of the seasonal work period, 
then they will never be permitted to participate in an overseas work 
program again.
  Despite President Uribe's approach on this topic, I still expressed 
grave concerns whether this incentive of returning to seasonal work 
would be enough to have seasonal workers return from the United States 
at the conclusion of their work period. President Uribe said he would 
consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted into their 
bodies before they are permitted to enter the United States to work on 
a seasonal basis. I doubted whether the implantation of microchips 
would be effective since the immigrant worker might be able to remove 
them.
  I also asked President Uribe what new policies he would like to see 
the United States enact. President Uribe stated that the five nations 
of the Andean community, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and 
Bolivia, are going through trying times. President Uribe felt that it 
was important that the United States maintain a good relationship with 
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia to combat the anti-American 
influence of Venezuela's President Chavez. I had the opportunity to 
visit President Chavez in December of 2005 and agree that he does pose 
a threat to U.S. interests in South America. I still believe, however, 
that it would be prudent for the United States to deal directly with 
President Chavez in order to reach an understanding on some of our 
Nation's differences.
  Finally, President Uribe discussed with us a recent vote that had 
just taken place concerning the protection of intellectual property 
rights among the Andean nations. By way of background, in 2003, 
President Bush announced the intentions of the United States to begin 
negotiating a free-trade agreement, FTA, with Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, 
and Bolivia. Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru currently benefit 
from the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, ATPDEA. This 
trade pact, which is set to expire on December 31, 2006, authorizes the 
President to grant duty-free treatment to certain products, with more 
than half of all U.S. imports in 2004 from the Andean countries 
entering under these preferences.
  In a recent vote which just took place in the Andean community, the 
community voted three to two to protect intellectual property rights in 
trade agreements with the United States. Colombia, along with Peru and 
Ecuador, voted in favor of the protection of intellectual property 
rights, whereas Venezuela and Bolivia voted against the protection of 
these rights. President Uribe is concerned about whether or not Peru 
will still support the protection of intellectual rights once they 
elect a new President in the summer of this year.
  Later in Colombia, Senator Sessions and I met Susan Reichle, Deputy 
Director of the USAID mission in Bogota, and Guillermo Del Coilitto, 
Jorge Droujo and Rosano de Riccardi, board members on Project Unidad 
Pedagogica Productiva Agroindustrial de Turbaco. During our visit to 
the project, we were told that the project was started in order to 
teach 300 displaced Colombian families how to generate income and 
garner employment through agricultural and agribusiness activities in 
Northern Bolivar, Colombia. This and other USAID projects in Colombia 
provide income and employment opportunities to rural communities which 
agree to give up the growth of narcotic crops and for those that are 
displaced by the country's continued conflict. These projects serve to 
instill these employment skills which they can market outside of the 
cultivation of narcotics. I left Project Unidad Pedagogica Productiva 
Agroindustrial de Turbaco with a favorable opinion of the work that 
USAID is performing in Colombia.
  When we visited the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, on April 8, 
2006, we reviewed the incident of February 13, 2003, when a small U.S. 
plane crashed in Colombia resulting in FARC taking hostage Marc 
Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes, who were under contract with 
the Department of Defense in the war against drug traffickers. Despite 
the best efforts by President Uribe to rescue these hostages, all 
efforts, as of now, have been unsuccessful. During our visit to the 
Embassy we were told that, if there were sufficient Department of 
Defense resources applied, the hostages could be located. As a result 
of this meeting, Senator Sessions and I sent a letter to Secretary of 
Defense Rumsfeld on April 10, 2006, requesting that he allocate 
additional resources toward the location of these men. In discussing 
this matter with the personnel at the Embassy, it was obvious that they 
wanted more resources for this effort as a successful outcome would 
clearly have a positive impact on morale and national credibility. One 
of the men at the Embassy said he thinks about the hostages every day. 
The Embassy people talk about these men as POW and MIA and there are 
plaques and signs displayed throughout the Embassy.
  Senator Sessions and I also met with Robert Taylor, Assistant 
Regional Director in the Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, and Admiral 
Alfonzo Diaz of the Colombian Navy. Mr. Taylor and Admiral Diaz 
discussed the methods by which the Colombian cartels use to smuggle 
cocaine and other drugs out of the country. We were advised that the 
primary way that drugs are shipped out of Colombia is via the use of 
go-fast boats. Go-fast boats can carry up to 3 tons of cocaine and can 
reach high rates of speed. They are frequently used to transport drugs 
to Mexico, Central American and Caribbean transshipment countries, 
using refueling vessels to extend their range. Despite the advent of 
go-fast boats, the Colombian navy, in conjunction with U.S. agencies, 
was able to intercept $25 billion in cocaine in 2005 as a result of 
their own faster go-fast midnight express boats, which can reach speeds 
in excess of 60 knots.
  Both Admiral Diaz and Mr. Taylor stated that Colombian law 
enforcement has an excellent working relationship with the United 
States and all of its agencies. One of the primary examples of this is 
the sharp increase in the number of extraditions of Colombians

[[Page 5891]]

to the United States. Since President Uribe took office in 2002, 
Colombia had extradited 304 Colombian nationals and 11 non-nationals to 
the United States. In early 2005, Colombia extradited FARC leader 
Nayibe Rojas Valderama and Cali Cartel leader Miguel Rodriguez 
Orejuela. The zeal with which President Uribe's administration is 
waging the war on drugs left little doubt that it is in the interests 
of the United States to continue to assist him.
  Senator Sessions and I arrived in Peru on April 10, 2006. I have had 
the opportunity to travel to Peru on four previous occasions, the last 
of which was on January 4, 2002. This was an optimum time to be in 
Peru, as they are in the midst of Presidential elections which had 
taken place the day before our arrival. We first met with Ambassador 
Curtis Struble, who was confirmed as Ambassador to Peru on December 9, 
2003. He and his staff gave us a country briefing and informed us that 
Peru's poverty rate is approximately 50 percent, but that Peru's 
economy is starting to rebound and per capita growth rate rose in 1 
year from $2,100 a year to $2,800.
  Soon after our meeting with Mr. Struble, we were met by Oscar 
Marutua, Peru's Foreign Minister, and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peru's 
Prime Minister. I was especially impressed with Mr. Kuczynski, who is a 
graduate of Princeton University and worked in New York City for 20 
years. He reminded me of our squash match 4 years earlier and commented 
on my ``drop'' shots.
  One of our primary concerns was the status of Peru's recent 
Presidential elections. Prime Minister Kuczynski advised us that there 
were a total of 23 separate candidates running for President in Peru. 
Out of these 23, only 3 were viewed as serious candidates. Ollanta 
Humula, a leftwing candidate who had been receiving significant 
monetary support from President Chavez, was leading in the early 
election return with 30 percent of the vote. The other two primary 
candidates, Ms. Lourdes Flores Nano and Alan Garcia, were characterized 
by Mr. Kuczynski as moderates and were in a dead heat, each capturing 
about 25 percent of the votes.
  Mr. Kuczynski explained that under Peru's political system, if no 
candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, then a run-off vote between 
the top two candidates occurs on May 7, 2006. Without question, it will 
be in the interest of the United States that either Ms. Flores Nano or 
Mr. Garcia prevails in Peru's election for President.
  Foreign Minister Maurtua stated that there are approximately 1 
million Peruvians living in the United States. Of these, he estimated 
that 50 percent were residing in the United States illegally. Kuczynski 
suggested breaking the issue of immigration down into two parts: what 
to do with the people already in the United States and what to do with 
those who would like to go there.
  Senator Sessions and I also met with Susan Keogh, Director of 
Narcotics Affairs in Peru. Ms. Keough discussed the current 
difficulties the Peruvian Government was having in combating narcotics 
and the deleterious effect that narcotic cultivation has on the 
environment. Ms. Keough stated that approximately 400,000 acres are 
being deforested annually for the cultivation of coca and other plants. 
On average, there are approximately 40,000 to 100,000 coca plants per 2 
acres, which require about 2 tons of chemicals to be used for their 
production. Since coca is very vulnerable to diseases, coca growers 
cover the coca with pesticides which are very deleterious to the 
environment. Some portions of these chemicals almost always find their 
way into rivers and streams, as coca must be cultivated close to a 
water supply.
  I asked what efforts the Peruvian Government is taking to combat 
these problems. Ms. Keough remarked that the Peruvian Government hardly 
focuses on this issue and that the growth of cocaine and the effects on 
the environment was rarely mentioned during the current Presidential 
campaign. We suggested to Ms. Keough that she and her colleagues, who 
were concerned about protecting the environment, should write letters 
to the editor of respected Peruvian newspapers expressing their concern 
over the growth of cocaine in Peru and the deleterious effects that 
this cultivation is having on the environment.
  Senator Sessions and I arrived in Brazil on April 12, 2006. 
Immediately upon our arrival, we met with acting U.S. Ambassador and 
Deputy Chief of Mission to Brazil, Phillip Chicola, a Cuban-American 
who came to the United States in 1961 and graduated from Florida 
Atlantic University. Mr. Chicola stated that, although Brazil views the 
United States as an ally, the Brazilian administration has made 
building relations with neighboring countries in the southern 
hemisphere its first priority. He said that Brazil is seeking to 
redress U.S. influence by strengthening ties with nontraditional 
trading partners such as India and China.
  Senator Sessions and I also asked Mr. Chicola about narcotics 
trafficking throughout South America. Mr. Chicola stated that, although 
Brazil is not a significant drug-producing country, Brazil does serve 
as a conduit for cocaine moving to Europe and Africa. Specifically, 
both Colombian and Bolivian drug smugglers attempt to transport cocaine 
over the Brazilian borders. Although Colombian drug smugglers have had 
some success in bringing narcotics across the border, the Amazon rain 
forest and various rivers provide natural boundaries against drug 
smuggling. As a result of these natural boundaries, drug smugglers have 
attempted to fly drugs out of Colombia and into Brazil. Mr. Chicola 
stated that the majority of drug smugglers now ship their cocaine 
through Venezuela as a result of Brazil's shootdown law, which 
authorizes the Brazilian Air Force to use lethal force in the 
interdiction of aircraft suspected of involvement in drug trafficking.
  Later during the trip we met with Under Secretary for South American 
Affairs Ministry for External Relations, Jose Eduardo Felicio. Mr. 
Felicio was an articulate, impressive man, who spent several years of 
his life working in New York City. One of the first questions we asked 
Mr. Felicio was how the United States can limit the destabilizing 
effect that President Chavez has been having on South America. Mr. 
Felicio stated that the Brazilian Government views Chavez as the 
legitimately elected President of Venezuela even though they do not 
approve of everything he says publicly. Mr. Felicio stated that, 
despite Chavez's harsh rhetoric against the United States, Brazil does 
not believe there is sufficient proof that Chavez is a disrupting force 
in South America.
  I also asked Mr. Felicio what steps the United Nations Security 
Counsel should take in regards to Iran's attempts to develop nuclear 
arms in violation of the nonproliferation treaty. Mr. Felicio stated 
that, while Iran should cooperate with requests made by the 
International Atomic Energy Association, Brazil does not believe that 
Iran is being treated fairly because there is a double standard against 
Iran. While certain countries like Israel, Pakistan, and India are 
permitted to develop nuclear programs in violation of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, Iran has been unfairly singled out.
  The next portion of the CODEL took us to Manaus, where we spoke with 
Mr. Francisco Ritta Bernardino, the owner of many hotels throughout the 
Amazon and noted author of several books dealing with the importance of 
the Amazon ecosystem. A lawyer and entrepreneur, Mr. Bernardino told us 
of his meeting with Jacques Cousteau, the famous diver and undersea 
explorer who documented life in the Amazon from December 1981 to 
November 1982. Mr. Bernardino stated that it was during this time 
period that Jacques Cousteau convinced him that the greatest threat to 
mankind was not nuclear war, but the destruction of nature. Cousteau 
believed that if the destruction of the Amazon was not halted, mankind 
would be sacrificing the future of their children and grandchildren.
  Soon after Mr. Bernardino's meeting with Mr. Cousteau, he set about 
the construction of the Ariau Amazon

[[Page 5892]]

Towers. Mr. Bernardino stated that he built the hotel in the middle of 
the Amazon in order to help people become acquainted with the Amazon in 
a region untouched by people. The Ariau Amazon Towers are built upon 
seven wooden towers interconnected by raised walkways over portions of 
the Amazon River. These walkways connect the towers with various docks 
and paths that lead throughout the Amazon.
  During our meeting with Mr. Bernardino, we inquired about the origin 
of the Amazon River flow. Mr. Bernardino explained that the Amazon 
River is created at the junction of the Negro and Solimoes Rivers near 
Manaus. He stated that the water of the Negro River runs approximately 
3,200 kilometers, originating from the various tributaries that spill 
out of the Andes Mountains of Colombia and Peru. The water of the Negro 
River is completely black, colored from the collection of minerals and 
organic materials that it collects from hundreds of tributaries that 
empty into it from the rock beds of the Andes. Mr. Bernardino explained 
that, although the Negro River is full of acid and poor in oxygen, it 
fertilizes the surrounding shores with its rich minerals. In contrast 
to the Negro River, Mr. Bernardino stated that the water of the 
Solimoes River is colored light blue and flows from the Brazilian-
Peruvian border. The Solimoes River runs for about 1,600 kilometers, 
until it meets the black Negro waters where it merges to form the 
Amazon River in a floodplain about 80 kilometers wide.
  The Amazon River runs 5,904 kilometers in length; its basins widening 
during the rainy seasons to as much as 100 kilometers. Mr. Bernardino 
explained that approximately 1,100 tributaries empty their waters into 
the Amazon and that the Amazon average width ranges from 2 to 30 
kilometers, until it reaches a width of 230 kilometers when it empties 
into the Atlantic Ocean. The flow of the Amazon river is so forceful 
that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean are pushed approximately 2 to 5 
kilometers away from the shoreline of the Amazon basin by its free-
flowing fresh water.
  We also met with the National Aeronautical Space Administration, 
NASA, Project Liaison to Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment, 
Josefine Durazo, about the effects the deforestation of the Amazon is 
having on global warming. Ms. Durazo explained that the Large Scale 
Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment, LBA, is an international cooperative 
research program led by Brazil and dedicated to the study of 
International Geosphere-Biosphere studies regarding the deforestation 
of the Amazon. She further stated that she worked with the LBA-ECO, 
which is a subproject operating under the LBA, funded entirely by NASA. 
The LBA-ECO is dedicated to gaining an understanding of how the 
ecosystem of the Amazon functions as a system and what effects the 
deforestation of the Amazon are having on climate control.
  Ms. Durazo explained that NASA began funding the program in 1998 by 
constructing tower sites which measure carbon flux in various 
geographic areas within the Amazon. These towers, in conjunction with 
extensive support by Brazilian researchers, enable NASA to measure the 
flux of carbon levels during forest fires and lumbering projects. As a 
result of this research, NASA and LBA have discovered that current 
logging efforts in the Amazon cover an area nearly equal to that of the 
portions that have already been deforested. Ms. Durazo stated that by 
using these techniques, NASA and the LBA will soon be able to determine 
the effect that the continued logging of the Amazon will have on the 
level of carbon dioxide being emitted to the atmosphere.
  After our meeting with Ms. Durazo, I had my staff reach out to 
Michael Keller a physical scientist working at the International 
Institute of Tropical Forestry. According to Mr. Keller, carbon dioxide 
is responsible for the largest portion of the manmade greenhouse 
effect. Each year, there are eight gigatons, 1 billion tons, of carbon 
added to the atmospheric burden of carbon dioxide. Of those 8 gigatons, 
1.6 result from land use change processes, such as the clearing of 
forest and savanna in the tropics. Mr. Keller estimates that .3 
gigatons of the carbon emitted to the atmosphere occurs as a result of 
the deforestation of the Amazon. Accordingly, Mr. Keller and other 
experts believe that the deforestation of the Amazon is playing a 
significant role in the manmade greenhouse effect. NASA is continuing 
to study the data that they have collected in the Amazon.
  Senator Sessions and I arrived in the Dominican Republic on April 15, 
2006, and met for a team briefing with Peter Reilly of the DEA, Andy 
Diaz of the FBI, Michael Garuckis of the State Department, Jeff 
Radgowski of the Coast Guard and Timothy Tubbs of the Department of 
Homeland Security regarding issues of drug trafficking and immigration.
  We were told at this briefing that the Dominican Republic's long 
border with Haiti, combined with its overstretched law enforcement 
agencies and geographic location in the Caribbean, make the country a 
prime location for drug traffickers. Although the Dominican Republic is 
not a major drug-producing country, it nonetheless acts as a transit 
point for cocaine and heroin bound for the United States from Colombia 
and Venezuela. The main trafficking points are by sea from Colombia, 
which lies just 360 nautical miles from the coast of the Dominican 
Republic.
  We were also informed at this briefing that there are approximately 
1.6 million Dominicans residing in the United States. In 2005, U.S. 
immigration authorities repatriated 4,918 Dominicans. Most of those 
returned to the Dominican Republic had served 4 to 9 years in jail in 
the United States.
  After our country briefing, we traveled to see a training program run 
by the Hotel Association with assistance from USAID and the Peace Corp 
at La Romana Bayahibe Tourism Cluster, Romana Cluster. The Hotel 
Association is attempting to educate and train the local populace in 
order to make the Dominican Republic more attractive to tourists. The 
Romana Cluster is a community of homes built by USAID for displaced 
individuals on land purchased by the Hotel Association for displaced 
Dominicans.
  While there, we met with Lisette Gill, the executive director of the 
Romana Cluster, and Rosa Garza of the Peace Corps. Ms. Gill explained 
that the Romana Cluster was started in 2001 by USAID to train the local 
community in marketable skills so that the area would be more 
attractive to tourists. Ms. Gill stated that the Romana Cluster 
receives approximately $250,000 annually from the Hotel Association. 
Ms. Gill took us to a high school that was constructed by the Hotel 
Association for 120 students living in the Romana Cluster. Before the 
construction of this high school, we were told that Dominicans living 
in the area could not attend high school, as there was no public 
schooling available in the area.
  Later that evening, we met with the Foreign Minister for the 
Dominican Republic, Mr. Carlos Morales Troncoso. I told the Foreign 
Minister that I had spoken to President Uribe about the problem of the 
United States of getting guest workers to return to their native 
country after they had finished working, and I was interested to hear 
his thoughts on the subject. Mr. Troncoso stated that the Dominican 
Republic had just begun a guest worker program with Spain. The 
Dominican Republic guest worker program was a 2-year program whereby 
the government would keep a log of where the worker would be working in 
Spain and where they could find him. Mr. Toncoso explained that, so 
long as the worker performed well and returned to the Dominican 
Republic at the end of the working season, then it would be permissible 
for the worker to work in Spain the following year. He stated that if 
the worker does not come back, that worker would be barred from being 
eligible for any future participation in a guest worker program.
  Mr. Troncoso admitted that there is always the problem of some guest 
workers not wanting to return to the

[[Page 5893]]

Dominican Republic, but nonetheless, the current system seems to be 
working well. Mr. Troncoso stated that, in 2005, Dominican Republic 
citizens working in the United States sent approximately $2.8 billion 
back to their families in the Dominican Republic.
  Senator Sessions and I also had the opportunity to meet with 
President Leonel Fernandez Reyna. President Reyna was a very impressive 
man who was born in Santo Domingo in 1953 and moved to New York City in 
1956 where he attended elementary and junior high school. President 
Reyna returned to the Dominican Republic in 1969 and served as 
President from 1996-2000 but was not permitted to run again as a result 
of term limits. In 2003, however, the Dominican Republic constitution 
was changed, permitting President Reyna to become President for a 
second time in 2004.
  President Reyna spoke to us about the border problems that the 
Dominican Republic was having with illegal Haitian immigrants entering 
the Dominican Republic. President Reyna explained that, while the 
Dominican Republic's unemployment rate was 17.4 percent, Haiti's was 
approximately 50 percent. As a result of this, the Dominican Republic 
must constantly contend with Haitian citizens coming across the border 
looking for work. President Reyna stated that it was imperative for the 
Dominican Republic to encourage the expansion of democratic 
institutions in Haiti, in the hope that this would lead to political 
stability.
  We returned to Washington on April 16 to use the second week of the 
recess to work on the immigration bill.

                          ____________________