[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[May 13, 1992]
[Pages 758-759]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Arrival Ceremony for President Patricio Aylwin of Chile

May 13, 1992
    Friends of Chile and the United States and ladies and gentlemen. 
President Aylwin, I'm honored to welcome you to the White House, an 
opportunity not only to exchange views but to return that wonderfully 
warm hospitality that I received in Chile.
    Mr. President, you once described Chile's success in this way: ``The 
reflection of a mature country that knows what it wants and is able to 
achieve it by means of the democratic process.''
    Well, that maturity has been hard won; Americans shared your pain 
during some dark days in Chile when democracy was a fading dream and 
peace a faded hope. But it has been won. Today, your government serves 
its people and serves as a model to others. The same may be said of your 
leadership. Since taking office, you have revived Chilean democracy. In 
1913, Teddy Roosevelt visited Chile and spoke of a ``democratic 
experiment on a far vaster scale than has ever been attempted anywhere 
else in the world.'' Next month, your people will salute that experiment 
through Chile's first local elections in 20 years.
    And democracy has also spurred your economy. Chile has married a 
free people with free markets, a union that has resulted in faster 
economic growth than any other economy in Latin America over the last 
decade. A successful conclusion to the Uruguay round of GATT will 
enhance that trend. Already, your trade barriers are falling, your 
exports rising. As a member of the Cairns Group, you've led the way 
against agricultural subsidies and protectionism. The United States and 
Chile are two of the

[[Page 759]]

world's foremost proponents of free trade, and we look forward to 
working with you to expand bilateral and global trade as rapidly as 
possible.
    I applaud your achievements, and so did the Inter-American 
Development Bank, turning first to Chile to implement its investment 
policy support program. Under our Enterprise for the Americas 
Initiative, Chile was first to have a portion of its official debt to 
the United States forgiven because we want democracy to succeed. Not 
only do our people share what your government called the ``community of 
ideas, of feelings and needs,'' we share this land. We share more than 
the New World; we share a responsibility to keep our world new. So, last 
February, under the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, we signed an 
agreement helping Chile create an environmental project fund with money 
which would have otherwise serviced debt.
    And we will continue to address bilateral economic concerns under 
our 1990 trade and investment framework agreement. Our challenge now is 
to build on those beginnings and show why Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's 
great champion of freedom, wrote, ``The Americans are giving great hope 
to philosophers and patriots alike.''
    Today, Chile gives hope to an entire hemisphere. With market-
oriented reforms, you've led by example. In international relations, 
you're leading through integrity. Other nations count on Chilean 
leadership in the Organization of American States, in the United 
Nations, and then in the community of nations. Your people are working 
for peace and freedom in Kuwait, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Cambodia. 
You joined your neighbors to defend democracy, first at last year's OAS 
General Assembly, then most recently in Haiti, Peru, and Venezuela.
    There's a poem called Machado's ``Caminante.'' There's one line that 
stands out, and here it is: ``Traveler, there is no road, you make a 
road in traveling.'' Mr. President, I believe Chile is that traveler, 
traveling the road of history, a history made one step at a time. Chile 
offers an eloquent rebuke to those enemies of democracy on the extremes 
of left or right who try to mislead and confuse the people. Chile shows 
how liberty can not only shape a nation of great promise but ensure its 
people a legacy of promises kept.
    So, traveling together, Mr. President, we will keep our promises, 
and we will make ours a road to a better tomorrow. We are honored to 
welcome you to Washington as our guest, one of this hemisphere's truly 
great leaders. Welcome, sir.

                    Note: The President spoke at 10:13 a.m. on the South 
                        Lawn at the White House. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to the Cairns Group, a 13-nation group 
                        supporting agricultural trade liberalization and 
                        free market policies in the Uruguay round of 
                        multilateral trade negotiations.