[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[March 10, 1999]
[Pages 340-343]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



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Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Peace Efforts in Guatemala City
March 10, 1999

    President Clinton. Thank you very much. Mr. President, first let me say how much I appreciate this 
opportunity that has been provided for me to meet with citizens of your 
country to hear about the progress of the peace process and the 
challenges ahead. Because of the involvement of the United States, I 
think it is imperative, as we begin, for me just to say a few words 
about the report of the Historical Clarification Commission.
    The commission's work and the support it has received from the 
government shows how far Guatemala has traveled in overcoming that 
painful period. I have profound respect for the victims and the families 
who had courage to testify and for the courage of a nation for coming to 
terms with its past and moving forward.
    For the United States, it is important that I state clearly that 
support for military forces or intelligence units which engage in 
violent and widespread repression of the kind described in the report 
was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake. We must 
and we will, instead, continue to support the peace and reconciliation 
process in Guatemala. As many of you know, we provided $1\1/2\ million 
in support for the commission. We declassified over 4,000 documents at 
the commission's request. Now we will encourage the translation of the 
report into indigenous languages and its wide dissemination. Consistent 
with the commission's recommendations, we also will continue our support 
of development programs in those communities which suffered most from 
violence and repression. This year, we plan to provide an additional $25 
million to support the peace accords through aid to the justice sector, 
to education, to literary training, to the generation of income, and to 
citizen participation in government.
    You have come a long way, as President Arzu just said, in forging a 
consensus in support of democracy and human rights and in finding a way 
to discuss your differences openly and peaceably. I applaud the 
difficult but essential effort you have undertaken.
    Beyond the commission issues, I would also hope to discuss other 
matters critical to peace and to development and reconciliation, 
including economic liberalization, market-opening measures, increased 
trade and investment, all of which are crucial to the overall well-being 
of the people of Guatemala. Now that you have chosen democracy and 
peace, it is imperative that the United States be a good partner in 
making sure that it works for all your people.
    And again, Mr. President, I'd like to thank 
you and the Government and the people of Guatemala for the road you have 
taken and for making me feel welcome today. Thank you, sir.

[At this point, the discussion proceeded.]

    President Clinton. Well, first of all I would like to say how very 
impressed I was by the presentations. And I would like to say a few 
things at the end, but for now, I was asked a couple of questions, so I 
would like to respond.
    First, I was asked about possible opportunities, greater 
opportunities, for women and young girls and children, generally. I 
think that the model which has worked best throughout the world for 
economic empowerment for women has been the whole--particularly rural 
women and indigenous populations--has been the whole concept of 
microcredit, as I'm sure my wife 
talked about quite extensively when she was here.
    But I think even more important is getting schooling going and 
providing--you know, I'm involved in this effort to try to end child 
labor that's abusive, worldwide. But it's not as--it's also important to 
get the children into schools--all kinds of children--including the 
children of indigenous people, and girls as well as boys, for a longer 
period of time. This is a big problem not just in Latin America; it's a 
huge problem in Asia; it's a huge problem in Africa. But I think the 
United States should be heavily involved, particularly in light of our 
past. We have a heavy responsibility to Guatemala and, indeed, to all of 
Central America to do more in this area.
    I have asked the Congress of the United States to pass an aid 
package, tied to what happened in the hurricane, of something over $950 
million. A lot of it is designed just to support the rebuilding that has 
to be done, and that is important. But there is quite a lot of money

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for education and economic development and, to go to another point you 
made, for the efforts to institutionalize the rule of law, both for 
commercial and economic reasons and for human rights reasons.
    This is an area in which I think those who have and those who have 
not, in Guatemala and throughout Central America, have a common 
interest, because the rule of law is essential to get more investment 
and more economic opportunity and to protect the investments that exist. 
It is also essential to establish, in an orderly way, human rights and 
the institutions of justice.
    So, Mr. Atwood, our AID Director, is 
here, and he can talk more about that with you. But we have worked quite 
hard to put together a package that I hope will be helpful. And I will 
be prepared, over the next couple of years, to try to do more.
    On the question of trade, I sent last Friday to the Congress another 
bill to try to provide more parity between our trading relationships 
with Mexico and Canada and our trading relationships with Central 
America and the Caribbean. And I believe we have a reasonable chance to 
pass that bill this year. And if we do, it obviously will lead to more 
opportunities for the sale of Guatemalan products in the United States, 
and more jobs, therefore, for the people here. I will work very hard to 
pass it.
    I was asked about the immigration issue, and I would like to speak 
briefly about that. I gave a more extended statement today to the 
National Assembly of El Salvador, but I will briefly say what I said 
there.
    I think it's important for every country to enforce its immigration 
laws and try to protect its borders. We have very generous legal 
immigration laws, and we have many, many immigrants from Central America 
making a major contribution, positive contribution, to the United 
States. On the other hand, most of the illegal immigrants from Guatemala 
and other Central American countries are not lawbreakers by nature; 
they're people who are seeking a better life. It's hard to leave your 
family and your home and take the risks inherent in coming to a strange 
land without the approval of the law. And people do it because they want 
a better opportunity for themselves and their families.
    I think there are two things that should be noted as we do try to 
enforce our immigration laws. The first is that we have to be sensitive 
and act with justice and understand the impact of recent events. The 
second is that the present American law is completely unfair in that it 
treats different--people from different countries in Central America 
differently. And it is a vestige of our, sort of--kind of, our cold war 
mentality and how we were involved here.
    I can do two things about that. The first is to try to change the 
law. And we will aggressively work to try to change the law to get 
parity, equal treatment for all people from Central America, without 
regard to the political past and whether the difficulties of the past 
were seen as coming from the right or the left. I think that's 
irrelevant. We should treat all countries the same.
    The second is to use, to the maximum extent possible, whatever 
flexibility I have under present law to achieve the same goal. I will do 
that. But in the end, the problem cannot be fixed--the immigration 
problem cannot be completely fixed until there is a change in the law so 
that all countries would be treated the same under the law. And I will 
actively seek that this year.
    Anyway, I think that responds to the questions that were asked of 
me. If I were to ask a question--if I could ask one question, I would 
like to say that, one of you said that we needed a dignification 
program, with priority given to the widows and orphans. And I would like 
to know whether you have specific suggestions, over and above the 
programs I have already mentioned, for what the United States could do 
to be helpful to deal with the large number of orphaned children and 
widows you have. What else could we do? What specific suggestions do you 
have for me, over and above what has been mentioned?

[The discussion continued.]

    President Clinton. Well, I think it is in the nature of such 
meetings that you only scratch the surface of what needs to be done and 
what the possibilities are. I will say again, I intend to go back home 
and do my best to pass the aid package, to pass the trade parity bill, 
and to get improvements in the immigration difficulties. Within the aid 
package, we will be able to support education initiatives and economic 
power initiatives like the women's credit program that President Arzu 
mentioned.
    I think it is important that, after I leave Central America, the 
United States develop with

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every country the most specific possible plan for what it is you want to 
achieve that we can help you achieve, whether it is in dealing with the 
specific problems of the widows and orphans; the need for the education 
of the children; the need for the economic empowerment of women; the 
need for greater efforts with indigenous groups; the need to go further 
in the search for human rights, the rule of law; how to come to terms 
with the issues related in the commission report.
    And I guess what I would like to leave you with is my commitment 
that I am willing to continue to push, Mr. President, to have these 
sorts of specific commitments on the part of the United States so we 
know we have a good roadmap for where we're going into the future, and 
you know what you can expect of our partnership. And of course, 
tomorrow, we'll have a greater chance to talk about what we can do 
regionally when you get all the Presidents together.
    I would like to just leave you with this one thought. For all of 
your terrible suffering and the continuing difficulties you face, please 
do not underestimate how far you have come and what you have done. It is 
my responsibility as President of the United States to travel the world 
to deal with all of these problems that I see cropping up in other 
places. You know this, but I would like to just say, the last few years 
have brought a floodtide of changes in the way people work and live and 
in the political and social and economic relationships of people--the 
end of the cold war, the growth of the global market, the explosion in 
information technology--it has changed everything. And all over the 
world, people are searching for a new balance.
    Most of these changes are good, but there are--not all of them are 
good. And they all present people everywhere with dilemmas. There is the 
question of integration versus disintegration. And I'll give you--you 
have it in Guatemala. You want--how do you balance the need for the 
nation to be sovereign with the legitimate rights of individuals and 
groups? How do you balance the need for the nation to be sovereign with 
the need to have greater cooperation with other countries? How do you 
balance the need to develop your economy with the imperative of 
preserving your natural resources? How do you balance the need for 
security and order with the imperative of individual rights to privacy 
and liberty and the rule of law, for both commercial and human reasons?
    All of these challenges you face are being faced by other people 
elsewhere. In South Africa, for example, to go back to what many of you 
talked about, they had this Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which 
perhaps went a little further than your report. And I thought that 
they--we think they're making real progress there. But in the last week, 
four different political leaders have been killed. In central Africa, 
where there was tribal slaughter in Rwanda and Burundi, I met with 
indigenous peoples. I met a woman whose husband and six children were 
all killed, and she woke up and for some miracle reason she didn't die 
from the wounds she sustained. And she, like the woman here, is devoting 
her life to this reconciliation. And I thought we were making progress, 
and just last week the majority tribe killed a bunch of Americans and 
other people.
    So I say, as awful as this is for you and as frustrating as it is, 
it is astonishing how much has been done in Guatemala and in the other 
countries of Central America, and the direction you have taken. For all 
the economic frustrations you face, you're doing better than many much 
larger countries in Asia and in Latin America, because you've shown 
greater discipline and innovation.
    So I urge you to not get discouraged, and I urge you to--I have 
tried very hard to change the historic relationship between the United 
States and Central America, to be a genuine partner and to think about 
the future in different terms. And we won't solve all the problems today 
or tomorrow, but I think we have to say we are on a different track. We 
have turned a real corner. And I came here as much as anything else just 
to express my respect for you and to ask you not to get too discouraged.
    You think about Europe as being a very rich continent, but look at 
these problems we're having in Kosovo and Bosnia, where they haven't 
been able to, in Kosovo, do what you have decided to do. They still 
think they can shoot their way out of their difficulties. And we're 
hoping and praying they will take a different decision in the next few 
days.
    So I thank you for talking to me and, before me, to my wife when she came here and for all the work you 
are doing. But I just want you to know that I am committed to changing 
our relationship over the long run in all these

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areas we have mentioned. And I will do my best to make sure that we have 
the kind of partnership that will make both our countries stronger and 
address the specific concerns you have outlined today.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:45 p.m. in the Reception Hall in the 
National Palace of Culture. In his remarks, he referred to President 
Alvaro Arzu of Guatemala.