    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [March 5, 2007]
    [Pages 229-237]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Legislative
    Conference
    March 5, 2007

        Thank you all. Please be seated--sientese. Buenas tardes. [Laughter]
    Gracias por la bienvenida. For those of you not from Texas, that means
    ``good afternoon''--[laughter]--and thank you for the welcome. I'm
    honored to be back again with the men and women of the Hispanic Chamber.
    I appreciate your hospitality.
        I'm pleased to report, the economy of the United States is strong,
    and one of the reasons why is because the entrepreneurial spirit of
    America is strong. And the entrepreneurial spirit of America is
    represented in this room.
        I thank you for the role of the chamber. I appreciate so very much
    the work you do with our banks to help move capital. I appreciate so
    very much the fact that you recognize outstanding Latina businesswomen
    through your Anna Maria Arias Fund. I appreciate the fact that you say
    loud and clear, el Sueno Americano es para todos.
        I strongly believe that the role of government is to make it clear
    that America is the land of opportunity. I think the best way to do that
    is to encourage business formation, encourage ownership; is to say, if
    you work hard and dream big, you can realize your dreams here in
    America. I also believe it's essential to make sure that when people
    take risk, that they're able to keep more of their own taxes. Congress
    needs to make the tax cuts we passed a permanent part of the Tax Code.
        I know that in order for us to make sure el Sueno Americano es para
    todos, that we have an education system that sets high standards for all
    children, demands accountability in our schools, so that we can say with
    certainty, children from all backgrounds are able to read and write and
    add and subtract. That is why I believe it is essential that Congress
    reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act.
        I think it's very important for us to continue to expand Federal
    contracting opportunities for small businesses and to make sure that
    America is a place of promise and hope. It is important and essential
    that Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform that I can sign into
    law.
        I want to talk about another important priority for our country, and
    that is helping our neighbors to the south of us build a better and
    productive life. Thursday, Laura and I are going
    to leave on a trip that will take us to Brazil and Uruguay and Colombia
    y Guatemala y por fin, Mexico. [Laughter] These are countries that are
    part of a region that has made great strides toward freedom and
    prosperity. They've raised up new democracies. They've enhanced and
    undertaken fiscal policies that bring stability.
        Yet despite the advances, tens of millions in our hemisphere remain
    stuck in poverty and shut off from the promises of the new century. My
    message to those trabajadores y campesinos is: You have a friend in the

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    United States of America; we care about your plight.
        David, thank you very much for being
    the chairman of this important organization and for the invitation. I
    want to thank Michael Barrera, who is the
    president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber. I thank my friend y Tejano
    Massey Villarreal, who is with us today.
    Massey, it's good to see you again. You've got a barba crecida.
    [Laughter] Looking good, though, man. I thank Frank Lopez, who is the president and CEO of Chamber Foundation.
        I want to thank members of my Cabinet who have come. I think it's a
    good sign that this administration recognizes the importance of having a
    neighborhood that is peaceful and flourishing--that we have so many
    members of the Cabinet who have joined us today. I want to thank Carlos
    Gutierrez, who's living the--
    [applause]--Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao--
    Madam Secretary; Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael
    Leavitt; Secretary of Education
    Margaret Spellings--Madam Secretary.
    Thank you all for coming.
        Tom Shannon, representing the
    State Department; Ambassador Randy Tobias,
    who runs USAID, who, by the way, prior to this assignment, led one of
    the most important initiatives in my administration that has helped to
    fight the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. I appreciate your service there, and I
    now appreciate your service at USAID, Randy. I want to thank John
    Veroneau, who is with us today, who is the
    Deputy U.S. Trade Representative.
        We've got Members of the United States Congress with us today,
    powerful Members of the Senate and the House. I am so grateful they are
    here, starting with Senator Dick Lugar
    of the great State of Indiana. Appreciate you coming. Norm
    Coleman from Minnesota--Senator, thank you for
    being here. A buddy of mine, Jerry Weller,
    Congressman Weller from Illinois, proud you're here; thanks for coming.
        Los Embajadores que estan aqui--the Ambassadors. Thank you all for
    being here. I see some of the Ambassadors for the countries to which
    I'll be going. I'm sure all of them are here, and I appreciate you
    coming. Thanks for your time.
        This is an important speech for me today. It's a speech that sets
    out a direction for this country in regards to our neighborhood. A
    former President gave such a speech 46 years ago this month. President
    John Kennedy spoke to ambassadors from across the Americas, this time in
    the East Room of the White House. He began by citing the early movements
    of independence in the Latin American Republics. He invoked the dream of
    a hemisphere growing in liberty and prosperity. That's what he talked
    about 46 years ago. He proposed a bold new Alliance for Progress to help
    the countries of this hemisphere meet the basic needs of their people--
    safe homes and decent jobs and good schools, access to health care.
        In the years since President Kennedy spoke, we have witnessed great
    achievements for freedom in this neighborhood. As recently as a
    generation ago, this region was plagued by military dictatorship and
    consumed by civil strife. Today, 34 members of the OAS have democratic
    constitutions, and only one member country lives under a leader not of
    its people's choosing.
        From New York to Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires and Montreal, we
    speak different languages, but our democracies all derive their
    legitimacy from the same source: the consent of the governed. The
    expansion of freedom has brought our societies much closer. Today, the
    most important ties between North and South America are not government
    to government; they are people to people. And those ties are growing.
        These ties are growing because of our churches and faith-based
    institutions, which understand that the call to love our neighbors as
    ourselves does not stop at our borders. These ties are growing because
    of our businesses, which trade and invest billions in each other's
    countries. These ties

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    are growing because of the outreach of our universities, which brings
    thousands of exchange students and teachers to their campuses. These
    ties are growing because of the estimated $45 billion that workers in
    the United States send back to their families in Latin America and the
    Caribbean each year, one of the largest private economic initiatives in
    the world.
        In all these ways, our two continents are becoming more than
    neighbors united by the accident of geography; we're becoming a
    community linked by common values and shared interests in the close
    bonds of family and friendship. These growing ties have helped advance
    peace and prosperity on both continents. Yet amid the progress, we also
    see terrible want. Nearly one out of four people in Latin America lives
    on less than $2 a day. Many children never finish grade school. Many
    mothers never see a doctor. In an age of growing prosperity and
    abundance, this is a scandal--and it's a challenge. The fact is that
    tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen
    little improvement in their daily lives, and this has led some to
    question the value of democracy.
        The working poor of Latin America need change, and the United States
    of America is committed to that change. It is in our national interests;
    it is in the interest of the United States of America to help the people
    in democracies in our neighborhood succeed. When our neighbors are
    prosperous and peaceful, it means better opportunities and more security
    for our own people. When there are jobs in our neighborhood, people are
    able to find work at home and not have to migrate to our country. When
    millions are free from poverty, societies are stronger and more hopeful.
        So we're helping to increase opportunity by relieving debt and
    opening up trade, encouraging reform and delivering aid that empowers
    the poor and the marginalized. And the record of this administration in
    promoting social justice is a strong record and an important record.
    Social justice begins with building government institutions that are
    fair and effective and free of corruption.
        In too many places in the Americas, a government official is seen as
    someone who serves himself at the expense of the public good or serves
    only the rich and the well-connected. No free society can function this
    way. Social justice begins with social trust. So we're working with our
    partners to change old patterns and ensure that government serves all
    its citizens.
        One of the most important changes we're making is the way we deliver
    aid. We launched a new program called the Millennium Challenge Account,
    which provides increased aid to nations that govern justly, invest in
    the education and health of their people, and promote economic freedom.
    So far, we've signed Millennium Challenge compacts with three Latin
    American nations. We've also signed an agreement with a fourth country
    that is working to meet the standards to qualify for a compact on its
    own. In the coming years, these agreements will provide a total of $885
    million in new aid, so long as these countries continue to meet the
    standards of the Millennium Challenge program. We'll send more as we
    reach more agreements with other nations.
        By the way, this aid comes on top of the standard bilateral
    assistance that we provide. When I came into office, the United States
    was sending about $860 million a year in foreign aid to Latin America
    and the Caribbean. Last year, we nearly doubled that amount, to a total
    of $1.6 billion. Altogether, thanks to the good work of Members of the
    United States Congress, we have sent a total of $8.5 billion to the
    region, with a special focus on helping the poor.
        Let me share with you one example of how our aid is working for
    people in the region. Oh, it's a small example, but it had profound
    impact. A few years ago, we funded a project to help a town in Paraguay,

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    set up a web site that makes all local government transactions public,
    from budget spending to employee salaries. The purpose was to help the
    people of Villarrica improve their local governance through greater
    transparency. It was a small gesture at first. But when they brought
    transparency into their government, they discovered that some government
    employees had used fake receipts to embezzle thousands of dollars from
    the city government. The mayor informed the public, and the employees
    who had stolen the money were tried and convicted, and they paid it
    back. For the people of Paraguay, this was an historic achievement. The
    local government had called its own officials to account at a public and
    transparent trial.
        The United States can help bring trust to their governments by
    instilling transparency in our neighborhood. It didn't take much of a
    gesture, but it had a profound impact.
        We're working for similar results in other nations. In El Salvador,
    we opened one of our international law enforcement academies. The new
    academy is helping governments in the region build effective criminal
    justice systems by training law enforcement officers to combat the drug
    lords and the terrorists and the criminal gangs and the human
    traffickers. Our efforts to strengthen these civic institutions are also
    supported by more than government, but by private programs run by U.S.
    law schools and professional associations and in volunteer
    organizations.
        In the coming months, this administration will convene a White House
    conference on the Western Hemisphere that will bring together
    representatives from the private sector and nongovernmental
    organizations and faith-based groups and volunteer associations. The
    purpose is to share experiences and discuss effective ways to deliver
    aid and build the institutions necessary for strong civil society. Is it
    in our interest we do so? Absolutely, it's in our interests. A
    transparent neighborhood will yield to a peaceful neighborhood, and
    that's in the interests of all citizens of our country.
        Social justice means meeting basic needs. The most precious resource
    of any country is its people, and in the Americas, we are blessed with
    an abundance of talented and hard-working citizens, decent, honorable
    people who work hard to make a living for their families. But without
    basic necessities like education and health care and housing, it is
    impossible for people to realize their full potential, their God-given
    potential.
        Helping people reach their potential begins with good education.
    That's why the Secretary of Education is
    here. Many people across the Americas either have no access to education
    for their children or they cannot afford it. If children don't learn how
    to read, write, and add and subtract, they're going to be shut off for
    the jobs of the 21st century. They'll be condemned to a life on the
    margins, and that's not acceptable.
        The United States is working for an Americas where every child has
    access to a decent school. It is a big goal, but it is a necessary goal,
    as far as we're concerned. When people in our neighborhood reach their
    full potential, it benefits the people of the United States. Over the
    past 3 years, we've provided more than $150 million--in 3 years' time,
    we spent $150 million for education programs throughout the region, with
    a special focus on rural and indigenous areas.
        Today I announce a new partnership for Latin American youth that's
    going to build on these efforts. This partnership will devote an
    additional $75 million over the next years--3 years to help thousands
    more young people improve their English and have the opportunity to
    study here in the United States. I think it's good policy when people
    from our neighborhood come to our country to study.
        I hope this warms the heart of our fellow citizens when I share this
    story. In the

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    mountains of Guatemala, we established a project that helped raise the
    number of children who complete first grade from 51 percent to 71
    percent. In Peru, we helped create the Opening Doors Program to help
    girls get through grade school. That program is succeeding, and it is
    self-sustaining. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, our centers of
    excellence for teacher training--in other words, we've set up these
    centers, and we've trained 15,000 teachers; nearly 15,000 people have
    benefited. Does that matter? Of course it matters. When you train a
    teacher, you're really helping provide literacy for a child.
        These teachers have helped improve the literacy skills for nearly
    425,000 poor and disadvantaged students. It's important for our fellow
    citizens and the citizens in our neighborhood to understand that the
    United States of America is committed to helping people rise out of
    poverty, to be able to realize their full potential, and that starts
    with good education. By 2009, we expect to have trained a total of
    20,000 teachers through these centers, and reach 650,000 students.
        One person who has benefited is a young girl in the Dominican
    Republic named Lorenny. By the time she was 10, she had been in first
    grade three times, and she had never passed. When her mother enrolled
    her in school again, Lorenny said, ``Teacher, teach me to read, because
    I have learning problems.'' With patience and hard work, this good
    woman taught Lorenny to read and
    write. The teacher says that she had watched Lorenny blossom, and that
    she never would have been able to reach this girl without the know-how
    acquired through our teacher training program. Societies can change one
    heart at a time. Here is an example of the good work of the American
    people taking place in our neighborhood.
        Another person who felt the impact of U.S. education assistance is a
    25-year-old Mexican named Victor Lopez Ruiz. Victor's family lives in Chiapas, where opportunity is
    in short supply, and the people tend to speak only the languages of the
    local communities. Victor's family sold their only real asset, their
    cattle, to pay for him to learn Spanish and finish high school.
        In 2004, Victor won a USAID
    scholarship, which he used to learn English and study business in
    international trade at Scott Community College in Bettendorf, Iowa. It
    must have been quite an experience for a man from Chiapas to head into
    the heartland. [Laughter] But he did so with help from the taxpayers of
    the United States, for this reason: He goes back to Chiapas, he's
    working for his bachelor's degree in accounting, and then he's going to
    start a bakery that will support his family. Where the path for this man
    once looked grim, education has opened a new door. And as Victor said,
    ``It changed my life.''
        There are countless of people like Victor and Lorenny across our hemisphere, young people filled
    with talent and ambition, only needing the chance of an education to
    unlock their full potential.
        Helping people reach their potential includes providing access to
    decent health care. In many of the same areas where families have no
    schools, they have no access to medical care. Since I took office, we've
    spent nearly $1 billion on health care programs in the region, all aimed
    at sending a message to the people of Latin America: We care for you.
    Los corazones de las personas aqui in America son grandes. It's in our
    interests that we get good health care to citizens in our neighborhood.
        Today I'm going to announce a new initiative called the Health Care
    Professional Training Center in Panama that will serve all of Central
    America. I remember when Secretary Leavitt briefed me on this vital program. The center is going to
    teach students how to be good nurses and technicians and health care
    workers. We'll also train people so they can go back to their home
    countries and teach others these same skill sets.

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        In all these efforts, it's important for you to understand the role
    our United States military plays. In June, I'm going to send one of our
    Navy's medical ships, the Comfort, to the region. The Comfort will make
    port calls in Belize and Guatemala and Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador
    and Peru and Ecuador and Colombia, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago,
    Guyana, and Suriname. It's going to be busy. Altogether, the Comfort's
    doctors and nurses and health care professionals expect to treat 85,000
    patients and conduct up to 1,500 surgeries. These are people who need
    help. These are people who might not otherwise get the basic health care
    they need to realize a better tomorrow.
        The Comfort was also going to partner with the Department of Health
    and Human Services on a new initiative to provide oral care to the
    region's poor. Dentists and hygienists will fill cavities and treat
    infections and provide treatment for the young children.
        At the same time, military medical teams will be operating inland to
    help bring treatment and care to other communities. These teams do
    everything from vaccinating people against disease to building new
    medical clinics. The United States military is a symbol of strength for
    this Nation, but it's also a symbol of the great compassion of the
    American people and our desire to help those in our neighborhood who
    need help.
        With the deployment of the Comfort and the work of the military
    teams, we're making it absolutely clear to people that we care. One good
    example is an area of Nicaragua. Santa Teresa is a rural area where 250
    U.S. airmen, soldiers, and marines are now working with 30 members of
    the Nicaraguan Army to build a medical clinic. Many families in the area
    live in homes built of scrap wood with dirt floors and doorless
    entryways. For most of them, a doctor is too far away or too expensive.
    One man in Santa Teresa says, ``The impact of this clinic is going to be
    tremendous.''
        I want you to hear the words of a fellow from Nicaragua. He said,
    ``We're so glad you're here. People around here are noticing that the
    United States is doing something for them.'' And my message to the man
    is, we're proud to do so, and we do so because we believe in peace and
    the dignity of every human being on the face of the Earth.
        Helping people reach their potential requires a commitment to
    improving housing. A strong housing industry can be an engine of
    economic growth and social stability and poverty reduction. Most Latin
    American capitals' high prices and high interest rates make good housing
    hard to afford. So the United States is launching a new effort to help
    build a market for affordable housing. Through the Overseas Private
    Investment Corporation, we've provided more than $100 million that is
    being used to help underwrite mortgages to working families in Mexico
    and Brazil and Chile and the countries of Central America. Now we're
    going to provide another $385 million to expand these programs and help
    put the dream of homeownership within the reach of thousands of more
    people in our neighborhood.
        On these three vital social issues--education and health care and
    housing--we're making a difference across the Americas. You see, by
    investing in programs and empower people, we will help the working
    families of our hemisphere build a more hopeful future for themselves.
        Finally, social justice requires economies that make it possible for
    workers to provide for their families and to rise in society. For too
    long and in too many places, opportunity in Latin America has been
    determined by the accident of birth rather than by the application of
    talents and initiative. In his many writings, Pope John Paul II spoke
    eloquently about creating systems that respect the dignity of work and
    the right to private initiative. Latin America needs capitalism for the
    campesino, a true capitalism that allows people who start from

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    nothing to rise as far as their skills and their hard work can take
    them. So the United States is helping these nations build growing
    economies that are open to the world, economies that will provide
    opportunity to their people.
        One of the most important ways is by helping to relieve the burden
    of debt. In the past, many nations in this region piled up debt that
    they simply cannot repay. Every year, their governments have to spend
    huge amounts of money just to make interest payments on the debt. So
    under my administration, we worked with the Group of Eight
    industrialized nations to reduce the debt of Latin America and Caribbean
    nations by $4.8 billion. The members of the Inter-American Development
    Bank are close to an agreement on another debt relief initiative, and we
    look forward to helping them complete it. This agreement will cancel 3.4
    billion owned by some of the poorest countries in our hemisphere:
    Bolivia and Guyana and Haiti and Honduras and Nicaragua. That works out
    to about $110 for every man, woman, and child in these countries, monies
    that their government should use to invest in the education and health
    of their citizens.
        People of this region have the talent and drive they need to
    succeed. These are hard-working folks. I used to remind people in Texas,
    family values didn't stop at the Rio Grande River. There's a lot of
    mothers and dads in our neighborhood who care deeply about whether or
    not their children can grow up in a hopeful society. What they need is--
    in order to be able to realize that hope--is better access to capital.
    The entrepreneurial spirit is strong, strong in this room, and it's
    strong throughout the region. But what we need is capital.
        And so over the past 5 years, the United States has devoted more
    than $250 million to help the entrepreneurial spirit flourish in our
    region. This funding includes microcredit loans for people starting
    small businesses. And these loans have been very successful, and I
    appreciate the Congress appropriating money for these microloans.
        I'm also directing Secretary Rice and
    Secretary Paulson to develop a new
    initiative that will help U.S. and local banks improve their ability to
    extend good loans to small businesses. It's in our interest that
    businesses flourish in our own neighborhood. Flourishing businesses
    provide jobs for people at home. They provide customers for U.S.
    products.
        As we help local entrepreneurs get the capital they need, we're also
    going to open up new opportunities through trade and investment. If
    you're a rural farmer scratching out a subsistence living, wouldn't you
    want to be able to sell your goods to new markets overseas? I think so.
    You're trying to make a living, and the market is closed--it seems to
    make sense that you should want to be able to sell into a larger
    universe.
        If you're a worker looking for a job, wouldn't you want more
    employers competing for your labor? The more employers there are in your
    neighborhood, the more likely it is you're going to find a better job.
    That's not really sophisticated math or economics, it just happens to be
    the truth, la verdad.
        When I took office, the United States had trade agreements with only
    two nations in our hemisphere. We've now negotiated agreements with 10
    more. We're working for a strong agreement of the Doha round of global
    trade talks that will level the playing field for farmers and workers
    and small businesses in our country and throughout the hemisphere.
        Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the markets we've helped open.
    Here's an interesting story for you. Mariano Canu, he was an indigenous farmer in Guatemala whose land
    provided barely enough corn and beans to feed his family. He was
    scratching to get ahead. No one in his family had ever been to college.
    Most of the people in his village never got past the sixth grade.
    Mariano began tilling the fields

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    at age 7. He had spent his life in grinding poverty, and it looked as
    though his children would suffer the same fate.
        Trade helped him a lot, and here's how. To take advantage of new
    market opportunities, he organized an
    association of small farmers called Labradores Mayas. These farmers
    began growing vegetables that they could sell overseas, high-valued
    crops like lettuce and carrots and celery. They took out a loan. Capital
    matters. It's important to have capital available if we want our
    neighbors to be able to realize a better tomorrow. And they built an
    irrigation system with that loan. And soon they were selling their crops
    to large companies like Wal-Mart Central America. With the money Mariano
    has earned, he was able to send his son to college. Today, Labradores is
    thriving business that supports more than 1,000 jobs in production and
    transportation and the marketing of internationally sold vegetables.
        One of the stops on my trip is going to be to see Mariano. I can't wait to congratulate him on not losing hope
    and faith. I also look forward to seeing a thriving enterprise that
    began with one dream, and it's in the interests of the United States to
    promote those dreams. People like Mariano are showing what the people of
    this region can accomplish when given a chance. By helping our neighbors
    build strong and vibrant economies, we increase the standard of living
    for all of us.
        You know, not far from the White House is a statue of the great
    liberator, Simon Bolivar. He's often compared to George Washington--
    ``Jorge'' W. [Laughter] Like Washington, he was a general who fought for
    the right of his people to govern themselves. Like Washington, he
    succeeded in defeating a much stronger colonial power. And like
    Washington, he belongs to all of us who love liberty. One Latin American
    diplomat put it this way: ``Neither Washington nor Bolivar was destined
    to have children of their own, so that we Americans might call ourselves
    their children.''
        We are the sons and daughters of this struggle, and it is our
    mission to complete the revolution they began on our two continents. The
    millions across our hemisphere who, every day, suffer the degradations
    of poverty and hunger have a right to be impatient. And I'm going to
    make them this pledge: The goal of this great country, the goal of a
    country full of generous people, is an Americas where the dignity of
    every person is respected, where all find room at the table, and where
    opportunity reaches into every village and every home. By extending the
    blessings of liberty to the least among us, we will fulfill the destiny
    of this new world and set a shining example for others.
        Que Dios les bendiga.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:13 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and
    International Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to David C.
    Lizarraga, chairman of the board of directors, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of
    Commerce; Massey Villarreal, chairman of the board of directors, U.S.
    Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation; and Juana Brunilda Rodriguez,
    teacher, Jose Armando Bermudez School in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
    The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language
    transcript of these remarks.

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