[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
[December 16, 2008]
[Pages 1467-1469]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With President Elias Antonio Saca 
Gonzalez of El Salvador
December 16, 2008

    President Bush. Mr. President, benvenido de nuevo. I am honored to 
have you back. I appreciate your friendship, and I appreciate your 
strong leadership for the people of our close ally, El Salvador.
    We've had a very good discussion. First, I want to thank you for 
your support of freedom in Iraq. You and--have been steadfast in 
recognizing that freedom is the way to help build lasting peace.
    I appreciate very much the fact that your country is a vibrant 
democracy. You've been steadfast in your support for your--the right of 
your people to express themselves in a free society, and I applaud you 
for that strength.
    I want to thank you very much for investing in your people. You're 
a--we've got a partnership through the Millennium Challenge Corporation. 
And part of your commitment was honest government and the investment in 
the health and education of your people. And you've honored that 
agreement. I thank you very much for understanding that the benefits of 
trade are good for your people and our people as well. And you're a very 
strong advocate of CAFTA, which is working very well.
    And finally, you've been very strong when it comes to helping 
interdict the flow of drugs. I explained to the President that since 
2001, drug use in the United States amongst teenagers has declined by 25 
percent. And the reason I said that is because in order to affect the 
flow of drugs there must be a comprehensive approach. First of all, we 
got to--we in the United States must reduce demand. But it also requires

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a strong cooperative spirit to interdict supply. And you have been very 
strong in that.
    And so I thank you. It's been a pleasure to work with you. You may 
have heard that I'm about to retire. And as I head toward the great 
State of Texas, I will have very fond memories of our time together and 
the strength of our friendship and of your leadership.
    So welcome.
    President Saca Gonzalez. Muchas gracias.
    President Bush. Si.
    President Saca Gonzalez. Thank you so much. I also thank President 
Bush. I think that we have got a very fruitful relationship and one that 
is very concerned for our people. I think that El Salvador is a good 
example of a country that moved from war to peace. And we've always had 
the contribution of the United States in all of the stages of this 
peace.
    I always tell President Bush that free trade was so important, as 
well as the immigration issue for our people. And all these issues have 
been worked out, especially regarding cooperation with regards to the 
combat against drugs. I have confirmed President Bush that El Salvador 
is going to renew the FOL that we have at the Pacific coast. And that 
has allowed us to capture a lot of drug traffickers and seize a lot of 
drugs also for the Pacific coast.
    So a mid-income country like El Salvador knows perfectly well that 
the path towards prosperity is effort and hard work and freedom. And 
this is something that Salvadorans practice on a daily basis. We have 
worked hand in hand with ILEA. And ILEA is the place where our judges 
and our prosecutors are being trained, and it is something that we're 
doing together with the United States of America.
    With regards to the Millennium account, we have been very 
successful. We're working very fast. We're going to build a highway, a 
300-kilometer-long highway in the northern part of the country. And at 
the same time, we're going to develop the rural areas along that 
highway. And all this has been done hand in hand with the United States.
    I wish you the best of luck in your new life. I was just in Dallas 
recently, because I went to promote the TPS for our people. And 
everybody knew there that President Bush was going to move to Dallas. 
[Laughter]
    You are leaving on January 20. And I leave on the 1st of June.
    President Bush. Si. [Laughter]
    President Saca Gonzalez. So I hope that I can go and visit you and 
talk to you----
    President Bush. Por cierto, por cierto.
    President Saca Gonzalez. Lo damos por cierto.
    President Bush. Si.
    President Saca Gonzalez. Okay. President Bush has been a strong 
advocate of freedom. And I think that the United States has much to 
thank President Bush, especially the fact that the U.S. has not been 
attacked again by the terrorist groups. This is something quite 
intangible, because you cannot touch it, you cannot feel it, until that, 
unfortunately, something like that would happen again.
    You can always count with the support of El Salvador on these 
issues, Mr. President, and the United States in general, the new 
President, because the historical relationship between the United States 
of America and El Salvador is a relationship of shared values, and we 
will continue to share in this friendship strongly, as it is now.
    Thank you so much.
    President Bush Thank you, sir.

Note: The President spoke at 10:07 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. President Saca Gonzalez referred to President-elect Barack Obama; 
FOL, the U.S. Military Forward Operating Location in Comalapa, El 
Salvador; ILEA, the Department of Homeland Security's International Law 
Enforcement Academies; and TPS, temporary protected immigration status. 
President Saca Gonzalez spoke in Spanish, and his remarks

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were translated by an interpreter. The Office of the Press Secretary 
also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.