[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 50 (Monday, December 14, 1998)]
[Pages 2463-2465]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Central American Leaders

December 11, 1998

    President Clinton. Good morning. I have just concluded a very good 
meeting with the leaders of five Central American nations: President 
Rodriguez of Costa Rica, President Flores of Honduras, President Aleman 
of Nicaragua, President Calderon Sol of El Salvador, and Vice President 
Flores of Guatemala. We send our best wishes to President Arzu, who is 
in Guatemala recovering from a bout of pneumonia.
    Over the past decade, Central Americans have transformed their 
countries. Nations where freedom once was denied, where there was once 
fear and violence, have now joined their neighbors as democracies in 
peace. Economic development has raised many from poverty. Now nature has 
put that progress at risk.
    Central American nations face in varying degrees the formidable task 
of rebuilding from the region's deadliest storm in modern history: 9,000 
confirmed dead, another 9,000 missing and feared dead, 3 million people 
homeless or displaced. The hurricane destroyed schools, hospitals, 
farms, utilities, roads, and bridges.
    The governments and people of the region have made tremendous 
efforts to address this crisis, showing great courage and strength. But 
they are not, and they never will be, alone. I say to the leaders here 
and to the people of Central America, the United States will continue to 
do everything we can. Ayudaremos a nuestros hermanos. We will help our 
brothers and sisters. It is the right thing to do. And I say to my 
fellow Americans, it also serves our long-term interests in a stable, 
free, and prosperous hemisphere.
    I'm very pleased that we have achieved an era of growing 
cooperation, respect, and friendship among the nations of the Americas. 
We stand together for democracy, opportunity, and peace. We stand 
together in good times and bad. The United States already has committed 
$283 million in assistance, and we will provide an additional $17 
million through AID for food assistance.
    Thousands of our troops and civilian officials are now in the region 
supporting relief efforts. With our help and with the help of others, 
the people of Central America have reopened roads, contained disease, 
restored drinking water in many areas. Both the First Lady and Tipper 
Gore have visited the region, and last month, they led a conference of 
charitable organizations to coordinate aid.
    Now we are shifting our focus to reconstruction. And the United 
States will do our share there as well. Working with Congress on a 
bipartisan basis, our effort will include funds for rebuilding, debt 
relief and new financing, trade and investment initiatives, and 
immigration relief.

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    Already, the United States has identified $125 million in additional 
funds for rebuilding. Right now, Senator Domenici, Housing Secretary 
Cuomo, and other American officials are in the region discussing 
reconstruction. With Congress and with other countries, we will provide 
funds to restore hope and growth.
    Debt relief and new financing are essential to recovery. We and 
other creditor nations will relieve Honduras and Nicaragua, the hardest 
hit nations, from debt service obligations until 2001. We are working 
with international institutions for new financing, and we will work with 
Congress to help these countries meet their loan obligations. Together, 
these efforts could provide more than $1.5 billion in relief and new 
resources. For the longer term, we will support, and I am pleased other 
creditor nations have said they will support, substantial forgiveness of 
bilateral debt. We call on other creditors to join us.
    Next week, Brian Atwood and USAID will convene a conference to 
encourage private sector aid and investment. Our Overseas Private 
Investment Corporation, under the leadership of George Munoz, is working 
to spur U.S. business involvement, starting with an initiative to 
accelerate over $200 million in new projects for the region. We will 
continue to support Caribbean Basin enhancement legislation to make 
trade more free and more fair, and to help Central American nations 
restore their economies. I hope very much that it will pass in this 
coming Congress and quickly. We also plan to submit to the Senate our 
investment treaties with Nicaragua and Honduras.
    Let me add that, after the hurricane struck, our immigration service 
stopped deportations to Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala 
through early next year. We are considering further immigration 
measures, temporary and long-term, which will be announced shortly.
    Finally, I want to say that the leaders have kindly invited me to 
visit their region, and I intend to travel to Central America early next 
year to consider how the United States can best help them and strengthen 
our partnership over the long run. I thank them for the invitation. It 
will be a chance to discuss moving beyond disaster recovery, to advance 
our shared agenda for the Americas: deepening democracy and good 
governance; improving education, health and the environment; expanding 
opportunity and trade.
    I want to thank people all across the United States who have 
responded to this tragedy with generosity and hard work. And I want to 
thank these Central American leaders for their leadership and their 
friendship.
    Now, I'd like to turn the podium over to President Flores, who will 
speak on behalf of the Central American leaders. Mr. President, the 
podium is yours.
    President Flores. Mr. President, on behalf of the Presidents of 
Central America, I wish to express how very pleased we are with today's 
most fruitful and productive dialog with the President of the United 
States of America. That reaffirms our confidence in his strong 
leadership and superb ability to understand our people, both simply as 
human beings and in terms of their needs for the enormous task of 
rebuilding our devastated lands.
    We also want to convey to the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to 
Mrs. Tipper Gore, and the distinguished members of their delegations who 
made personal visits to our anguished communities following the tragic 
days of Hurricane Mitch, and to the very generous American people the 
deepest gratitude of Central America for the prompt and meaningful 
cooperation the United States provided during our emergency, and in 
subsequent endeavors of relief and rehabilitation.
    First, let us say that we come to Washington completely aware the 
potential and responsibility for rebuilding the Central American region 
lies in our own efforts. Inasmuch as we do appreciate and are grateful 
for the generous support that we have and are sure to receive from the 
United States and the international community, we also feel that it will 
not replace our own initiatives but will provide much needed momentum.
    The main concerns of our conversation with the President of the 
United States touched on the following issues: First, the leadership we 
expect and which we feel that the United States is exercising among the

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international community for the procurement of the financial resources 
that are needed in the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction of 
our devastated economies.
    We have explained to President Clinton, and we surely think that he 
is convinced, that in order for Central America to rebuild, it is 
crucial that not only debt relief be granted but, more important, that 
new financial resources and concessionary credits are available in the 
magnitude that permits that we shall not reverse what we have so 
heartily fought for and accomplished in terms of economic growth, our 
political and institutional stability, peace, and a dignified life for 
our people.
    Second, we touched on the negative effects that may result in the 
aftermath of this tragedy, where tens of thousands of people uprooted 
from their lands and their jobs, with no homes and no economic security 
for themselves and their families, if left with no hope or possibility 
of rapidly procuring their own means of a decent life in their own 
homeland. We do not wish to see repeated the unfortunate exodus that 
occurred in Central America in the past when the cruel consequences of 
war and internal political problems robbed thousands of the security of 
their jobs and opportunities in their own countries.
    For us, a rapid means of providing back to our people the 
possibilities which have been taken by the devastating effects of this 
hurricane, which, by the way, are much more graver than those inferred 
in the worst times of the Central American War, is by strengthening 
trade, open markets, and commerce opportunities. The enhancement of the 
Caribbean Basin Initiative, which originated as a bipartisan endeavor 
some years ago, would greatly increase these possibilities.
    Third, we spoke about our profound concern, specially at this point 
where thousands have been left homeless and without jobs, that there be 
not only temporary measures but a definite solution to the immigration 
status of the many Central Americans now living and working in the 
United States.
    We Central Americans have paid a very high price for upholding the 
principles of democracy and for insisting that our people live in 
freedom. We have made a commitment to ourselves and to the world to 
continue strengthening peace at home and to continue playing an 
important role in the stability and the security of the hemisphere, with 
a strength that surely comes from the most admirable determination of 
our people not to let themselves be defeated. We are committed to hard 
work and superior attitudes, so that this blow which we have had to 
endure is not a terminal one but a starting point for a more promising 
future for Central America.
    Your hospitality, Mr. President, honors us and engages our 
commitments. We will be eagerly awaiting your visit to our Central 
American countries. We pray that God will continue to bless us all. And 
for you, Mr. President, on behalf of our people and our governments, we 
wish you the greatest success and strength as you lead your great and 
admirable country.
    Thank you so much.
    The President. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Miguel Rodriguez of 
Costa Rica; President Carlos Roberto Flores of Honduras; President 
Arnoldo Aleman of Nicaragua; President Armando Calderon Sol of El 
Salvador; and Vice President Luis Flores and President Alvaro Arzu of 
Guatemala.