[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 10 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Page 395]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Arrival in Guatemala City, Guatemala

March 10, 1999

    Mr. President, representatives of the Guatemalan Government, and 
people, we thank you for your warm welcome. I am honored to have the 
chance to be greeted here, in a place that recalls both Guatemala's 
cultural heritage and its past of conflicts and pain.
    And I am especially grateful for the chance to meet you today, at a 
time when Guatemala is building a future of democracy, reconciliation, 
and peace. You have ended a cruel war. You have given your people--all 
your people--a chance to shape their destiny and to stand on their own. 
You have faced the past with candor and found the courage to move 
forward. You are teaching the world that no conflict is so bitter, no 
gulf is so wide that it cannot be overcome by the power of the 
government and by people of goodwill.
    In a few moments, I will have the opportunity to discuss, with a 
broad range of Guatemalan citizens, the progress of peace in your 
country. I will reaffirm America's commitment to shed light on the dark 
events of the past, so that they are never repeated, and to help you 
implement the peace accords in a way that ensures that the human rights 
of the Guatemalan people are always respected.
    Tomorrow I will meet with President Arzu, and we will join with the 
leaders of Central America in a summit in Antigua to continue our 
efforts to build in this hemisphere a community of true democracies in 
which all our nations finally can prosper together. That is our common 
goal. Lo lograremos como socios y como amigos.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:15 p.m. in the courtyard at the National 
Palace of Culture. In his remarks, he referred to President Alvaro Arzu 
of Guatemala. A tape was not available for verification of the content 
of these remarks.