[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 10 (Monday, March 12, 2007)]
[Pages 256-263]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 bienevenida. 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 
todo, 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 
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

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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 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

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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, 
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

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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 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.

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    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.
    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

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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 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 hardworking 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.

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    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 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 
accom-plish 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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