[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 17 (Monday, May 5, 2008)]
[Pages 605-606]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Discussion With President Alvaro Colom Caballeros of 
Guatemala

April 28, 2008

    President Bush. It's been my honor to welcome to the Oval Office the 
President and First Lady of a close friend of the United States. Mr. 
President, thank you for coming.
    We've had a good discussion about a variety of issues. We discussed 
bilateral relations between Guatemala and the United States, which are 
very strong. We are friends. We treat each other with respect. Our 
objective is--with U.S. foreign policy--is to have a neighborhood that 
is peaceful and prosperous, where social justice is important; want to 
achieve social justice through good health policy, good education 
policy, and good judicial policy. The United States is pleased to help 
this Government, as best as we possibly can, help the average citizen 
get a good education and have good health care.
    We talked about how CAFTA is working. Exports to the United States 
have increased; exports from the United States have increased. And 
that's good.
    We talked about security and the need for the region--Mexico, the 
United States, and the countries of Central America--to fight drug 
trafficking. I told the President that we are working hard to reduce 
demand for drugs here in America. And at the same time, we want to work 
in conjunction with strong leaders to make sure these drug traffickers 
don't get a stronghold. And that's why it's very important for Congress 
to fund the Merida project.
    We talked about the reforms that the Government is instituting 
inside of Guatemala, including tax reform and reform to make sure that 
people who break the law are held to account.
    I was particularly pleased to note that the Guatemalan Government 
and its leadership is promoting laws to make sure women are treated well 
and that violence against women is prosecuted.
    And so--and we're going to talk a little later on about the 
Millennium Challenge Account. And by the way, we were talking about 
blueberries, and--so that blueberries are able to come off-season here 
to the United States, which is a positive development for Guatemalan 
farmers.
    And finally, of course, the President brought up the issue of 
immigration. And he wanted to urge me to think about TPS--TPS for 
citizens, as well as comprehensive immigration reform. I assured him 
that I will consider his request. And I assured him that I believe 
comprehensive immigration reform is in our Nation's best interests.
    And so we've had a good discussion, and right after this press 
availability, I'll be taking he and the First Lady to lunch. And I'm 
looking forward to serving them lunch, and I bet you're looking forward 
to eating lunch. [Laughter] Thanks for coming.
    President Colom. I want to thank President Bush for his hospitality. 
We've spent a couple of days working here, and we are very happy to hold 
this meeting in which we have discussed strengthening our relationship 
with an--already a strong relationship, in fact.
    We discussed, as the President mentioned, the fight against drug 
trafficking. We are doing everything necessary to eliminate drug 
trafficking and drug traffickers from our territory.
    We discussed the issue of social investment. We have received 
support from USAID. We--our two countries have common aims in this 
regard.
    We also discussed the issue of our migrants. We brought up TPS with 
the President. We will be awaiting a response on that.
    We described our recent tax reform to the President. That is 
something we're starting in Guatemala because we need to ensure that we 
have the public funds to be able to carry out the reforms in the areas 
of social justice and others that we have discussed.
    We want to express our appreciation for the support that we have 
received from the United States to combat drug trafficking. Recently, we 
received four helicopters. This has been extremely helpful to us. We've 
also achieved good success on this front with the recent cocaine 
seizures. In fact, an operation was just carried out last night, a very 
large one, very successful. And on that, we are working not just with 
the United States but also with Mexico and the entire neighborhood in 
Central America, because all of us

[[Page 606]]

must be involved, as President Bush said, in order to combat that 
scourge at all levels.
    And so we are very happy to be here and very happy to be moving 
forward. Thank you.
    President Bush. Gracias, senor.
    President Colom. Si. Gracias.
    President Bush. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:41 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Sandra Torres de Colom, wife of 
President Colom. President Colom spoke in Spanish, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.