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03 May 2006
Rice Says U.S. Will Work with All Free Nations of the Americas

Democracy the core element for cooperation, secretary of state says

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States will work with all governments in the Americas, from the left to the right on the political ideology scale, “as long as they are committed in principle and practice to the core conditions of democracy, to govern justly, to advance economic freedom and to invest in their people,” says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In May 3 remarks to the 36th annual Washington Conference of the Council of the Americas, the secretary said the United States “charges no ideological price” for its partnership with the nations of the Western Hemisphere. U.S. partnership with those nations, she said, “is not a matter of big government or small government. It is a matter of good government.”

On another key point, Rice said the United States has been leading the way in “fundamentally transforming” the security agenda of the Americas.

She said the United States has expanded its cooperation in the region to “confront old threats that have gained new power in our increasingly integrated hemisphere: threats like terrorism and weapons proliferation and natural disaster and disease and drug trafficking and organized crime and gangs.”

The democracies of the Americas, said Rice, now have “forged a consensus on the vital link between security and prosperity. And together, we have brought this agenda firmly under the purview of free peoples.”

Rice said that to reduce poverty and inequality, “democracy has to provide security. When people feel they can walk the streets in peace and safety, they gain trust and a sense of inclusion in their democracy.”

SUPPORTING DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

One example of this link between democracy and security is in Colombia, she said, adding that the United States is standing by the Colombian government “as it defends its sovereignty from terrorists” and extends security to Colombians “who formerly lived at the mercy of criminals.”

In Haiti, Rice said hemispheric partners have rallied together to support democracy in that Caribbean nation. An international donors conference for Haiti that the United States organized raised $1.3 billion in assistance, which Rice said helped to train and transform Haiti's police. (See related article.)

“With our support, the president that Haitians freely elected in February will now lead a country facing its first year of economic growth in a decade,” Rice said.

The secretary said a country can reach its full potential and achieve lasting development only after “all of its citizens have gained a voice within effective democratic institutions.”

Rice said, “I know that the peoples of the Americas are impatient with the development in their democracy. This feeling is powerful and it's passionately felt. And our response must be just as powerful and just as passionate. Through our solidarity, through our assistance, and through our institutions that we share in the inter-American system, we can ensure that the peoples of the Americas are not abandoned to demagogues and authoritarians.”

ENCOURAGING ECONOMIC GROWTH

To reduce poverty and inequality, Rice said, democracy also must encourage economic growth, job creation and human development. She called free trade a key to reducing poverty and boosting economic growth “and our vision remains a free trade area of the Americas; the union of 800 million men and women from northern Canada to southern Chile, in the world's largest free trade community.”

The United States also has sought to reduce hunger and inequality in the Americas by nearly doubling since 2001 its annual foreign direct assistance to the region, said Rice.

“This has enabled us to expand development efforts that get results like our program in Mexico which has provided electricity to a quarter million rural citizens or our tuberculosis eradication campaign which has so far helped eight countries in our hemisphere extend coverage to every one of its citizens,” Rice said.

The goal of U.S. policy in the Americas, Rice said, is “the inclusion of every citizen of the Americas, not just elites, in the opportunities and the benefits of democracy. For men and women who are committed to freedom, who work hard and play by the rules, democratic governments must create opportunities for people to rise as high as their talents will take them.”

The transcript of Rice’s speech is available on the State Department Web site

For more on U.S. policy, see The Americas.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)