Democracy in the Americas

Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and for your warm welcome. It is truly gratifying for me to return to San Jose, and to come to the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights, truly one of our hemisphere's most cherished institutions that embodies our region's shared commitment to the defense of human rights and democracy.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, President George W. Bush spoke of a "more hopeful world that is within our reach, a world beyond terror, where ordinary men and women are free to determine their own destiny, where the voices of moderation are empowered, and where extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority." He underscored that, "this world can be ours if we seek it and if we work together."

For the peoples of the Americas, this is a vision that the countries of our region have already set out to achieve, working together, and in so doing bring hope and some very valuable lessons to a wider world.

On September 11, 2001, two seminal events in our hemisphere's history came together in a way that would change and define the course of our region. The terrorist attacks on the United States, and the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter will forever remain tied inextricably through time, yet they could not be further apart in their human dimensions. Five years ago, as 19 terrorists tried to send a message of hate and destruction in New York, Washington, D.C. and a Pennsylvania field, in Lima, Peru, 34 foreign ministers were working to send a message of hope and freedom.

This message, embodied in the Inter-American Democratic Charter, states that "the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy, and our governments have an obligation to promote and defend it." On a day we were attacked as a Hemisphere--citizens of 30 hemispheric countries died that day--we committed not only to defend our territory, our security, and our people. We, on behalf of over 800 million people, committed to defend democracy.

The fact that September 11 links terrorism and democracy in such a dramatic way is important, and the fact that the Democratic Charter itself links democracy and development is also vitally important. Our democratically-elected Presidents and Prime Ministers mandated the Inter-American Democratic Charter at the Third Summit of the Americas in April 2001 in Quebec. One of the things the United States government has tried to do as it establishes its policy in the region is to make sure that our policy corresponds to the structure or the consensus that was built through the Summits of the Americas process, on four fundamental pillars agreed to by the 34 Presidents and Prime Ministers of the region:

• A commitment to representative democracy and to strengthening democratic institutions;
• Prosperity and sustainable development for all our citizens, particularly the poor, through job creation, expanded economic opportunities, trade liberalization, free markets and economic integration;
• Investing in people ("invertiendo en nuestros pueblos"), combating poverty, inequality, and social exclusion; creating social safety nets for the critically poor, and providing for better access to quality education, health care, and access to capital;
• Providing for the security of people and the democratic state -- confronting those that pose the greatest danger to that security within our cities and rural areas, as well as our borders: terrorists, drug-traffickers, gangs, and organized crime.

We should keep our focus on these four pillars, which we can be summarized in two words: democracy; development.

Consolidation of Democratic Institutions
The first pillar is a commitment to democracy. The democracy we are talking about is not a U.S. model of democracy. Or a Brazilian model. Or a Canadian or a Venezuelan or a Costa Rican or a Jamaican model of democracy. Every government, representing 800 million people, with the exception of Cuba's lone tyrant, voluntarily signed a document which agrees to these essential elements of representative democracy:

• respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;
• the rule of law;
• the holding of periodic, free, and fair elections based on secret balloting;
• a pluralistic political system; and
• the separation of powers;

These are fundamental, universal, non-negotiable human liberties.

It is important to take pause and recognize just how revolutionary the Inter-American Democratic Charter was in affirming democracy itself as a right, and not simply a form of government. This was a unique statement not only for the Americas. It was a bold statement for the world.

We are working through the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Democratic Charter, to promote good governance in various ways and help keep governments accountable to their people:

• The OAS has become the principal electoral observation and monitoring entity in the hemisphere, with evolving, stringent standards to ensure universal access throughout the hemisphere's "hot spots." By the end of 2006, the countries of the Western Hemisphere will have held nearly 30 separate elections at the municipal, regional, and national levels. We have already seen how elections right here in Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Haiti have strengthened democracy in our hemisphere;
  
• Through our support for OAS special missions, acting under the Inter-American Democratic Charter or in the spirit of the Charter, to help those member states where democratic practices or institutions are challenged, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela;
  
• Through our role as the largest financial supporter of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the "crown jewel" of the inter-American system--for its role as a defender of fundamental rights and human freedoms--and through its thorough country reports on the human rights situation in countries throughout the region, including Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala and Colombia;
  
• And what I call "giving teeth" to the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. To that end, I am pleased to note that earlier this month the U.S. announced a grant to the OAS, in the amount of $1,042,750, to establish an Inter-American Anti-Corruption Fund that will support OAS member states in fulfilling their commitments under the Convention.

At the General Assembly in Santo Domingo this past June, under the theme "Good Governance and Development in the Knowledge-Based Society" the governments of the region highlighted the important role of e-government in fostering transparency; facilitating, expanding and modernizing essential public services; and key to development, good governance and strong institutions.

Promoting Economic Opportunity and Prosperity
That leads to the second pillar of our policy. The first article of the Inter-American Democratic Charter also states that democracy is essential for the political, social and economic development of the Americas. As we look at development, we must be particularly focused on creating opportunity for those 40% of the hemisphere's population that survives on less than $3 a day.

As we look out over the hemisphere, we look on a region that has made a broader explicit commitment to democratic institutions, to free markets and to economic integration. This hemisphere has already gone through what we would call the first-generation of transformational challenges by committing itself to democracy; and today our region's challenge is addressing the second-generation issues of governmental and societal transformation. This is really, about how you link democracy and development.

Today, democracy prevails in all countries but one; respect for human rights is the norm, not the exception; and the challenge before us centers on what former Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president Enrique Iglesias calls "better states/more markets," that is, efficient government institutions and more economic freedom to deliver the benefits of democracy to all. In the end, democracy is about "delivering the goods."

As President Bush has stated: "As elections and democracies have spread across our hemisphere, we see a revolution in expectations. As with each generation that grows up in freedom and democracy, these expectations rise¡ªand the demands for accountability grow. Either democracies will meet these legitimate demands, or we will yield the future to the enemies of freedom."

We are working to meet rising expectations. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Bush administration has doubled its official foreign assistance since coming into office ($862,452,000 in FY2001 to $1,819,423,000 in FY2005), and the figure has tripled since 1997 ($681,426,000).

On top of these levels, we are making new funds available through the Millennium Challenge Account which builds on the Monterrey Consensus--articulated at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002--which states that those countries that implement sound economic policies, promote good governance, and strengthen the rule of law will receive the support of the international community.

Last year, we signed compacts with Honduras for $215 million to improve road infrastructure and agricultural diversification and market access; and with Nicaragua for $175 million to improve property rights, infrastructure and competitiveness of rural businesses. We are negotiating a compact with El Salvador and devoting $35 million to help Paraguay fight corruption and improve its business climate.

We view free and fair trade as a primary vehicle to create jobs and to fight poverty in the region. Right now, about 85% to 90% of all goods coming from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States come in duty-free, either through GSP, through our Caribbean Basin Initiative, through the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act, or through our free-trade agreements. Our free-trade agreements currently cover about two-thirds of the entire GDP of the hemisphere.

We also recognize that reducing debt burdens owed by the poorest, most indebted countries can translate in immediate benefits for people. The U.S. has taken the lead in supporting such initiatives, including a plan to write off $5 billion in IDB debt. The HIPC ¨C Highly Indebted Poor Countries ($9 billion), G-8 ($4.6 billion), and proposed IDB debt initiatives together, total $19 billion. Translated to the hemisphere's poorest countries, the people of Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua would benefit approximately $620 per person. In countries where approximately $50 per capita is spent annually on health, think of what a $620 benefit could mean, for poor people especially, in terms of immunizations, education, housing, and training.

The best way to escape poverty is to create jobs. And the link between small business and job creation is well-established. Ninety percent of jobs created in the hemisphere are done by small businesses. Reducing the time and cost to start a business remains a concern, although noticeable progress has been made. Of the 21 countries originally included in the World Bank surveys, the average time has dropped from 74 days in 2003 to 60 days in 2006. Some individual countries have notched successes; but there are no countries from Latin America and the Caribbean that make the top 25 in overall ease of doing business.

Remittances are another Summit success story: a total of $60 billion is expected to flow to the region in 2006, with over 75% coming from the United States. Our efforts with Mexico, working with banks in both countries, dropped remittance costs by up to half. We need to expand programs to channel remittances into investment in local poor communities.

We know there is still much more to do, especially at a time when this region is facing ever-growing competition from Asia and elsewhere. All countries are competing for capital in a global market, so everyone needs to raise the bar. President Bush understands this. That's why he's asked Secretary Gutierrez to convene the first-ever Western Hemisphere Competitiveness Forum. The forum will be held next spring in the United States, and will explore ways for this region to better compete in the global marketplace.

Investing in the well-being of people
As the third pillar agreed to in the Summits of the Americas process, we are also committed to "investing in the well-being of people from all walks of life." This includes access to quality job training, education, and health care for our citizens.

Last year alone, U.S.-funded training programs within the United States and abroad provided needed job skills to more than 268,000 individuals from the developing world.

It also includes training teachers to provide quality education to our children. In our Hemisphere, one of President Bush's first international initiatives was the launching of the Centers for Excellence in Teacher Training in the Western Hemisphere at the Third Summit of the Americas in 2001. These regional Centers--one in Jamaica, one in Honduras and one in Peru--have improved and updated the skills of more than 12,500 public school teachers who educate more than 400,000 students throughout the hemisphere.

Just as economic prosperity and social justice cannot be achieved without education, the Bush Administration understands the importance of a healthy populace in realizing these goals. Through our HIV/AIDS programs, both bilaterally and through global funds, we put approximately $500 million into the region. Working together with our partners in our Hemisphere, we have surpassed regional targets by providing anti-retroviral therapy to more than 640,000 people in the Americas who need it.

The Bush Administration also increased funding to the Peace Corps by approximately 40% and put about a thousand new Peace Corps volunteers into the region and into countries that historically had not had Peace Corps volunteers like Mexico.

Protecting the Democratic State
The fourth pillar of the Summit process is critical to protect the freedoms, opportunities, and well-being of the people of this Hemisphere, particularly as we reflect on the link of the Democratic Charter to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the Summits of the Americas process, we are working to secure the democratic state, in a multilateral way, to address the threats posed by terrorism, narcotics, and gangs.

• In 2002-03, OAS member states undertook a comprehensive review of the hemispheric security architecture, culminating in a Special Conference on Security that took place in Mexico in October 2003. The Declaration on Security in the Americas provides a practical guide for resolving interstate border tensions, lowering pressure for arms spending, promoting democratic norms, and fostering a climate of confidence, trust, transparency and cooperation in our Hemisphere.
  
• In addition, the OAS has been active in preventive diplomacy. The OAS, with technical support from Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), has provided cartographers, facilitators, conciliators, offered its good offices, and brokered agreements to resolve disputes between Belize and Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and El Salvador and Honduras;
  
• By addressing the war on transnational organized crime--including terrorism and national security--multilaterally through the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE). Among other activities, CICTE works to formulate proposals in drafting appropriate counterterrorism legislation; develops activities for training and crisis management; and enhances border cooperation and travel documentation security measures;
  
• Advancing our ongoing effort to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse in the Americas through Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD)--the principal venue for counter-narcotics cooperation--and its Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), where experts from countries evaluate each other through the individual country submissions documenting efforts to combat drug abuse and trafficking.
  
• Helping countries deal effectively with burgeoning domestic crime rates at a time of high citizen insecurity.

Commitment to Relevant Multilateralism
The United States is committed to continue to work side by side with our hemispheric partners to meet the substantive challenges facing our nations, working bilaterally and multilaterally through the OAS.

It is critical that the OAS remain engaged and proactive. And from the U.S. standpoint, this means continuing to ensure that multilateralism in the Americas is not pursuing the lowest common denominator but, rather, pressing the OAS to practical, achievable objectives that produce tangible, measurable results.

Among the primary challenges ahead for the Organization, just to name a few:

• Effectively applying the Inter-American Democratic Charter to all the countries of the hemisphere, leaving no country out;
• Finding ways to integrate the reports of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights into the work and deliberations of the Permanent Council;
• Moving forward with effective implementation of Summit mandates;
• Expanding the participation of civil society organizations in the work of the OAS, pursuant to existing OASGA resolutions.
• Continue to look for ways to bolster the effectiveness of OAS Electoral Observation on the ground country-by-country;
• Providing institutional capacity building initiatives in each country to complement efforts toward the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is the key to generating jobs, fostering growth and fighting poverty effectively.

Fulfilling the Charter's Full Potential
Under the framework of the Democratic Charter, the OAS has carried out critical work on behalf of democracy throughout the region, but there are shortcomings.

We must take a close hard look at those shortcomings, and where we need to do more. Let us be clear that the Charter has inherent value, but much work remains ahead if we are to succeed in fulfilling its full potential as the core of a principled, effective multilateralism in the Americas. In order to prevent a breakdown of our hemisphere's democratic infrastructure, the Democratic Charter must be a relevant tool for action, not just a piece of paper.

While the Charter can serve as an effective tool to ward off political crises or impending challenges to constitutional order, there is still reluctance on the part of some countries to use it in this way.

We should be clear: The Inter-American Democratic Charter does not anticipate rushing to sanction or to suspend a member state. The Charter contemplates a gradual, measured response to political crises. It incorporates very practical measures, both remedial and preventative, to strengthen or restore democracy.

In order to avoid remedial action, we must work with the Secretary General to develop more credible long-term preventative tools.

Implementing the Charter: A Multilateral Commitment
Implementing the Charter is, and has to be, a multilateral commitment. Working together in a transparent manner, we must reduce mutual suspicions, speak with frankness, and usher in a new spirit of democratic solidarity with one another.

In such a spirit of solidarity, we must act on the Charter to secure democracy where it is threatened. We must act on the Charter to secure democracy with the rule of law. And we must act on the Charter to advance democracy where it is weak or absent. And this will require political will.

To that end, we have an important opportunity to move forward with the objectives we set out at two successive general assemblies where we committed to bolster regional cooperation for strengthening implementation of the Democratic Charter.

The Declaration of Florida and Resolutions 2154 and 2251, adopted in Ft. Lauderdale and Santo Domingo, mark an important multilateral commitment to advance the hemisphere's democratic agenda. Building on previous achievements of the inter-American community to address threats to democracy--Resolution 1080, the Washington Protocol and the Quebec Summit--the Declaration and the accompanying resolutions empower and give the Secretary General a new mandate to move the hemispheric commitment to the Charter and its principles beyond rhetoric, towards practical and politically workable outcomes.

Cuba & the Charter's Promise
Today, as we celebrate the Inter-American Democratic Charter's 5th anniversary, nations the world-over look to it as a model for regional democratic integration. The democratic governments of the Americas, as caretakers of the Charter's promise, have an important responsibility to remember those who today still languish under tyranny, denied the most fundamental, basic freedoms and human dignity.

Unfortunately, here in the house of the Americas, in the age of the Democratic Charter, there continues to be one empty chair at our table of democracies--a chair that will be rightfully claimed one day by the people of a free and democratic Cuba.

The Democratic Charter states that all the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy, and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it. Yet, for the people of Cuba, the Charter remains but a flickering symbol of hope.

Our hemispheric community faces a historic challenge on whether to stand by as one dictatorship replaces another, or work to make the promise of the Charter a reality for the citizens of Cuba. The Cuban people too are entitled to enjoy the rights enshrined in the Inter-American Democratic Charter that will one day serve as roadmap for a democratic Cuba's full reintegration into the inter-American system.

It is imperative that the OAS, as the hemisphere's own multilateral political institution, also prepare itself to play a constructive role in assisting a genuine transition to democracy in Cuba and support the legitimate aspirations of the Cuban people to live in freedom.

The Challenge of Our Time
The consensus we have produced on the four pillars set out at the four Summits of the Americas and the Special Summit in Nuevo Leon gives us the roadmaps from whence we can navigate to confront the challenges facing our part of the world.

In a speech delivered in Miami earlier this month, President Oscar Arias spoke of this region "at a crossroads," and underscored the choice of consolidating the gains the region has made or "succumb to the siren songs of caudillismo and populism, from which our people have reaped only a bitter harvest." He spoke of the choice between "the road that leads to prosperity, liberty and justice, or the road that condemns us to be, yet again, the continent of lost opportunity, the land of broken dreams, where modernity, like the kingdom of El Dorado, always lies just a little farther down the road." And he called on the need to nurture "the democratic flower that has sprung up in the region."

This is truly the challenge of our time. To forge ahead as a community of nations to make good on the promise of the Inter-American Democratic Charter for all of our peoples, and bring us closer to the vision President Bush also spoke of: that more hopeful world within our reach.