My friends, the reason you are here and we are assembled is because everybody in this room recognizes that there is no region on earth that is more important to the American people than the Western Hemisphere. This is our home. This is our neighborhood, and we are bound to our neighbors by the deepest ties--ties of family, ties of business, ties of culture. Indeed, I speak from experience as the son of Jamaican immigrants who grew up in a Bronx neighborhood. They came to that Bronx neighborhood from Jamaica looking for a better life, just as so many of your families did in times past.
And in the neighborhood that I grew up in I had friends like Victor Ramirez and Manny Garcia (ph), and so many others representing the richness of this hemisphere that we live in. The Western Hemisphere is the key to our democracy, our security and our prosperity. As long as any one of our brothers or sisters in this neighborhood go to bed hungry or frightened or hopeless, all of us are at risk of hunger, fear and despair.
But I don't need to tell this fundamental truth to Roger Noriega. He already knows it deep in his bones from his upbringing as the grandson of Mexican immigrants. He already knows it from his time on Capitol Hill, where he served with distinction on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee. And Roger Noriega already knows the importance of this Hemisphere from his two years of service leading our mission to the Organization of American States, where the nations of our hemisphere work together every day to bring hope to the hearts of our people.
Roger steered our OAS mission at a time of peril and a time of promise. On his watch, we and our partners approved the Inter-American Democratic Charter, a bold commitment to promoting and defending democracy in our hemisphere.
Indeed, on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001, Roger was with me in Lima, Peru at the ministerial meeting that had been called to approve the Charter. After we got word about the bombs and I had to return to Washington, it was Roger who signed this historic document on behalf of the United States of America. That was only fitting since Roger had done so much to make that Charter a reality.
During Roger's leadership of our OAS mission, we also negotiated and signed the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism to help gird ourselves against the terrorist menace that is so much in our news and in our minds now. In addition, Roger worked in the OAS to promote democratic solutions to the political impasses in Venezuela and in Haiti. He was also an enthusiastic and effective advocate for steps to strengthen respect for human rights and steps to strengthen the education of our youngsters.
As Assistant Secretary, Roger is more than simply picking up where he left off at the OAS. He leads a talented and dedicated group of some 9,000 people spread out over 60 missions in 34 countries, plus his staff here in the Department in Washington. I know Roger will inspire this team to work together as one to consolidate a hemispheric community of partners that share a common commitment to security, democracy and broad-based economic growth.
All of our aspirations rest on the security of our hemisphere. That puts Roger on the front lines of the global war on terrorism, and he is working with our partners to make our region a terrorist-free zone. At the same time, Roger is leading the fight to secure the region's borders against criminal activities such as trafficking in arms, drugs and especially human beings. Within a secure hemisphere, people can be free to enjoy the fruits of democracy. We and our neighbors start with a shared consensus on the value of democracy. The Democratic Charter states that the peoples of the Americas have the right to democracy and their governments have the obligation to promote and defend it.
Every country in the hemisphere signed this pledge except for, as we all know, Castro's Cuba. But we also all know that the day will come when the Cuban people also will bask in the light of democracy.
(Applause.)
Roger and his team are working to carry out President Bush's commitment to the Cuban people -- that they will flourish under a new system that guarantees their freedom, respects their rights, and encourages their prosperity. For prosperity must underpin democracy, and Roger will do his part to help generate sustained economic growth by promoting trade, investment, and sound fiscal reforms.
The countries of this hemisphere form a vast market of over 800 million people producing nearly $14 trillion in goods and services every year. To help expand this market and make sure that its benefits are enjoyed by all citizens, President Bush gives high priority to concluding the Free Trade Area of the Americas. This agreement, along with other trade agreements, completed and under negotiation, will promote investment in trade, and thereby bolster democracy and political stability in the region.
We can combat terrorism and trafficking. We can fight disease. We can strengthen human ties. We can expand trade. But none of our efforts will be enough if men and women lack confidence in their democracies and in their prospects for a better future.
Roger and I and so many of you here today are concerned that there is still a lingering dissatisfaction among the peoples of our democracies in this neighborhood that we live in. There's a level of dissatisfaction with the quality of their democracy and the results of economic reform. Has it brightened the life of everyone? Is democracy a system that really works?
In part, such feelings are a measure of how far our hemisphere has come politically and economically in recent years. The region's progress has increased expectations for more progress, for good government, and for broader prosperity.
Men and women have sacrificed and they want to see results in their pocketbooks, in their pay packets, in their polling places, but above all, in their homes by their ability to put food on the table, to bring a roof over the head of their families, to see their children grow up to have a better future than they do, to see more opportunity in their lives.
But too often they still suffer from weak governments and ineffective institutions. In too many places, rule of law and property rights are honored mainly in the breach. Children are not being educated for jobs in a globalizing world or being educated for citizenship in a democracy.
In too many countries in our hemisphere, healthcare systems are failing. Corruption still saps the marrow of democracy. Economic stagnation and even deep recession retard development.
The challenge to the governments of the region is clear. They must meet their people's just expectations for a better future. That's what democracy promised. They must see political, institutional and economic reforms through to completion as hard as it may be to travel down that path.
Our challenge is also clear. We must support their efforts. The problems are difficult, but they can be solved. The coming years can and should be a time of progress.
My friends, our objectives for the Western Hemisphere spring from the aspirations of our peoples. We seek thriving economic partners that are democratic, stable and prosperous. We want secure borders and cooperative neighbors. And we hope to build a community of nations working together to advance our common values.
Roger, those are your marching orders, pure and simple. Your order is to bring this vision closer to reality and call me when you've finished it.
(Laughter.)
(Applause.)
Roger, I can assure you you won't be doing this alone. You will have the full support of all of your colleagues in the Department, you will have the full support of everyone in this room here today, and so many others who have watched your career with admiration over the years. And you, of course, will have the full support of the President of the United States. But above all, Roger, you go forth to this new mission, this new challenge, with the thanks of the American people for your willingness to serve, and with their full support as well.
