News Releases

May 5, 2006

Condoleezza Rice discusses democracy, development in the Americas with students at the IDB

United States willing to work with democratic governments across political spectrum, Secretary of State says

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a speech delivered today at the Inter-American Development Bank, said the United States wants to cooperate with its neighbors in Latin America to build a prosperous, peaceful and democratic hemisphere.

“The United States wants to be a partner in the creation of better opportunities in the Americas through strong democratic governments that can deliver,” she said to an audience of 130 Latin American and Hispanic American university students participating in the Espacio USA: Vanguardia Latina 2006 conference.

Sec. Rice noted that while Latin America had made enormous progress in building its democracies since the 1980s, when most of the region was ruled by authoritarian regimes, its governments have had difficulties in meeting their citizens’ expectations of economic and social development.

“People are getting impatient, and they’re asking what is democracy doing for my children, what is it doing for my family, and what is it doing for my aspirations, and we have to have an answer to that,” she said.

Sec. Rice added that she looked forward to working with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno on those issues because he is determined to lead the Bank in strengthening Latin American governments so they may be capable of helping their people.

Sec. Rice, who underscored that under President George W. Bush the United States has doubled its overseas development assistance to Latin America, said her country is willing to work with governments of all political hues, as long as they are truly democratic and serve their people’s needs.

“It doesn’t matter if a government comes from the left or the right. The United States doesn’t have an ideological price for partnership,” she said. “What we care is that, whatever side of the political spectrum a government comes from, that it is governing democratically and delivering to its people.”

The Secretary of State, a former provost of Stanford University, also took questions from students, who queried her on the U.S. government’s interest in building stronger ties with Latin America, on strategies to achieve sustainable and equitable development, on U.S. immigration policies and the importance of Latin culture in this country.

When a student asked her how soon the United States would elect a president from a racial or ethnic minority, Sec. Rice replied: “I think it will happen, and it will happen in my lifetime.”  She pointed out how quickly the complexion of the U.S. Congress and governorships is changing to match the country’s increasingly diverse population. She added that this transformation is also happening in many countries in Latin America, where indigenous leaders have recently risen to positions of power.

Prior to delivering her remarks, Sec. Rice listened to two students read a statement drafted by their peers as a conclusion to the three-day conference organized by Espacio de Vinculacion, AC (EVAC), a Mexican nonprofit institution.

The students called on young people in the Western Hemisphere to work together on a “common agenda for the Americas” to help their countries address issues such as immigration, poverty and inequality.

EVAC, which is sponsored by some of Mexico’s largest corporations, holds similar meetings in Latin American countries, bringing together outstanding students and political, business and academic leaders and building stronger ties between universities and the private sector. The Washington conference was its first event in the United States.

Also available in: Español