ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT ON THE CARIBBEAN BASIN INITIATIVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000200400001-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2007
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 24, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 24, 1982
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
ON THE CARIBBEAN BASIN INITIATIVE
The Organization of American States
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman,
distinguished permanent representatives, Mr. Secretary General,
distinguished members of the diplomatic corps, and ladies and
gentlemen, it's a great honor for me to stand before you today.
The principles which the organization of American States embodies --
democracy, self-determination, economic development and collective
security are at the heart of U.S. foreign policy.
The United States of America is a proud member of this
organization. What happens anywhere in the Americas affects us in this
country., In that very real sense, we share a common destiny.
We, the peoples of the Americas, have much more in
common than geographical proximity. For over 400 years our peoples
have shared the dangers and dreams of building a new world. From
colonialism to nationhood, our common quest has been for freedom.
Most of our forebears came to this hemisphere seeking
a better life for themselves. They came in search of opportunity
and, yes, in search of God. Virtually all descendants of the land
and immigrants alike have had to fight for independence. Having
gained it, they've had to fight to retain it. There were times when
we even fought each other.
Gradually, however, the nations of this hemisphere
developed a set of common principles and institutions that provided
the basis for mutual protection. Some 20 years ago, John F. Kennedy
caught the essence of our unique mission when he said it was up to
the New World, "to demonstrate that man's unsatisfied aspiration for
economic progress and social justice can best be achieved by free
men working within a framework of democratic institutions."
In the commitment to freedom and independence, the
peoples of this hemisphere are one. In this profound sense, we are
all Americans. Our principles are rooted in self-government and
non-intervention. We believe in the rule of law. We know that a
nation cannot be liberated by depriving its people of liberty. We
know that a state cannot be free when its independence is subordinated
to a foreign power. And we know that a government cannot be
democratic if it refuses to take the test of a free election.
We have not always lived, up to these ideals. All
of us at one time or another in. our history have been politically
weak, economically backward, socially unjust or unable to solve our
problems through peaceful means. My own country, too, has suffered
internal strife including a tragic civil war. We have known economic
misery, and once tolerated racial and social injustice. And, yes,
at times we have behaved arrogantly and
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impatiently toward our neighbors. These experiences have left their
scars, but they also help us today to :L.entify with the struggle for
political and economic development in the other countries of this
hemisphere.
Out of the crucible of our common past, the Americas have
emerged as more equal and more understanding partners. Our hemisphere
has an unlimited potential for economic development and human fulfillment.
We have a combined population of more than 600 million people; our
continents and our islands boast vast reservoirs of food and raw materials;
and the markets of the Americas have already produced the highest standard
of living among the advanced as well as the developing countries of
the world. The example that we could offer to the world would not only
discourage foes, it would project like a beacon of hope to all of the
oppressed and impoverished nations of the world. We are the New World,
a world of sovereign and independent states that today stand shoulder
to shoulder with a common respect for one another and a greater
tolerance of one another's shortcomings.
Some two years ago when I announced as a candidate for the
Presidency, I spoke of an ambition I had to bring about an accord with
our two neighbors here on the North American continent.
Now, I was not suggesting a common market or any kind of
formal agreement. "Accord" was the only word that seemed to fit
what I had in mind. I was aware that the United States has long
enjoyed friendly relations with Mexico and Canada, that our borders have no
fortifications. Yet it seemed to me that there was the potential
for a closer relationship than had yet been achieved. Three great
nations share the North American continent with all its human and
natural resources. Have we done all we can to create a relationship
in which each country can realize its potential to the fullest?
Now, I know in the past the United States has proposed
policies that we declared would be mutually beneficial not only for
North America but also for the nations of the Caribbean and Central and
South America. But there was often a problem. No matter how good our
intentions were, our very size may have made it seem that we were
exercising a kind of paternalism.
At the time i suggested a new North American accord,
I said I wanted to approach our neighbors not as someone with yet
another plan, but as a friend seeking their ideas, their suggestions as
to how we could become better neighbors.
- - - -- - - - --I met with President -f open--Pbrtillb in Mexico before my
inauguration and with Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada shortly after
I had taken office. We have all met several times since, in the
United States, in Mexico and Canada. And I believe that we have
established a relationship better than any our three countries have
ever known before.
Today I would like to talk about our other neighbors --
neighbors by the sea --- some two dozer countries of the Caribbean and
Central America. These countries are not unfamiliar names from some
isolated corner of the world far from home. They are very close to
home. The country of El Salvador, for example, is nearer to Texas
than Texas is to Massachusetts. The Caribbean region is a vital
strategic and commercial artery for the United States. Nearly half of
our trade, two-thirds of our imported oil, and over half of our imported
strategic minerals pass through the Panama Canal or the Gulf of Mexico.
Make no mistake: The well-being and security of our neighbors in
this region are in our own vital interest.
Economic health is one of the keys to a secure future
for our Caribbean Basin
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and to the neighbors there. I'm happy to say that Mexico, Canada and
Venezuela have joined in this search for ways to help these countries
realize their economic potential.
Each of our four nations has its own unique position and
approach. Mexico and Venezuela are helping to offset energy costs to
Caribbean Basin countries by means of an oil facility that is already
in operation. Canada is doubling its already significant economic
assistance. We all seek to ensure that the peoples of this area have
the right to preserve their own national identities, to improve their
economic lot and to develop their political institutions to suit
their own unique social and historical needs. The Central American
and Caribbean countries differ widely in culture, personality and
needs. Like America itself, the Caribbean Basin is an extraordinary
mosaic of Hispanics, Africans, Asians, and Europeans, as well as
native Americans.
At the moment, however, these countries are under economic
siege. In 1977, one barrel of oil was worth 5 pounds of coffee or
155 pounds of sugar. To buy that same barrel of oil today, these
small countries must provide five times as much coffee (nearly
26 pounds) or almost twice as much sugar (283 pounds). This economic
disaster is consuming our neighbors' money, reserves and credit,
forcing thousands of people to leave for other countries, for the United
States, often illegally, and shaking even the most established democracies.
And economic disaster has provided a fresh opening to the enemies of
freedom, national independence and peaceful development.
We have taken the time to consult closely with other
governments in the region, both sponsors and beneficiaries, to ask them
what they need and what they think will work. And we have labored long
to develop an economic program that integrates trade, aid and investment --
a program that represents a long-term commitment to the countries of
the Caribbean and Central America to make use of the magic of the
marketplace, the market of the Americas, to earn their own way toward
self-sustaining growth.
At the Cancun Summit last October, I presented a fresh view
of a development which stressed more than aid and government intervention.
As I pointed out then, nearly all of the countries that have succeeded
in their development over the past 30 years have done so on the strength
of market-oriented policies and vigorous participation in the
international economy. Aid must be complemented by trade and investment.
The program I am proposing today puts these principles
into practice. It is an integrated program that helps our neighbors
help themselves, a program that will create conditions under which
creativity and private entrepreneurship and self-help can flourish. Aid
is an important part of this program because many of our neighbors need
it to put themselves in a starting position from which they can begin
to earn their own way. But this aid will encourage private sector
activities, not displace them.
The centerpiece of the program that I am sending to the
Congress is free trade for Caribbean Basin products exported to the
United States. Currently, some 87 percent of Caribbean exports already
enter U.S. markets duty free under the Generalized System of Preferences.
These exports, however, cover only the limited range of existing products --
not the wide variety of potential products these talented and industrious
peoples are capable of producing under the free trade arrangement that
I am proposing. Exports from the area will receive duty free treatment
for 12 years. Thus, new investors will be able to enter the market
knowing that their products will receive duty free treatment for at least
the pay-off lifetime of their investments. Before granting duty-free
treatment, we will discuss with each country its own self-help measures.
The only exception to the free trade concept will be
textile and apparel products because these products are covered now by
other international agreements. However, we will make sure that our
immediate neighbors have more liberal quota arrangements.
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This economic proposal is as unprecedented as today's crisis in the
Caribbean. Never before has the United States offered a preferential
trading agreement to any region. This commitment makes unmistakably
clear our determination to help our neighbors grow strong. The impact
of this free trade approach will develop slowly. The economies that
we seek to help are small. Even as they grow, all the protections
now available to U.S. industry, agriculture, and labor against disruptive
imports will remain. And growth in the Caribbean will benefit everyone
with American exports finding new markets.
Secondly, to further attract investment, I will ask the
Congress to provide significant tax incentives for investment in the
Caribbean basin. We also stand ready to negotiate bilateral investment
treaties with interested Basin Countries.
Third, I'm asking for a supplemental Fiscal Year 1982
appropriation of $350 million to assist those countries which are parti-
cularly hard hit economically. Much of this aid will be concentrated on the
private sector. These steps will help foster the spirit of enterprise
necessary to take advantage of the trade and investment portions of the
program.
Fourth, we will offer technical assistance and training to
assist the private sector in the Basin countries to benefit from the
opportunities of this program. This will include investment promotion,
export marketing, and technology transfer efforts, as well as programs
to facilitate adjustments to greater competition and production in
agriculture and industry. I intend to seek the active participation of
the business community in this undertaking. The Peace Corps already has
861 volunteers in Caribbean Basin countries, and will give special
emphasis to recruiting volunteers with skills in developing local
enterprise.
Fifth, we will work closely with Mexico, Canada, and
Venezuela, all of whom have already begun substantial and innovative
programs of their own to encourage stronger international efforts to
coordinate our own development measures with their vital contributions,
and with other potential donors like Columbia. We will also encourage
our European, Japanese, and other Asian allies, as well as multilateral
development institutions to increase their assistance in the region.
Sixth, given our special valued relationship with Puerto
Rico and the United States Virgin islands, we will propose special
measures to ensure that they also will benefit and prosper from this
program. With their strong traditions of democracy and free enter-
prise, they can play leading roles in the development of the area.
This program has been carefully prepared. It represents
a farsighted act by our own people at a time of considerable economic
difficulty at home. I wouldn't propose it if I were not convinced
that it is vital to the security interests of this nation and of this
hemisphere. The energy, the time and the treasure we dedicate to
assisting the development of our neighbors now can help to prevent
the much larger expenditures of treasure as well as human lives which
would flow from their collapse.
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One early sign is positive. After a decade of falling
income and exceptionally high unemployment, Jamaica's new leadership
is reducing bureaucracy, dismantling unworkable controls, and attracting
new investment. Continued outside assistance will be needed to tide
Jamaica over until market forces generate large increases in output
and employment -- but Jamaica is making freedom work.
I've spoken up to now mainly of the economic and social
challenges to development. But there are also other dangers. A new
kind of colonialism stalks the world today and threatens our indepen-
dence. It is brutal and totalitarian. It is not of our hemisphere
but it threatens our hemisphere and has established footholds on
American soil for the expansion of its colonialist ambitions.
The events of the last several years dramatize two
different futures which are possible for the Caribbean area: Either
the establishment or restoration of moderate, constitutional govern-
ments with economic growth and improved living standards; or, futher
expansion of political violence from the extreme left and the extreme
right resulting in the imposition of dictatorships and inevitably
more economic decline and human suffering.
The positive opportunity is illustrated by the two-thirds
of the nations in the area which have democratic governments. The
dark future is foreshadowed by the poverty and repression of Castro's
Cuba, the tightening grip of the totalitarian left in Grenada and
Nicaragua, and the expansion of Soviet-backed, Cuban-managed support
for violent revolution in Central America.
The record is clear. Nowhere in its whole sordid history
have the promises of Communism been redeemed. Everywhere it has
exploited and aggravated temporary economic suffering to seize
power and then to institutionalize economic deprivation and suppress
human rights. Right now, six million people worldwide are refugees
from Communist systems. Already, more than a million Cubans alone
have fled communist tyranny.
Our economic and social program cannot work if our
neighbors cannot pursue their own economic and political future in
peace but must divert their resources, instead, to fight imported
terrorism and armed attack.
Economic progress cannot be made while guerillas
systematically burn, bomb, and destory bridges, farms and power
and transportation systems -- all with the deliberate intention of
worsening economic and social problems in hopes of radicalizing
already suffering people.
Our Caribbean neighbors' peaceful attempts to develop
are feared by the foes of freedom because their success will make
the radical message a hollow one. Cuba and its Soviet backers know
this. Since 1978, Havana has trained, armed and directed extremists
in guerrilla warfare and economic sabotage as part of a campaign to
exploit troubles in Central America and the Caribbean. Their goal
is to establish Cuban-style Marxist-Leninist dictatorships. Last
year, Cuba received 66,000 tons of war supplies from the Soviet
Union -- more than in any year since the 1962 missile crisis. Last
month, the arrival of additional high performance MIG-23 Floggers
gave Cuba an arsenal of more than 200 Soviet war planes -- far more
than the military aircraft inventories of all other Caribbean Basin
countries combined. For almost two years, Nicaragua has served as
a platform for covert military action. Through Nicaragua, arms
are being smuggled to guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala.
MORE
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The Nicaraguan government even admits the forced re-
location of about 8,500 Miskito Indians. And we have clear evidence
that since late 1981, many Indian communities have been burned to
the ground and men, women and children killed.
The Nicaraguan junta cabled written assurances to the
OAS in 1979 that it intended to respect human rights and hold
free elections. Two years later, these commitments can be measured
by the postponement of elections until 1985, by repression against
free trade unions, against the media, minorities and in defiance
of all international civility, by the continued export of arms
and subversion to neighboring countries.
Two years ago, in contrast, the government of El Salvador
began an unprecedented land reform. It has repeatedly urged the
guerrillas to renounce violence, to join in the democratic process,
an election in which the people of El Salvador could determine
the government they prefer. Our own country and other American
nations through the OAS have urged such a course. The guerrillas
have refused. More than that, they now threaten violence and
death to those who participate in such an election.
Can anything make more clear the nature of those who pre-
tend to be supporters of so-called "wars of liberation"?
A determined propaganda campaign has sought to mislead
many in Europe and certainly many in the United States as to the
true nature of the conflict in El Salvador. Very simply, guerrillas,
armed and supported by and through Cuba, are attempting to impose
a Marxist-Leninst dictatorship on the people of El Salvador as
part of a larger imperialistic plan. If we do not act promptly
and decisively in defense of freedom, new Cubas will arise from
the ruins of today's conflicts. We will face more totalitarian
regimes tied militarily to the Soviet Union. More regimes exporting
subversion, more regimes so incompetent yet so totalitarian that
their citizens'only hope becomes that of one migrating to other
American nations, as in recent years they have come to the United
States.
I believe free and peaceful development of our hemisphere
requires us to help governments confronted with aggression from
outside their borders to defend themselves. For this reason, I
will ask the Congress to provide increased security assistance to
help friendly countries hold off those who would destroy their
chances for economic and social progress and political democracy.
Since 1947., the Rio Treaty has establi-shed reciprocate defense -
responsibilities linked to our common democratic ideals. Meeting
these responsibilities is all the more important when an outside
power supports terrorism and insurgency to destroy any possibility
of freedom and democracy. Let our friends and our adversaries
understand that we will do whatever is prudent and necessary to
ensure the peace and security of the Caribbean area.
In the face of outside threats, security for the countries
of the Caribbean and Central American area is not an end in itself,
but a means to an end.
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It is a means toward building representative and responsive institutions,
toward strengthening pluralism and free private institutions -- churches,
free trade unions, and an independent press. It is a means to nurturing
the basic human rights freedom's foes would stamp out. In the Caribbean
we above all seek to protect those values and principles that shape
the proud heritage of this hemisphere. I have already expressed our
support for the coming election in El Salvador. We also strongly
support the Central American Democratic Community formed this January
by Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador. The United States will work
closely with other concerned democracies inside and outside the area to
preserve and enhance our common democratic values.
We will not, however, follow Cuba's lead in attempting to
resolve human problems by brute force. Our economic assistance,
including the additions that are part of the program I have just outlined,
is more than five times the amount of our security assistance. The
thrust of our aid is to help our neighbors realize freedom, justice,
and economic progress.
We seek to exclude no one. Some, however, have turned
from their American neighbors and their heritage. Let them return
to the traditions and common values of this hemisphere and we all will
welcome them. The choice is theirs.
As I have talked these problems over with friends and fellow
citizens here in the United States, I'm often asked, "Why bother?
Why should the problems of Central America or the Caribbean concern us?
Why should we try to help?" I tell them we must help because the
people of the Caribbean and Central America are in a fundamental sense
fellow Americans. Freedom is our common destiny. And freedom cannot
survive if our neighbors live in misery and oppression. In short, we must
do it because we are doing it for each other.
Our neighbors' call for help is addressed to us all here
in this country, to the administration, to the Congress, to millions of
Americans from Miami to Chicago, from New York to Los Angeles. This is
not Washington's problem; it is the problem of all the people of this
great land and of all the other Americas -- the great and sovereign
republics of North America, the Caribbean Basin, and South America.
The Western Hemisphere does not belong to any one of us -- we
belong to the Western Hemisphere. We are brothers historically as well
as geogrphically.
Now, I am aware that the United States has pursued Good
Neighbor Policies in the past. These policies did some good. But they
are inadequate for today. I believe that my country is now ready to
go beyond being a good neighbor to being a true friend and brother in a
community that belongs as much to others as to us. That, no guns, is
the ultimate key to peace and security for us all.
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We have to ask ourselves why has it taken so long for us
to realize the God-given opportunity that is ours. These two great
land masses north and south, so rich in virtually everything we need,
together are more than 600 million people, can develop what is un-
developed, can eliminate want and poverty, can show the world that
our many nations can live in peace, each with its own customs and
language and culture, but sharing a love for freedom and a determina-
tion to resist outside ideologies that would take us back to colonial-
ism.
We return to a common vision. Nearly a century ago a
great citizen of the Caribbean and the Americas, Jose Marti warned
that, "Mankind is composed of two sorts of men, those who love and
create and those who hate and destroy." Today more than ever the
compassionate, creative peoples of the Americas have an opportunity
to stand together, to overcome injustice, hatred and oppression, and
to build a better life for all the Americas.
I have always believed that this hemisphere was a special
place with a special destiny. I believe that we are destined to be
the beacon of hope for all mankind. With God's help, we can make
it so. We can create a peaceful, free and prospering hemisphere
based on our shared ideals and reaching from pole to pole of what we
proudly call the New World. Thank you.
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