SECRETARY POWELL: Very committed. We believe that democracy is the way forward for nations that are developing. We believe that democracy means political democracy as well as economic democracy and we are firmly committed to that. And we are also firmly committed to constitutional process. You cannot have a democracy without a firm constitutional process integrating it so people of Ecuador can be sure that the United States will stand with them as they build the democracy strengthening the constitutional process.

MR. ALMEIDA: Last year a majority protest overturned [inaudible] constitutional president Sanchez de Lozad. If a similar action takes place in our country, what would be the United States position be about it?

SECRETARY POWELL: The United States will, of course, watch carefully what happens in Ecuador and we would not like to see anything happen which would be inconsistent with your constitution and inconsistent with the democratic principles that field this country.

MR. ALMEIDA: How important would you say is Ecuador within the dual framework of the U.S. efforts against guerrillas in the drug trade in Colombia?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think Ecuador is an important country, it is a neighbor of Colombia and when you squeeze the narco-terrorists and the narco-traffickers in Colombia and make it harder for them to operate there, there is always a danger that can spill over into neighboring countries and so we don’t want to see this happen in Ecuador, where Ecuador becomes threatened. And it is part of our regional effort, while we provide assistance to Colombia and the Plan Colombia; we are also in the broader sense trying to provide assistance to the region as well to guard us against this danger.

MR. ALMEIDA: Well that brings us to the next question. Obviously in the general population that floats, Ecuador has done its utmost to collaborate with the U.S. and the world against the drug trade. We signed the agreement of the Manta airbase and strip, however the assistance we have received thus far has been minimal. How can we go about requesting additional aid? Who has to prove it? What does that aid depend on? Do the U.S. aid to Colombia’s for its war on terrorism provide additional resources to Ecuador in order to alleviate the military and social consequences of the war?

SECRETARY POWELL: I can assure that your government is not reluctant to ask for assistance and we encourage our friends to ask for assistance. We have done a lot to increase the amount of assistance we can provide to nations around the world. We have just about doubled the amount of money that the U.S. Agency for International Development spends in the course of President Bush’s administration. And now he has come up with a new program called Millennium Challenge Account and that has started now to flow money into the region and I would hope that as both these accounts continue to grow, Ecuador will benefit from these accounts as well as from what funds might be available with our overall regional efforts against drug trafficking.

MR. ALMEIDA: If President Uribe’s efforts to eliminate the FARC in Colombia fail, would the U.S. at the request of Colombia consider the possibility of promoting a multinational action to fight that menace?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don’t expect President Uribe to fail; I think he has done a terrific job. He has shown these terrorists that they are not going to be allowed to highjack the democracy that rightfully belongs to the Colombian people. We have been very impressed by his efforts, so I don’t expect he would fail so I don’t expect the issue of a multinational for of any kind going into Colombia I think is a moot point. I am confident in President Uribe strategic plan and the resources that he is giving to it and the resources that he is receiving from the international community, including the United States.

MR. ALMEIDA: Venezuela thanks to the pronouncement of the national electoral council had a referendum to revoke President Chavez’s mandate on August 8th, what can you do to make sure that the democratic process if fulfilled?

SECRETARY POWELL: I am pleased that the recent referral effort that validated the additional signatures was a transparent one, full, free and open, and I am pleased that the results have been recognized and accepted by the government of Venezuela, by the opposition parties as well as validated by the O.A.S. and the Carter Center, and I hope that same attitude of openness, and fairness and transparency will apply for a recall referendum in August. The United States leaves it up to the Venezuelan people to decide how they will be governed and by whom. And as long as this is done in a free, open, transparent way in accordance with the Constitution of Venezuela, all of us, including United States, will live with that democratic government.

MR. ALMEIDA: President Bush has stated that he will harden his position towards Cuba, what are we to read in that statement?

SECRETARY POWELL: As you know, I chaired for President Bush a commission that looked to Cuba to determined what steps we might take to speed up the end of this one remaining, non-democratic system in our hemisphere, but most of the report dealt with how will we get ready for the day after in Cuba. How should the hemisphere, especially the United States, organize itself to help the Cuban people to put in place a solid democracy, a good economy, repair their infrastructure, once the Castro regime has passed from the scene.

It is rather tragic that in this day and age of the year 2004, when every other country in our hemisphere is a democracy: people arguing, people debating, free press, open discussion of issues, only Castro still throws people in jail for ten, twenty year at a time because they dared to speak out. It is outrageous that this sort of regime continues to do this in the twenty first century, but we are also convinced that once Castro goes, the people of Cuba will demand more, expect more, and will receive a better system of government.

MR. ALMEIDA: In your personal opinion, what is the political scenario in Iraq, when the handover has been accomplished on or about the 30th of June?

SECRETARY POWELL: It is pretty straightforward. At that time, the current government, which is the Coalition Provisional Authority under Ambassador Bremer, who has done a brilliant job- that will go away. Ambassador Bremer will leave and the Coalition Provisional Authority will leave. Therefore, the only sovereign remaining will be the new Iraqi interim government. It will be a caretaker government that will take the Iraqi people through elections at the end of the year and put in place a representative government, a transitional government, then onto a constitution and full elections. We will leave in Iraq a very large military force roughly 138,000 U.S. troops and troops from other coalition nations to help the new government. But we are there at their request and we are there with their consent. They need us to provide security for them until they can build up their own security forces, and we’re pleased to be able to do it. I hope that a U.N. resolution will be forthcoming in the next several days which will give meaning to all this.

MR. ALMEIDA: Has the U.S. developed alternate scenarios on the current war on terrorism? Would it be possible, perhaps, a scenario where there is a greater involvement of the Arab world?

SECRETARY POWELL: The Arab world is the subject of terrorist attacks just as much as the other nations. Saudi Arabia is going through a difficult time now. Other nations in the Arab world have been attacked, so we have a common interest in fighting terrorism together. And I think we can do more with our friends around the world: law enforcement activities, common law enforcement activities, intelligence exchanges, learning more about how terrorists pass money back and forth. You can see how Saudi Arabia has taken action with us in recent days to shut down these charitable organizations that are nothing more than a front to provide money to terrorist organizations. And so we expect to do even more with our Arab friends, as we are doing with our friends around the world. All of us united in this global campaign against terrorism.

MR. ALMEIDA: What would the U.S. propose to the O.A.S. Assembly to turn the O.A.S. into a more responsive, efficient and effective organization, especially in problems common to various countries, such as corruption and the governance crisis that we face?

SECRETARY POWELL: We are looking forward to working with the new Secretary General, Mr. Rodriguez, in implementing the reform package that consultants have come up and we are prepared to provide additional funding to the O.A.S. to implement these reforms. The O.A.S. knows that it can do a more effective job, a more efficient job. I’m pleased that the determination of the new Secretary General is to do just that.

MR. ALMEIDA: I want to thank you for the time that you have given Radio Quito. They told me eight minutes and I think that maybe it’s been eight minutes on the dot. If you have two minutes, we can touch on something else - off the record if you want to.

SECRETARY POWELL: No (laughter)

MS. MILLER: You can have one more question.

MR. ALMEIDA: How do you like Quito? That’s a good question.

SECRETARY POWELL: I want to spend more time in Quito, but unfortunately, I’m in conferences. It’s such an historic place and I would love to have a whole day just to walk the streets.

MR. ALMEIDA: Or visit soon to the Galapagos?

SECRETARY POWELL: I would love that.

MR. ALMEIDA: My hat off to your, sir. Thank you very much.