3:00 P.M. EDT
AudioASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: I’m just going to repeat this in English if you don’t mind. We’re going to be traveling to Lima, Peru on Sunday the 6
th to participate in the General Assembly of the Organization of American States on Monday, the 7
th. The Secretary has three objectives on this trip. The first is to go the OASGA meeting in Lima, and then to do the Andean trip. In Lima, she will actually be seeing President Garcia again, who, as you know, was in Washington this last week. And in Quito she will be meeting with President Correa, have a working lunch with President Correa, and give a major speech. From there she goes on to Bogota, Colombia, where on Wednesday, the 9
th; she will be meeting with presidential candidates Mockus and Santos, and with President Uribe. At the end of the day, she will be traveling to Barbados so that she can meet the following day, on Thursday, with the CARICOM representatives.
And let me just conclude this by saying that with the CARICOM, the agenda will be a follow-up on the Caribbean Basis Security Initiative, conversations that we had here in Washington. So that’s the purpose of the trip.
Let me just add one other footnote to what I said earlier, and that is that I just got back myself from a trip to Bolivia, where on Tuesday I met with the Foreign Minister Choquehuanca. We had an excellent conversation, where we discussed finishing the framework agreement that we’ve been working on with Bolivia, which is almost 99 percent finished.
So with that, I’ll stop and I’ll turn it over to your questions.
MODERATOR: We’d like to first offer an opportunity for a question from one of the Caribbean media representatives, please.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MODERATOR: Do we have a representative of the Caribbean media with us today?
QUESTION: Yes. On the line. Hello? Good afternoon.
MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Please, go ahead. Please give us your name and your media outlet.
QUESTION: Yes. My name is Clyde Baccus (ph). I’m calling (inaudible). And my question is (inaudible) of small arms linked to heavy drug trafficking, wreaking havoc in (inaudible). What does the U.S. have to help the (inaudible) cope with this destructive phenomenon?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Thank you very much for your question. You’re absolutely right that, as we discuss with our Caribbean partners this Caribbean Security Initiative, which is aimed at trying to control and to defeat criminal organizations, narco-trafficking organizations and others, that one of the principal things that we need to look at, among many, is the proliferation of small arms. And indeed, the United States is committed to work more effectively to try to ensure that these arms are properly tracked and that, in fact, that arms coming from the United States be checked and not become a problem, because these arms do fuel some of the violence in the region. So we’re committed to trying to work as best we can to try cut back on small arms.
That of course, does not mean that that is the only thing we need to do. And as we discussed in the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative meetings here in Washington, there are a whole host of things that need to be done in order to combat crime and public – and address the issue of public insecurity, including such things as strengthening our police system, strengthening law enforcement organizations, and more effectively fighting the drug trafficking organizations and criminal violence.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We’d like offer the next opportunities for representatives from the media of Ecuador.
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: The Secretary has three objectives on this trip. The first is to go to the OASGA meeting –
MODERATOR: (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We’d like to offer the next opportunity for a question for a representative from the international wire service.
QUESTION: Hi, (inaudible) from Dow Jones. Hello?
MODERATOR: Yes, we have a question from Dow Jones to be followed by a question from EFFE. Please, go ahead Dow Jones.
QUESTION: Yes, Mr. Valenzuela. In an interview released today the presidential candidates in Colombia Juan Manuel Santos said he expected – he wanted to ask the U.S. Government to increase the money included in the Plan Colombia. Is it something that the U.S. Government is currently considering?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Thank you for your question. As we have been discussing in our dialogue with the Colombians over the last few months, the United States continues to be committed to assisting Colombia to overcome the various challenges that the country faces. That these conversations that have been had with Uribe; they will also be shared with the two candidates – candidate Santos and well as candidate Mockus (inaudible) on the part of the United States.
MODERATOR: Excuse me, we would like to remind you, once again, to please put your telephones on mute.
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Well, I’ll continue then, if I could ask others to please be quiet until I finish answering the question from my colleague from Dow Jones.
As I was saying then, that we remain committed to working with Colombia and to assistance with Colombia. But I want to stress one important thing, and that is that we see – in view of the fact that there’s been significant success, particularly in addressing the problems of insecurity in Colombia, that the nature of our assistance is changing. In that sense the – because the nature of the assistance is changing, some of the overall numbers, in terms of the assistance, have gone down about 10 percent. But that’s perfectly fine because the commitment of funding that we had initially for some of the security elements is no longer required as in the past. And so we’re focusing more of our assistance on other aspects of our program with Colombia, which involve addressing the problems that I mentioned earlier that the Secretary’s going to address. That is issues of poverty and inequality and how we can help to improve the lots of particularly marginalized people in the country.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
MODERATOR: Thank you. You are going to have to limit yourself to one question. We would like to offer now an opportunity for a question to a representative of the Peruvian press.
QUESTION: A follow-up?
MODERATOR: Please, go ahead. Please give your name and your media outlet.
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (Inaudible) BBC here.
MODERATOR: If we can ask BBC to wait just a moment, I believe we had a representative of the Peruvian press.
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
(CROSSTALK)QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
MODERATOR: Just a moment please. I’m sorry. We do have a limited time for questions here. I would like to, once again, ask you to please focus your questions on the theme that we’re addressing today, the Secretary’s upcoming trip to the region.
QUESTION: We didn’t get to hear the last answer anyway. It was just too noisy.
MODERATOR: Okay we will – we’d like to remind everyone, please to put your telephones in mute. RCN (inaudible).
QUESTION: Yes, good afternoon. This is Brian Andrews with RCN Television in Bogota. I apologize, I joined the call a little bit late. Does the Secretary have any plans to meet with the two leading candidates in the presidential election for the round two?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: Yes, and I said so in my introductory remarks. She will be meeting with both presidential candidates.
QUESTION: Okay, thanks for clarifying that.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: You’re welcome.
MODERATOR: Okay, please, we would like to continue with (in Spanish).
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
(CROSSTALK)MODERATOR: Unfortunately, we have time only for one more question. BBC, please go ahead.
QUESTION: Okay. Carlos (in Spanish).
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
(CROSSTALK) MODERATOR: Please put your telephones on mute. If you do not have mute, please cover your handset so that everyone else can hear.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: (In Spanish.)
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I’m very sorry. That is all the time we have for questions today. We appreciate the overwhelming interest. Sorry that we did not have time to answer all of the questions today. We appreciate your patience as well and we look forward to our next time together.
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