Transcripts For CSPAN2 Ambassadors 20240705

Attempted suicide last year. So, this is a real crisis and we know that it is totally exacerbated by big tech and the role that theyre playing in the lives of these children in our country because its just unregulated in terms of what it can do to teenagers in our society. This is available to watch online anytime at cspan. Org. Were going to leave it hear to hear from several u. S. Ambassadors to several Central American nations including immigration and diplomatic relations. Live coverage here on cspan2. Weve been around for 40 years and our mission is to promote democratic governance and inclusive sustainable development. I want to make two points to set the stage or talk about two brief things. First of all, i want to make a broadpoint about the importance of supporting the work of our diplomates and providing them with the tools and resources they need. Second is a few words on Central America, which here today is not monolithic, i want to say that upfront. As everyone i think here knows, the u. S. Were in the process of rebuilding the state department after four years of attacks under the trump administration. The department lost 60 of its career ambassadors, providing them with the tools and resources they need. Excuse me. Some were targeted and pushed out, while others resigned in protest. One of those, i think i just saw, who actually served in panama and when he left that post, it was a post that was open for far too long. These capable of dedicated diplomates on the stage today are among our best. Committed to the reasons and many weathered the attacks on our diplomatic institutions and these are the individuals that are leading our engagement with Central America. The region thats critical to the United States for multiple reasons we heard about today, not just migration. And unlike the rest of the americas, it deserves greater attention and greater resources. Turning to the challenging context in which these dedicated Public Servants are working. Many of these channels are laid out in the Bidenharris Administration and root causes strategy which recognizes that addressing migration is about more than enforcement on the u. S. Southern border. Its about promoting rootedness and providing hope. Excuse me, i have a frog in my throat. These include property inequality and corruption and governance, impact of Climate Change, citizen insecurity and alarming democratic back sliding. We have nicaragua, which is a full authoritarian repressive regime and we see often starting with attacks on the autonomy of the judiciary. Reelection changes the constitution that permits indefinite reelection, weve seen attacks on the press just this week the sentencing of guatemalan journalist, and attacks on Civil Society. And in el salvador, we have the president who is addressing the citizen insecurity issues with extreme and i just want to say here that its incumbent on us to Work Together to find ways to address crime and violence within a rule of law frame work because as we know, quite a Propaganda Machine and his policies are getting traction in other countries in the region. With that, im going to turn it over to manuel, the director of the immigration dialog remittances and Economic Development and thank you again so much to all of you for being here, ive had the opportunity to work with many of you in the past and its so good to see you. Thank you, rebecca and good morning, everyone. And welcome, ambassadors. We are going to talk about migration now. Well, were here to talk about Central America. U. S. Diplomatic relations with the region. Central america has become or continues to be one of the focus of attention, and particularly of attention to the United States policy and diplomatic relations. We have the problem of transnational organized Crime Networks at 300,000 people have died since 2000, just from homicides, and violence, thats more people than what they died during the civil war 1970s. And its a terrible situation. We also have poorly performing Economic Growth. We have half a Million People igraing and basically 23 of the regions gdp. One in 4 is coming from Migrant Workers in the u. S. And we also have 40 billion in trade. A lot of it takes in freeway trade with Serious Problems with rights violations. We have environmental problems, Climate Change causing Food Insecurity in guatemala. And as rebecca said, we have Serious Problems with the rule of law. How do we cope with all of these things. Whatever the challenges or the main challenges that were dealing with and on top of that, we ever, you know, trade agreements with china, china putting its nose in Central America, russia signing agreements sending troops to nicaragua. Nicaragua has more weapons from russia than the three countries of the northern triangle combined. So there are Regional Security problems that there are Regional Economic problems and so, what is your view on the ground. What i want to do here is have a conversation mostly with the audience and you and i just want to ask you one question that you can address in your own way, and basically what is your view on the ground about the trends in the country you have been positive and effects on relations in the United States. Costa rica we have a president losing popularity and costa rica, you signed an agreement with the United States over the Migration Mobility issue. How are costa ricaens addressing this issue. In guatemala, we have an election coming, an election that has proven a test of legitimacy versus popularity, an effort to prevent the powers that be to choose without the choice of the electorate. And the United States has become a little bit of in the middle of this, not influencing politics in the country, but at least putting their foot on the ground on issues related to the rule of law and collaborating on Economic Development and then we have honduras, a president that, like in costa rica, has been losing popularity, now at 40 low and on top of that, we have a polarized country. We have alienated everyone, practically, they are isolating themselves and yet, they are in power and they keep complete relations with the United States. How do you, you know, think of what are we going to do tomorrow when i have to meet with soandso in the honduran government. And belize, you know, we dont talk much about belize. Its a small country, 400,000 people with nearly two million tourists come in, and 70 of which are gringos and you have organized crime taking place there and how is the u. S. Going to protect its interest with 20 of americans, 20 of the population that are practically americans in belize at the same time. And then el salvador, so theyre using the platform for and says this is the way it works. And at the same time we have a poorly performing economy, the government has actually little in practical terms in Economic Policy and policy and the fact is that the elephant in the room is that the gangs were already in decline when arrived, but hes getting the credit for it. How is the administration, how is how easy is your job . So let me start with you. That was a question, yeah. How to. How easy is my job. I dont know how easy my job is. I think my job is an incredible honor. Ive worked on the u. S. Salvador relationship, i was doing this with mr. Feeley there nearly 30 years ago, so i believe firmly in the importance of this relationship of both countries. Theres a phrase i use frequently in el salvador and i believe it, its an article of faith for me, el salvador has no better friend than the United States and i can prove that to you in any number of ways and quantify that in any number of ways. I think the El Salvadoran people appreciate that. One of the things i need to do is maintain strength and deepen that relationship. Our differences on certain issues are wellknown and i would disagree with a little bit that the gangs were on decline when the president took over. That would not be the perception of the average sal doren. And it polls at 96 . And we need to recognize theres something there. I have said publicly and i will keep on saying that government has at least two obligations, one is to provide Public Security and other due process of law. Its not an either or choice and need not need to be an either or choice. Nevertheless look at demographics of el salvador. And look at the demographics, never known in their time could walk the streets in safety and now they can and think what that means to them. And we have to reckon with that and the previous governance. And what is happening is a Historical Context and if we fail to understand that then were not going to be the kind of partners for el salvador that i think we need to be. So is my job easy. I dont know if my job is easy, but its a heck of a lot of fun. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity, first of all, to be here with all of you. I was really excited when the wha and assistant secretary Brian Nichols says youre going to be meeting with the think tank and then my conversation last night with the ambassador to canada, david cohen, he said make sure you get something out of it. Make sure that youre very clear on the ask, because think tanks can help you do your job better. And so, i guess theres a first of all, i would have to agree, i would have to qui with you, its really deeply an honor to be serving the United States in this capacity, in belize. I touch ground in belize six months ago and being a political appointee, it seems like a lot of information, although ive worked in the state department over a decade ago, its sort of all new to me and im proud to serve alongside such talented and incredible diplomates. Some of the challenges in belize range from the increase of tcos. Trans National Criminal organizations, migrations and although belize isnt in the northern triangle, were very, very, very close and as i look to see to my right, ambassador popp, theres currently a ruling, were waiting for an icg ruling with territorial dispute between guatemala and belize, which is still pending, although honduras is now involved because theyve argued for the far south of belize. Which means that thats about 50 of belize, if it votes the other way. Other things, the economy is back to prepandemic times. As you mentioned, about a million american tourists traveled through belize. Also, belize is one of the one out of seven countries that recognizes taiwan and when theres a lot of democratic back sliding in the region, it is a champion of democracy. It has been a huge advocate for human rights. One of the very first things that was on my table of things to do was to resettle the first guantanamo detainee, which was not an easy task and what else, i guess ill just stop there. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today to speak about a region which i think is absolutely vital to the United States. And i think that the importance of this region not just Central America, but latin america and the caribbean in whole and the importance of that is not understood properly here in the washington d. C. Area or across the United States. Honduras, one ever our greatest strengths is our people to people connection. We have a deep and profound connection between the people of honduras and the people of the United States. And thats one of our most important relationships. I came to the position of ambassador last year after a vacancy of five years in the ambassadorial role. I arrived in april and one of my first jobs, i think within my first week at country was complete the extradition of the former president of honduras, who is awaiting trial in the United States now. Honduras came into this position under president castro and a difficult position. The economy has struggled to come back after covid. It was weak when it went into covid. The Health Care System is struggling to recover from covid, it was weak going into the pandemic as well. So, we are happy to work with the administration of president castro, her election was something notable i think in many sentences, not only the first female leader in the country as president , but came in with a sweeping victory of votes. This demonstrates the strength of the democratic desire, i think, in honduras. People came out to vote in very large numbers because they wanted to make their opinion of the last president perfectly clear. Were working with the government in a lot of important areas that benefit both countries, we are looking at human rights, we are looking at education. We are looking at health care. We are working hard to try and create jobs. Much of what we do is under the root causes migration strategy because if we cant help to improve the conditions in honduras were going to continue to see a never ending flow of the people to the north. Its also an increasing challenge to country to manage the transit migrants coming through and we always talk about honduras as a source country. We have to understand as a transit country and increasingly a destination country and its important to deal with these challenges and its incredibly limited. There are many things that we are needing to address and we are pushing forward and working closely with the government and president castro herself was taken a leadership role to pro meet the arrival of an anticorruption commission, the cc. Its been moving along far more slowly than she would like or the rest of us would like, but its moving and we anticipate seeing some people on ground in the u. N. Shortly there. We are focused in general on the idea of prosperity, security, democracy. And that all of those items tie in together and i think you have the strength in all of them simultaneously or youre not going to have a successful country. We are working on encouraging the government of honduras to put in strong and good economic policies and theyve made some decisions and especially in some important sector ive commented on previously. Some concerns about Energy Legislation and things like that. The country now unfortunately is experiencing severe outages and with longstanding problems in the Energy Sector along with a drought that created challenges. Like our neighbors in el salvador, theyre putting this in differently than whats going on in el salvador. This is expanded several times and i anticipate it will probably remain in place. I dont see any indication that the government plans to step back from their state of emergency and i think i will leave it there and turn it over to my colleague in guatemala. Thanks, laura. Ill echo my colleagues, thanks for the opportunity to be here today and particularly guatemala, ive been ambassador for nearly three years. Weve seen things different on the economic front, pretty strong recuperation and relatively rapid recuperation from the covid19 pandemic period. Guatemala had very strong macroeconomic circumstances prior to the pandemic and it was able to emerge pretty quickly and it had a good, strong flow of not only remittances as was mentioned earlier, but also investment over the last two years, which has helped fuel quite a bit of new job creation and thats positive because guatemala, one of the Biggest Challenges is high degree of informality and which fueledmigration. A little less of and others in the region, economics is the primary driver even above security of migration to the United States. 90 plus percent of my grants are leaving for Economic Opportunities and being connected to in large part informality. And investment has been growing and the vicepresident s call to action referred to Central America for the effort to attract more investment, not only to guatemala, but to other countries in northern and Central America, its bringing new opportunities here that generate for migration going forward. Security continues to be a challenge, but not quite at the high levels of crime that are present in a couple of the other nations in the immediate area, however, trans National Criminal activity unfortunately has been, obviously, very closely linked, not only to narcotics trafficking, but human smuggling and the guatemala authorities in the area where the United States cooperates very closely with them, have been very successful, particularly in captures for extradition. The last two years have been record years in that space, as well as new efforts to go after human smuggling and trafficking in person networks. So those have been bright spots of cooperation. Certainly, more to do, some of the Gang Activity has continued to spread into guatemala from neighboring countries as well. I would say, we are, as you mentioned a few days away from the first round of national elections. Elections not only at the president ial level, but for every member of the Guatemala Congress and every one of the 340 municipalities. Its a hee lex that while guatemalans seem very prone to participate in, were looking forward to high levels of participation. But a lot of it happens with the back drop of concerns around rule of law, strength of institutions, prosecution of judges, prosecutors, independent media, so, a lot of focus on the process, to the extent that the Electoral Commission has the independence and the space to do its job. Theres been a number of candidates, particularly at the president ial level not permit today run so thats certainly created a high degree of attention on who is included and who is not included in the election process. From the u. S. Government perspective weve been calling for the inclusive process as possible and free and fair and peaceful processes throughout the electoral period and of course, there will be likely under guatemalan laws, 50 plus one process for the presidency so the likelihood of having a second round in august so a lot of focus will be not only on the next two weeks, but certainly all the way into august when the president ial results are likely to come forward. Finally, just on migration, certainly, its the largest source of migrants in Central America, but also, a major transit country. Guatemala has been a Strong Partner on returns, reintegration, border security, as well as addressing root causes, but the press of migration has certainly continued. 2021, and 2022 were regard years and weve seen since the end of title 42 in may, i think there are a number of reasons for that, but weve looked for, under the Bidenharris Administrations focus on legal pathways, ways to create more access and ways for migrants for legal pathways, so, the mobile Security Offices that were mentioned briefly both for costa rica and for guatemala is one tool to hopefully provide access to individuals from a virtual platform to connect with information that would allow them to be considered for legal path ways. So i think thats a Ground Breaking efforts to create alternatives to regular migration and make it more humane and safer and take the criminality out of the trafficking organizations taking advantage and victimizing a lot of people. Well, thank you to all of you for being here with us today. A demonstrated commitment to this region in Central America, which has long been, i think, neglected. And really cant afford to do that anymore. There are concerning Disturbing Trends in the region that we really need to attend to. So, thank you, again, sir, for being here with us. So, as you know, im the u. S. Ambassador to costa rica and its incredible privilege and honor for me. Some of you may know that my father was an ambassador to costa rica with president kennedy in the 60s, i grew up there basically. Some serendipity, i ended up in costa rica kind of continuing his legacy so its been incredible. What i wanted to start with, i think, and a couple of little notes on my iphone, bear with me, here. Costa rica is an extraordinary country in many respects. Its a little piece of heaven for many reasons, right . Gorgeous natural beauty. Its people are very kind, warm, and generous, and also, it has been importantly, it has been i would say arguably, the most constant american ally over many decades. So, as of the time that we were there in the 60s. An advocate for human rights and democracy, and the government since 1949, i believe. And thats really been a role model for latin america and oftentimes the International Organizations stood up and criticized governments in nicaragua, venezuela, free and Fair Elections and political prisoners, et ceterament et cetera. So its been incredible, and i wanted to enjoy that and i wanted to mention my good friends, an ambassador, costa ricas ambassador to washington is here with us today. So, this is the thing that concerns me though. I should mention this quickly. Costa rica has certainly transformed in the last few decades from what was agriculturally based country in terms of the economy, to now being greatest export is medical devices and tourism contributes substantially to the gnp. 1. 5 million u. S. Citizens who visit costa rica and 120, 140 permanent u. S. Citizens who are residents of costa rica. So its certainly a very popular country in many ways. So what id like to say though is the following, i am extremely concerned. Back in costa rica now after many decades, im concerned about the trends im seeing. Its situated in a very, i think, unstable region which is increasingly becoming even more and more concerning as time goes on. So, basically whats happened, i believe, theres been a convergence of forces, of very difficult devastating forces that have impacted the region. And its creating these undercurrents of risks, even in costa rica, unfortunately. Some of this is exago exacerbated by the pandemic and high unemployment and many things when that happened. It created a vacuum for malign actors, foreign governments or from the Trans National crime organizations that came in to fill a vacuum where people are unemployed and people are going hungry and needed to find a way to support their families. So, with that, unfortunately, the trends have become the largest trans shipment hub for cocaine coming from colombia primarily, as i mentioned peru, to the United States and to europe. Very concerning and initially it was like a maritime activity mostly, but now its begun to infiltrate and creating increasing crime, citizens insecurity. Money laundering, corruption and such things. Not to the extent of other countries, but in costa rica, its becoming more of a problem, which were really trying to attend to. Additionally, of course, weve had significant challenges, that same vacuum that was created by the pandemic, its a great opportunity tore our competitors, and that kind of gained ground from the same reasons that the drug traffickers have. And right now, we are dealing with substantial presence of those kind of actors, in terms of increasing communities, in terms of increasing investments in infrastructure, and being in such things. And so, we are right now, kind of in the midst of a tugofwar in relation to 5g which the government of costa rica plans to move forward in the next few months and decision by the end of the year so were clearly in a highly competitive environment at this moment in time. Also, as i mentioned, weve had a substantial migration surges into costa rica, certainly in the fall of last year. They had already received a substantial migration from nicaragua, and its a country a little over five million. About 20 right now of its population are migrants and so, mostly from nicaragua, they have at least 800,000 migrants from nicaragua at least, and then with the surge of migrants from south america, venezuela in particular, theyre getting about 4,000 migrants a day around october and november, which caused huge kind of concern, alarm in the country, because it was having to spend a lot of its resources right now on things like Public Security, on education, and on health care. And so, the president and they were sounding the alarm bells and asking for the u. S. Assistance and others, but that has been, again, a concern because, again, they call themselves a sandwich, migration from the north unlike any other country, and also migration from the south. And so, i dont think any other country is in quite in the same situation as costa rica to the same manner, to the same magnitude. So, that has been extremely, also, of concern, we try to do a whole variety of things, and well go into that later, but also, as the ambassador was just mentioning, we just managed to negotiate an agreement to house one of these kind of mobility offenses in costa rica, which was something that was quite generous on their part, given the fact that theyre feeling inundated with migrants, thats quite a testament to the bilateral relationship. Also, they had last year significant cyber attacks, which on the government, across the board, many, many the treasury and others and affected the health care and the Health Care Units there and agency and that was kind of paralyzed things for a period of time. And even this year, there was another cyber attack. They seemed to coincide, and costa rica aligned itself with the u. S. And critical of the russian invasion of ukraine and that seems to have provoked some of this and the kind of i cant go into the classified information, but seems theres something to that. So, lets see, okay, almost done here. So, weve done a whole variety of things to try to assist our costa ricaen friends and tried to keep it the stable nation its been for a long time, but there are significant challenges now. Costa rica compared to many others, has a great business environment, the rule of law, because of so many of the democracy, to friendly to the u. S. And this president , also, has made it very clear, that hes rolling out the red carpet, for the American Investment so that is something with hundreds of u. S. Policies and to many costa ricaens. Weve done a variety of things, we wont go into what weve done for costa rica, but weve been able to help with certain assistance, whether it was for the 5g. 300 million or financing, and the world bank, for 20 million to Migration Management and on and on and also, very importantly, 25 million for Cyber Security because at this point in time, costa rica has taken both of those to align itself with us and will continue taking those and is very important for their systems to be secured in terms of additional attacks. I just want to end by saying that i think that one of the reasons, i think, that the embassy always has been successful in many of these things, weve put together an amazing team and amazing, amazing team. And weve tried to make sure that we have a cohesive interactive Supportive Team that creates synergy, and so that we meet often times regularly, almost like a war room to address the various challenges that we have. And i think its been fairly successful to this point in time and also, the were hoping to get some money from the and were hoping to support as best as we can. Last thing in terms of costa rica, is something that President Biden just, if i could just say that, really, really, quickly, that President Biden kind of mentioned to us, some time ago and im a huge supporter of the president. But i would just like to mention this, basically, this is a quotation directly from President Biden, i know we make Foreign Policy out to be this great, great skill, but somehow its sort of like a secret code, he said at a conference. And all the Foreign Policy is the logical extension of personal relationships. Its the way human nature functions, as my father would say, you want people to care about you, you have to thank you so much for being here. Thank you very much, ambassador. And your thoughts very much echoed in this sense, it is an extension of personal relations and Foreign Policy and youre doing an exemplary job. I think ambassador duncans point about despite the controversies the effort to collaborate is really sincere and despite the challenges, too, because they are permitable. Im going to open the panel to questions and answers. In the country, its a country, im from nicaragua, but a product of the cold war so i have to live in the 80s during the civil war so i was grateful to be host and basically adopted by costa rica, so, i love the mayor last night sent me a message saying she was wrong on a piece of information she had provided on the migrants in the northern part of costa rica, 13 of the region was foreign born, nicaragua and she said i was wrong. And looking at Health Services provided in towns nearby, it was 25 . So, i wonder how would that impact now with the new agreement because you will expect to see an inflow of nicaraguans going to costa rica to apply for these refugee status. So, its concerning overall for all of the countries, but costa rica may have faced these challenges, too. With that, we have one question here on this side, we have one question there, and i apologize, welcome ambassador, costa ricaen ambassador to the United States is here and we ever a question there, so, lets start here with ambassador covered it, but maybe for the others, i just wondered as you get up in the morning, whats one thing that you wish washington understood better . Good question. Mary . I have a question for ambassador duncan, but i think it applies to the other countries in the region. Its true that theres been dramatic changes recently, el salvador, a palpable change in climate, but true as manuel pointed out rates of violence are coming down significantly and its going to do, i think, with programs initiated in the neighborhoods with atrisk youth and changes in police policy, focusing on the hot spots and things like that, so there had been a significant decline in violence and we know that violence prevention efforts work and theyre longterm and take a while and people want immediate results. What is happening in el salvador to deal with the longterm in addition to the immediate problem and how do you convince governments to thank you. Ambassador. One of the things that, may be only one of you mentioned, but it affects all of our countries in Central America is the issue of nicaragua right now, and we had this week, or nicaragua had the visit of the president of and we know that russia sent quite a bit of not only informants, training, that they have and other things, how are you all dealing with this . If you can talk about it . Because thats a very delicate topic not only for costa rica, but for the entire Central American region, thank you. And i didnt ask that question. Question over there . Thank you. Thank you, ambassador. This is a question for ambassador from honduras, as long as we can remember, the government and the private sector have really not been able to work very well together, its continually in the news and it hinders progress on a lot of fronts, both in the private sector and Civil Society and et cetera. I was wondering if you talk about what has the current government done to move the needle in the right direction. Ill give you the same order, your choice. You have the microphone. Fortunate. Well, i dont know if i can remember all of those questions. I remember the first one, what do i wish washington would do and its not so much washington, but i wish everyone in the United States knew. Theres a lot more going on than whats in the news. Weve got a government there extremely ambitious and plans for Economic Development in the country. They believe that they can leapfrog in terms of Development Using digitalization, using hightech, moving beyond what has traditionally been the important sectors for Foreign Direct Investment in the country. And i think those extremely ambitious plans that they have are worth recognizing and i think there are areas where we can collaborate and more opportunities for the u. S. In el salvador than is presently realized. The request he were going to leave this discussion briefly to honor our 40plus year commitment to covering congress. Well return after the senates brief session, but you can continue watching at cspan. Org and on our app, cspan now. Take you to the Senate Floor Live here on cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The parliamentarian will read a communication to the senate. The parliamentarian washington, d. C. , june 16, 2023. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable raphael g. Warnock, a senator from the state of georgia, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed patty murray, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 3 00 stands adjourned until 3 00 i think the challenge in the beginning to tackle this, help them organize and create something positive in a space previously dominated by those who lived on the basis of extortion and intimidation and violence towards a place where we have reservations, i think the u. S. Government will stumble during government create something positive and ill stop there. This affects all the countries in the region as we heard, i dont think we should measure security on the basis on how people die. One of the big problems is extortion so it drives people out of the communities and country when they earn if they can find a job and pay to get into their neighborhood. If they get home safely, they dont actually earn anything so as we do our work its important to measure not just homicide rates but lowering of criminality and across the country. Extensive programs in these communities because you recognize is not just lowering homicide rates but we cant get young people into these jobs, they have the opportunity to drink again, thats what theyre going to do the work we have to do is broader than focusing on homicide rates, its the overall off of communities and societies and we have to be able to do that handinhand. I dont if anyone else tries to dive into this, i was ambassador previously so i have quite a bit of experience. Its better to say there are security concerns, i think our security concerns in the region and all countries are focused on how they can Work Together when necessary because theres a huge amount of trade and cultural productivity but at the same time theyre concerned about whats going on in nicaragua. I know the ambassador is dealing with fat on her side of the border so it will continue to be a tricky situation. The western view putting up relationships with russia and iran. We have a team in the ground that continues to work. Its a beautiful country. Its full of wonderful people working hard every single day durable wonderful life of them and their families and you know thats what we want for the people of nicaragua as well. Obviously its a rough road you want to know whats going on in honduras, the roads still remain marquee. As a huge amount of opportunity in the economy of honduras, a talented pool of workers available although if they dont have job opportunity, the pool of people will be smaller and smaller every year as they continue to migrate north. There are natural resources. We have Many Americans companies that offer successful businesses there despite the challenges and what i hear from them consistently as i visit, many of them have businesses around the region and world in the productivity is higher than almost any place else so these are very effective employees and more opportunity for American Business and during business to invest in the country. Working hard to bring that investment into honduras. They know they will and you can have threatening appropriation of exactly the wrong message so the intent is strong messages to the challenges and that environment. I think it will be hard for large Economic Growth and its needed for people in the future. We have a unique opportunity right now which personally i hope we dont have again. We are dealing with the benefit out of the pandemic. Its a huge opportunity for Central America. The second thing is the call to action through Vice President harris. Ive been doing this 30 years and ive never seen a time when the Vice President of the United States is actively looking for investment outside of the United States. We have that time now so we hope to things going on in this is the moment to capitalize on that and a window of opportunity is tomorrow it is going to close. We all know that so the responsibility of Economic Development across the region to take advantage of this unique opportunity. We are trying to work with the government of honduras on the. It takes two, we need private sector partners in these countries to work with american another investments for the outside so i took my fair share of the time. Does anybody else want to answer . Ill touch on the first question, what we would like to see more of in the think its for all of us, not just washington and often times we look at the challenges and risks, issues but theres a lot of opportunity, maybe a small region in the western hemisphere but its way too important and one that affects u. S. Prosperity, shortness more than the pandemic, the connectedness between countries and regions of the world where we have to Work Together to confront these challenges, the migration issues, the whole region is a shared responsibility and thats what came out of the American Public together. Keeping that focus amongst all stakeholders in washington across u. S. Society and private sector and partners a crushing the region to recognize how the important area for the future. In terms of nicaragua from the perspective of working in guatemala, much more focused attention of the issues youve mentioned, a commitment by the guatemalan government to address those concerns. What is happening is not only creating security concerns, questions run democracy and freedoms and generating migration and north of nicaragua not only have the sent a tradition, we are seeing a huge flow toward the southwest border as well as nicaragua being a spring board for others to come in so it is one will be working on together. As we should be is a huge transformation in the wrong direction. They now have probably 500 military officers integrated into the army. The previous ambassador to nicaragua, between ortega and putin are in 2018 election. In terms of legislation and strategies when they take over so it is very significant, a significant intelligence country but its something that happens at some time. We will be there to support them. Fix the repeatedly to call them out on a variety of things but not without concerned because we could share all of their northern border, bypass their order. I mentioned earlier refugee status, in nicaragua recently. I think the International Community needs to focus on the growing threat for our own National Security and will see what to seek out together. Like to address the question, what keeps us up at night. They know, clearly and especially countries, a population of only 400,000 people. The incredible access and highest levels of government but one thing mentioned yesterday was prevention. Because of the location, so many incredible opportunities but its worrisome and under my watch i want the relationship to be strengthened, we better put their worrying trends they are not able to address. Their neighboring countries like guatemala and el salvador crackdown on gangs, where they go . We have seen increasing trends where games are becoming increasing human smuggling and attacking a person and nothing stopping it. The lack of secure borders and a variety, it is a daunting task. It is an Important Role in having resources and capacity but one thing i say, a little money goes a long way. We need to light ourselves on fire to aid and help . Dont have a usa presence and theres no army so its empowering and making sure we do as much as we can, can we find Creative Ideas to address these challenges . As a look around, the team and embassy have been scavengers looking for pockets of funding, oftentimes denied. One was spoken about yesterday is getting funding. Theres no erc footprint but we are trying to counter them so as we look at trusted vendors, also looking at other alternatives but such a tiny economy, how can you find trusted vendors willing or interested . Its difficult challenges and something im sure all of us wake up and write to things downs to see if we can come up with solutions to address the problems we deal with everything. Thank you. It is sobering to some extent to hear you. We try as much as possible, to make washington aware and essentialist about that, i totally agree. Sometimes its frustrating to get the administration to take a response to this. Like people they, go out there. When i have one here and another one there so with that, we do have key issues. We will have another round of questions before we close it. We have one over there and when there. Thanks very much. First of all, congrats to all of you. I listened to comments about wishing washington would pay more attention and aware of the opportunities. Weve been writing and seeing this 30 years sober is that so money is not coming. I can tell you, its not coming in the Vice President s initiative has been phenomenal little pledges so like the pledge conference, ill believe it when i see it. So what do you do . By injunction, nobody fires an investment unless you really do something stupid. People pusher limits and in the is the best thing you can do. Two quick questions. Lord williams, both of you worked with mexicans especially for the garcia munich case showed despite every ambassadors best efforts to coordinate the country team, there are agencies that dont play well in the sandbox and tend to have the effect of creating unilateral policy that leaves you with missus. Anyone who wants to pick it up, all of you got Security Problems and drug problems and have the dea and department of justice, how do you manage those . William, can you address the issue of freedom of expression the fact that they had to leave and set up shop . It seems you have no fear but the government used a number of congress to acknowledge the election. They have human rights regulations and at the same time, the u. S. Is putting money to create a program here in washington d. C. Some of the u. S. In the system has not been part of the two conversations so is the u. S. Seeing the system with the governments . Why is that what we saw . We have one more question here. I you know you have too many questions but im salvadoran and we want to avoid the topic of this week President Biden announced extended until 2025. My question is on washington focused on the necessities of the u. S. In one thing people say is you will find all salvadorans everywhere you go and its true for many of us in the country. Thats more questions that i can keep in my little head. John, you know the answer resident and i do. Controlling your team is vigilant, i spent even more time meeting with Law Enforcement agencies so toys been simple and clear, i am here to ensure your success and not the state Department El salvador so the mission of group, and fbi, just as important to me as anything. Obviously you have an obligation to keep the president fully informed what youre up to. No ones ever describe me that way so if you are going to be ambassador and invest the energy and where it they are successful at it, you not doing your job. Freedom of expression on a plane either of you but if you havent heard with the u. S. Ambassador to el salvador said about freedom of expression, its because you havent been listening and you are not shy about it but it is a topic i will continue to touch on. Migration i completely understand why washington is obsessed with migration and i believe migration needs to be safe, legal and orderly but i think we must we always start off talking about migration. Need to start off talking about education, Economic Development, Public Security, all the things you and i want here at home in the u. S. The same thing salvadorans want to hear in this but we need to talk about and one more time we have an enormously important tool at our disposal the three northern Central American companies countries. We are under utilizing the tool. El salvador has one of the best workforces in the world. If you dont believe me, walk around the metropolitan area and see what salvadorans have done in this country. 70 of the salvadoran workforce is in the Informal Sector looking for jobs. We need workers in the United States, tens of thousands more every year. We have to start encouraging u. S. Agriculture employers to look to el salvador. Usaid is working closely government to screen workers effectively doing the work of private sector recruiters and enormous advantage here. The cost of bringing a worker to the United States is not much more than bringing one from mexico and i used to be the Council General we did 61 of all. Right now we are failing to get the word out and i will do my part to change that but there 20 want to come up here and work seasonably. Its important because it is a legal pathway. Its really important because the workers go back for the first time in their lives with their earnings in hand and for them, pulse capital and they will invest i do not know when el salvador will put on man or woman on the moon but when the first salvadoran astronaut gets to the moon, they will open a business. [laughter] thats what salvadorans do and if we can get these workers in and going back with their earnings, they are going to open small businesses. That will create one, two, three, four jobs over time, thats enormous and we need to make sure we take advantage of it. Let me comment, in honduras we are doing the same thing, we have a Large Program is chronic thousands of percentages the last couple of years but the numbers need to be larger but in addition to coming back, the other thing is education knowledge so they are working on agricultural project, they returned with the knowledge and invest in their own communities so they come back with money and additional skills so winwin and keeps them from doing the dangerous journey so we are working hard with labor and a tremendous job ofs shoring up so recruiters award from in the country as well and theres plenty to go around. They are an active participant and we have a close productive relationship with them. With a huge number of people coming through, you mentioned large numbers are passing through and wants to get 4000 people, the number is up even further and then you added hondurans leaving and they arrived and that number is even bigger so it is huge and they have the responsibility and they are stepping up to provide opportunity to get to the country as they can but it is not easy and you have your own citizens clamoring for the same assistance to say you get this to my first not the people who live in that country. Which is quickly add in addition to guatemala, sorry, hunters and el salvador, guatemala is the same. Weve reach record numbers, still not nearly what is at the roof of the potential but its a winwin. Its a win for the United States, a win for the countries of the region and, frankly, its an opportunity not only for humane and safe and and legl migration but also an Economic Force multiplier both here and labor markets as well as the countries of origin for those workers bringing back that capital, bringing back the noel and, frankly, supporting their communities. And keeping families together. We often talk about the impacts of migration across individual levels but what its doing to commuters as well as folks are leaving, leaving behind members of the family, et cetera. Weve seen rates of domestic violence, all sorts of family dislocation continue to grow. When folks can go work for a short time, come back, have their family stay in place, it has many positive impact beyond just the economic. In terms of the question around rule of law transparency governance, i would just say in guatemala like in el salvador i think making privacy we have been very vocal and continued to be very vocal we have also been very tangible and concrete in our actions and thats continued throughout the last few years in terms of designations, visa revocations, more than 60 people publicly designated using new tools, additional efforts provided by the u. S. Congress to take action. Where the evidence meets the statutory requirements, members of the judiciary, members of the private sector, members of the legislative body across former and current individuals, we have continued to also provide support for various sectors come so facility, the program that was mentioned in terms of exchanges and fellowships. Also working with Civil Society in general. Ultimately these issues supporting institutions has to start within the countries themselves. So contributing Additional Resources to Civil Society, to building capacity. We pulled back assistance we used to provide any case of guatemala to the public ministry. The only attorney general in the world that designated by the u. S. Government and its unfortunate. We have been very clear about our concerns about impunity in that space. The persecution thats occurred against current and former prosecutors and judges, and thats look at a stop. Even while we work in all these other areas we are very committed, very clear to supporting rule of law in guatemala for the benefit of guatemalans, and for guatemalans to give to fulfill the promise of their own laws and their own institutions. A question to do with how to get your team to Work Together, and what do you do with those that are out there doing their own thing, right . It was a little bit country team and also a look at like herding cuts to your conflict in betn one department and another. So for me one of my primary goals was to figure out how to bring them all together as a team created synergy. And so i think its about setting up a really important common goal, and norstar. I think we can all buy into. And that again going back to relationships established with every one of them but they also bring them together and reinforcing those collaborative efforts. And bring up the best of each one and also making sure that they knew that for me the most important thing was to build together and to go towards the source, that was a very specific one. Always could establish external adversary. But if its real. So i have to say that, that there really is great synergy, great collaboration, which together whether its intelligence committee, Intelligence Officers or dea, inl, polycom, state department. They Work Together extreme well and, in fact, we were asked by dea, dod ntia how are you guys doing it . Its so unusual, youre really working together as whole of government. And youre winning on these various fronts. But it takes a lot of energy and effort to make sure you create that dynamic. But quite frankly the intelligent people, my dea guy is fantastic. So its a metatron you forget how, the fact, clinical psychosis may felt a little bit on this effort but in any event, its working. Ill be very quick, and i cant being a former olympian nazi a sports analogy in this. Similar to what ambassador telles just said about the country team, i think its come together and getting folks that often times any country like bullies we have our Regional Support elsewhere, el salvador or honduras. Its getting everybody to the table. But at the same time when in figure skating it was always individual sport. Im on the ice all alone but at the same time i dont, im not alone. I have and global team of coaches and choreographers and trainers and everybody else. Although you see us here all on the stage, we had an Incredible Team that work hard day day in, day out working hard. Thank you. A given much, olympian challenges for we appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Were out of time but its been really good to have you and your perspectives. And wish you good luck for the remaining of your terms. Thank thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this afternoon President Biden speaks to a group of gun Safety Advocates as well as national and local lawmakers at the National Safer communities summit in hartford, connecticut. Live coverage on cspan beginning around two p. M. Eastern. You can also watch on a video at spandau or online at cspan. Org. Saturday President Biden spea at a rally for Labor Union Members inhiladelphia. His First Official Campaign Event since declaring his tention to run for reelection in 2024. Watch live at 2 15 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now our are free mobile video at or online at cspan. Org. U. S. Supreme court has ruled in favor of aaw that prioritizes keeping data american adoptees within their tribal or family. The ruling supports the