April 20 to 22, 2001, the heads of state from 34 counties in the Americas (excluding Cuba) met in Quebec City during the Summit of the Americas to discuss three sets of priority issues for the region: strengthening democracy, creating prosperity, and realizing human potential. While the two speeches below were delivered to highlight the needs and concerns of people in the Americas, the issues of democracy, globalization, trade liberalization, human rights and social exclusion addressed here – are of global interest.

St. Lucia
Edited from the Speech Delivered by Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony,
Prime Minister of St. Lucia to the First Plenary Session of the Third Summit of the Americas

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Heads of Government, I speak today on behalf of the people of CARICOM – a people who come from the smallest and most vulnerable states of this hemisphere; but I address you on behalf of a community of states that enjoys one of the proudest and strongest traditions of democracy in the Americas.

Democracy in the states of the Caribbean Community was born on the struggles of the working classes for justice and recognition of workers rights. It was nurtured in the crucibles of our movements for self-governance and self-determination. It has flowered in these early years of our postcolonial history; it has blossomed as we continue to grapple with the task of governing our own affairs and charting our own destiny.

There are those who are confounded by Caribbean democracy. How could a region of so many small states continue with an unbroken record of a vibrant democracy, despite the pressures of poverty, economic hardship and limited size and resources? Yes, we have had our blemishes, but democracy in the Caribbean community is a living, breathing thing and Caribbean people are so attached to its traditions that it is largely taken for granted.

We have no anxieties about our democratic track record. We harbor no feelings of guilt with respect to our commitment to human rights and the rule of law. There is no democracy clause in our regional integration schemes because Caribbean people do not expect anything else from our governments.

We have learned Mr. Chairman, that democracy cannot be imposed; it has to be planted, allowed to germinate and to flower. There are societies in our midst whose experience with democracy is recent. While democracy will have core values, its manifestations will differ from country to country. Our business is to assist those countries as they struggle to create and establish institutions to sustain their fledging democracies over time. President Bush has just reminded us, “democracy is a journey not a destination.” These words should have resonance for all of us as we cast judgement on our emerging democracies.

Mr. Chairman, recent experiences, however, have brought home to us some sobering realities about the sustainability of democracy in our societies. Our democratic traditions are being challenged, not by our internal policy failures, but by the effects of external change on our socio-economic and political traditions. For years Caribbean countries have warned that the strict adherence by great powers to the new gospels of globalization and trade liberalization, without taking cognizance of the special circumstances of small states like ours, threatened us with marginalization and exclusion. Those days are now upon us.

Democracy in the Caribbean is now threatened by the hundreds rendered unemployed through the doctrine of trade liberalization. It is attacked by the consuming fires of drug addiction, and the monopoly that drug czars and traders enjoy over the means of violence. It is undermined by the anger of disaffected youth and the disillusionment of the impoverished in the countryside. It is compromised by our preoccupation with maintaining law and order, at the expense of fighting poverty and social degradation.

Mr. Chairman, our message is simple: merely engaging in regular electoral exercises is not enough. Even the strongest traditions of democracy will pale in the face of overwhelming poverty, social exclusion and economic marginalization.

As surely as night follows day, human rights violations by states, though always unacceptable, will follow the human wrongs of the global economic system.
There are those who say that democracy brings prosperity; but democracy is compromised if the economic policies it champions deepens and accelerates poverty. Until we can wipe out poverty in this hemisphere, we cannot claim to have built successful democracies. Until the hemisphere as a whole can enjoy the fruits of trade liberalization, we cannot proclaim its glories. Until all the peoples of the Americas are free from hunger and free from the fear of unemployment, we cannot celebrate the benefits of trade liberalization. True, trade liberalization may bring new prosperity for some, but we must be honest and admit that it will destroy the lives of others.

It is in this spirit of concern about the fate of our democratic cultures that St. Lucia and CARICOM approach this summit. We urge greater understanding on the part of our larger neighbors of the new economic and social realities that endanger our democracies and undermine our development aspirations. The problems, exacerbated by these new realities, must be tackled by all the states of the Americas. Recognition of the special circumstances of small democracies is not about compassion. It is about economic necessity, survival, and security.

The opportunity now exists for us to create lasting structures of cooperation and to develop a genuine hemispheric approach to resolving our common trade and development issues. We are excited by the new possibilities for co-operation that the Summit process brings us. Let us all together build on the foundation that our emerging democratic traditions proclaim, so that we can deliver to the peoples of the Americas the futures they desire and deserve.

Mexico
Translation and edited from the address by Vicente Fox Quesada,
President of the United Mexican States, to the First Plenary Session of the Third Summit of the Americas

Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, Colleagues, Friends: Mexico is here at this the Third Summit of the Americas with every confidence in the project of a Continental community. It gives me great pleasure to be here at this forum, representing a Mexico renewed, determined to strengthen democracy, promote prosperity, and raise the human potential of our peoples.

Good News in Latin America

In recent years, good news has come out of Latin America. Democracy has spread and gradually been consolidated throughout the continent. We have been able to extend and improve the institutional quality of our political systems, and we have also brought civil society into the decision-making process, leading to ever-greater transparency in public affairs. Human rights are observed, respected, and protected to an ever-greater degree in our countries. Moreover, we have striven to recover the pace of development by opening up our economies. Mention has already been made of the North American Free Trade Agreement, in every way a success that has taken us to unprecedented levels in trade and job creation, and in the case of Mexico, provided around half the country with full employment. That is what might be expected of a Continental Free Trade Agreement. Finally, our region has demonstrated its commitment to international peace and security, by eliminating border tensions. There is a lot to be pleased about, but there is also a great deal to regret.

On-going Challenges

Our region remains one of the least equitable in the world and 220 million Latin Americans to this day live in conditions of poverty. Our educational systems and our scientific and technological capacity are far from satisfying the needs of the emerging knowledge society. We have allowed the deterioration of our natural wealth, the destruction of our forests, and the spoiling of our rivers and lakes. Strengthening democracy must be one of the region’s greatest priorities.

A Renewed Commitment to Democracy and Human Rights

We Mexicans today have a renewed optimism, and a renewed commitment to democracy, clearly showing us its central role in the promotion of human and economic development.

The elections of last July in Mexico, the most closely fought over and cleanest in our history, were a triumph, a triumph for all society, and ushered in a new stage in Mexico’s history. I would invite us all to reiterate the commitment of the continent’s nations to democratic institutions. Economic growth and progress will never be lasting
if our political systems lack legitimacy, and are not seen to be efficient, transparent, and truly representative.

I am convinced that the democratic exercise of power, together with the democratization of the economy and the strengthening of our rule of law will bring us more competitive, more progressive, more just, and more humane economies. Therefore, Mexico has proposed and wholeheartedly supports the inclusion of the democracy clause in the Action Plan that is to come out of this Summit, acknowledging that democratic values and practices are fundamental to the achievement of the goals we have set ourselves, and that anything that might undermine or break with the democratic order in any of our states would stand in the way of its participation in the Americas Summit process.

Side by side with the consolidation of democracy, I believe it is essential that we declare once more our commitment to human rights. Mexico has said that it will adopt a range of measures to strengthen the respect of these rights domestically, and to promote their observance throughout the world.

Combating Social Exclusion and bridging the Gaps

Now, we know that poverty, especially extreme poverty, is an insurmountable source of exclusion in a democracy because it physically, psychologically, and culturally separates the poor from the rest of society. High poverty rates mean a considerable proportion of our countries’ populations do not truly participate in the democratic process. There can be no genuine democracy in a society marked to this degree by poverty and inequality, as is the case of many of our Latin American regions, including Mexico.

There can be no sustainable development if we do not take seriously the commitment to a new sustainability protecting our present and guaranteeing our future. The construction of our common future depends on the preservation of our greatest asset: our immense natural resources.

There can be no development unless we can reduce the gap between those with access to information technologies and those who cannot even dream of such technologies. In this day and age, information technologies have to be at the heart of our countries’ agendas. The goal is to make the information and communications revolution truly continental. Only then will we reduce the digital gap among countries, corporations, and homes.

On the foundations of democracy, freedom, and solidarity, bridges must be built leading us to a shared future: bridges between the successful vanguard and the forgotten rearguard, between tradition and modernity, between the old and the new economies; bridges leading those excluded from development to a process that is their right; fast bridges to carry people more quickly, and wide ones, to provide space for all the men and women who at this moment have been marginalized.

To achieve this the law of the market is insufficient; an elemental sense of justice and a good dose of active policies and politicians are required. Societies will not be transformed by apathetic politicians. After all, in Latin America today politics, more than the art of what is possible, must be the art of making what is necessary possible, doing it together, and doing it as quickly as possible.

Today we are tied by our future as much as our past. Imbalances must be acknowledged and attacked from this very moment. These differences will not be overcome by technical assistance and scientific cooperation alone. Building a more competitive, more equitable, and more just continent needs criteria of agreement and measurement of results, support institutions, finance systems promoting the construction of infrastructure for harmonious and sustained growth. It inevitably needs social cohesion funds so the most marginalized communities in our continent may progress.

I know that many have doubts as to how to set up social cohesion funds. We must use creative lateral thinking. For example, today I propose that all the countries of Latin America contribute a percentage of what we currently spend on defense to take the first step in setting up a social cohesion fund. Other countries and international development banks could do something similar.

We share something more than a geographic space; our ties are as profound as our history and as rich as our culture. It is time to bet that common wealth on the future.
We must and we can turn the entire region into a space for progress, innovation, and dynamism, for opportunities for all. We cannot give ourselves the luxury of drifting, no hand on the helm, at the mercy of the prevailing winds and market forces and whims; we must define our destination, plot the course, and then make direct headway towards our goals.

I invite you to work to ensure our efforts transcend national boundaries, and that through cooperation and close contact we might form an American space for development.

Let us make the 21st century the Century of the Americas!
Thank you.