Special Briefing on Upcoming White House Conference on the Americas

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Thank you all for coming. This is actually a test to see how many people were here on a Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., but we appreciate your presence. We just really wanted -- very briefly wanted to let you all know something that you're probably aware of already, but on Monday, July 9th, the President and Mrs. Bush will host a White House Conference on the Americas at the Hyatt Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

This conference will bring together voluntary organizations, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and foundations to discuss and highlight the vast array of societal interaction between the United States and its neighbors to better the lives of the region's citizens. You might recall that the President indicated that he would call such a conference during his March 5th speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce before his trip to the region. And in that speech, the President said, and I'll quote, "Today, the most important ties between North and South America are not government to government, hey are people to people. And these ties are growing. These ties are growing because of our churches and faith-based institutions, which understand that the call to love our neighbors as ourselves does not stop at our borders."

And the conference itself will highlight the themes of that speech. The topics will include investing in education, strengthening healthcare, expanding economic opportunity at the grassroots level, and building public-private partnerships. It will look at how we, as a country, government, private sector, and ordinary citizens work together with our neighbors to better their lives and advance the cause of social justice in the Americas. Representatives of approximately 150 regional-based organizations and approximately 70 U.S.-based groups have been invited to attend the event.

The President will open the conference by participating in a conversation with a selection of invitees from the hemisphere and the United States about their experiences helping the region's citizens. The First Lady will give the keynote address during lunch and the conference will have participation from a variety of cabinet members. Under Secretary Hughes, Under Secretary Fore, and other State Department officials will participate in the program.

Again, as I mentioned, this is a conference that the President had foreshadowed in his earlier speech. As the President's trip was all about how our engagement in the region was focused on the region's social agenda: on fighting poverty, fighting inequality, and fighting social exclusion and how our political engagement and our foreign assistance was directed at that agenda. This conference is really designed to show that it's not just the United States Government that is connecting with the region in response to this social agenda and in pursuit of social justice, but that it's the United States as a society which is engaging the region.

But more importantly, that the region itself is engaging with us and engaging among the different countries in the region and that there really is what Secretary Rice, in a speech she gave at the Council of the Americas event, referred to as an alliance of peoples, and that the degree of interaction and assistance from the private sector, from faith-based institutions, from civil society, and from charities is profound in the region.

And in the Western Hemisphere, as in other parts of the world, economists estimate that for every one dollar of official development assistance, there is about four dollars of unofficial or private development assistance coming from churches, coming from universities, coming from private sector groups. And this is a profound wellspring of support for the cause of social justice in the region, but I think it highlights the resources that are available, but also how we need to kind of bring this up, kind of allow it to emerge -- you know, from -- in the public view so people have a better understanding of it, better understanding of the connections that exist within the region, and also that these groups themselves begin to develop contact with each other so they can share best practices and in appropriate ways, work together to channel their resources.

So this is my kind of opening statement. I'm happy to take any questions related to the conference.

QUESTION: And how many countries are participating in this meeting with President Bush? All the countries of the region or all representative, all -- of all the --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: I believe we're going to have representatives from every country in the region except Cuba, of course.

MS. TAMBURRI: We do not -- we don't have it as a list, the guest list, but we'll see what we can do in getting you some information. I mean, as far as when they do arrive, we can pinpoint.

QUESTION: Are these -- since the U.S. Government is hosting this, so are these groups paying for their own airfare up here or is the U.S. Government paying for it? And do you have a -- just a cost estimate? How much is this costing?

MS. TAMBURRI: It's still an ongoing process since the conference hasn’t ended (inaudible) so we can get that for you.

QUESTION: Okay. And is the U.S. Government paying for these groups to come up or --

QUESTION: Tom, one of the major headaches, I guess, with Central and South America has always been these drug cartels as well as the rebel fighting, for instance, which is going on in Colombia with FARC. And we've seen, I guess, the last two years with President Hugo Chavez, trying to draw some alliances to Brazil and Bolivia and recently President Bush did visit Bolivia and --

QUESTION: -- and I'm sorry, Brazil -- and it seems to be turning that around. Is there going to be some partnerships for some specific business development and also to strengthen communities not necessarily in urban areas, but the rural areas with farming and other type of small enterprises that can be considered?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, that's -- you know, when the President traveled in the region, one of the things he did was highlight the assistance programs we have in the region now and especially the fact that under the Bush Administration, we've doubled our direct foreign assistance to the region. And that direct foreign assistance, you know, covers a variety of programs throughout the hemisphere.

The particular purpose of this conference will not be to announce new U.S. Government initiatives. It will really be again to underscore the kind of wealth of engagement that exists in the hemisphere outside of governments and especially with the private sector and universities and churches and other charities because it really is striking. You know, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the kind of work that's done throughout Central America and the Caribbean, especially by U.S. churches, but anybody who spends time in the Miami airport during the summer sees these groups kind of passing through all the time. And this is just kind of the tip of the iceberg of what's out there. And so the point is really to show that this really is a hemisphere which is interconnected in a profound way, not just at a government level, but also at a social level.

QUESTION: You said that Cuba, of course, is not represented. Why, because you don’t have any contact with Cuba or because any organization in Cuba had the authorization to come?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: We don't -- we have our Interests Section in Cuba. We don't have diplomatic relations with Cuba. But the NGOs that we typically work with in Cuba are not Cuban based. They're groups like Catholic Relief Services. And what we wanted was kind of indigenous, kind of domestic NGOs that weren't dominated by governments, but were actually representative of society.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: There might be. But, you know, we've made a decision that we were going to focus on the 34 democracies of the hemisphere.

QUESTION: You did not actually -- just to be clear, you did not actually invite anyone from Cuba?

QUESTION: You say that it is between the U.S. Government and the civil society of the countries of the region; what about the governments? Do you already -- your government already discussed that or do you have any clue what will be the reaction of the governments in general about this meeting with President Bush and the civil society leaders?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, remember, President Bush is opening this and he's opening it with a conversation, but we're going to have a variety of other cabinet members present who are also going to be engaging in this conversation. We have invited the diplomatic corps of Latin America and Caribbean countries, most of whom I believe will be there. But we did not clear or coordinate our invitations with them because, again, the purpose was not to use governments as channels of connection, but to show how the society itself is connecting itself through its own action and behavior.

And this really brings us back to the point I made earlier about what Secretary Rice meant when she used the phrase "alliance of peoples." There's an integration that's taking place in the hemisphere on its own. There's an alliance of people that's taking place in the hemisphere on its own as like-minded people with similar problems seek each other out to share solutions, to share resources and this is a good thing. This is an important thing in the region. And what governments need to be doing is looking for ways to facilitate this, kind of channel, and obviously kind of within a rule of law structure, but ultimately to find ways to promote it.

QUESTION: I guess that some of these groups will be participating in this meeting receive money from the U.S. Government to support their activities. I was wondering if you have a ballpark about -- I mean, how much money does the U.S. give to these groups on a yearly basis?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: That's a good question and I don't have an answer to it. Many of the groups that will be participating, though, will not be recipients of U.S. assistance, at least not U.S. official assistance. You know, if -- depending on their connections with U.S. private sector groups or U.S. churches or other institutions, they might be receiving assistance from private sources. But it's a good question. I'll take a look into that.

QUESTION: When you talk about the sort of integration, one country where there is a certain amount of disintegration, at least economically, is Venezuela where with the nationalizations they are essentially driving out some foreign oil companies, notably including Exxon and Conoco. I wonder if you know whether those two companies -- it's Exxon and ConocoPhillips -- plan to go to arbitration or whether they're going to try to negotiate some kind of compensation from the Venezuelan Government for the recent events and the loss of their assets there?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Now, because these involved their assets and the assets are large, I'll let the two countries answer it -- the question. I would just note that generally speaking, if you're trying to build kind of modern, cutting-edge industries, you should be working with modern, cutting-edge companies. And ultimately the real losers in situations like this are the countries that push out companies like Exxon and other companies that bring kind of enormous wealth of experience and we think a lot of good faith in their engagement with governments.

QUESTION: Can I ask another one on Venezuela -- just do you know whether Venezuela has actually reached an agreement to purchase submarines from Russia or whether they are simply still exploring this possibility? And does the fact that they are exploring it, if that's as far as it's gone, unease you?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: As far as we understand it they are in conversations regarding possible purchases of these kinds of weapons. This is a national decision for both Venezuela and Russia to make. I'll leave it at that.

QUESTION: Mr. Shannon, two questions on the conference. And the first one, how did you select these groups or have you contacted directly these groups in every country or what was the procedure you followed? And the second question is: What would you expect at the end of this conference? Are the conferencees are going to sign a kind of declaration or something like that --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: There won't be a declaration, you know, simply because this is a very large and diverse group. And again, the purpose is not necessarily to emit a document. The purpose is to highlight kind of the richness of the work that's going on in the hemisphere within civil society and within the private sector, how well focused it is on a social agenda, which is an important point to make because it underscores what we think has been happening in elections. Which is people are looking for candidates who are prepared to address the social agenda and who understand that for a democracy to be enduring it has to address the tremendous social and economic development issues that the countries in the region face. And that we're seeing this then being played out not only at an electoral level but also at a social level as these different social institutions, whether they be businesses, whether they be universities, whether they be churches or charities work on these specific social agenda items.

In terms of how we chose the countries, we worked very closely with our embassies who have built kind of a broad array of contacts through our foreign assistance work, and this is where kind of the majority of these contacts came from. Some of them are the result of previous trips we've taken into the region as we get to know some of these institutions and organizations.

QUESTION: Are there organizations that might have linkages or might be friendly to, say, Evo Morales's coalition or group in Bolivia or maybe some Bolivarian circles that might be affiliated in some way with the Chavezistas?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: When we were reaching out to these groups we didn't have any political litmus test. Our focus was on trying to determine which groups were doing kind of really interesting, kind of cutting-edge work and effective work. And again, as in politics, we're really not interested in whether -- what people's political tendencies are. Whether you're right or left is unimportant in this instance. What's important is the degree to which you're effective in your work, the degree to which you're using your assets and your resources in a creative way, and the degree to which you're having an impact.

QUESTION: Is this going to be one-time event or does -- the government is looking to establish this as a sort of annual meeting?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: At this point, we haven't thought about establishing it as an annual meeting, but I think a lot will depend on what comes out of this. I mean, I -- my hope is that we will come away with a really, kind of, clear and encouraging vision of the interconnectedness of the region, and that this will be used as a -- as kind of a platform that many institutions and organizations can use to connect among themselves. And you know, if it -- if we think that it's useful to continue it, we would certainly consider that.

QUESTION: Over on New York Avenue is the Inter-Development Bank and locally here is the OAS and former Under -- or Deputy Secretary of State Zoellick just took over at the World Bank. Are you going to be hosting this conference for those groups to also attend?

QUESTION: You said that the President will have a conversation at the beginning. He will answer the question of these groups? He'll --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: He'll be seated with several representatives of some of these organizations. And the idea is to have a conversation about how these organizations are facing the challenges presented by social agendas in the countries that they're operating in.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, I mean, we've got these kind of conversations divided into kind of thematic groups.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: And the President's initial conversation is really -- is going to be an opening conversation more broadly about the kinds of social challenges the region faces and how different groups are addressing them. And then we'll move on to panel discussions, all kind of hosted by different cabinet officers that will focus on specific issues like economic opportunity and development -- you know, housing, job creation, healthcare.

But the group that the President will sit with was selected as we kind of worked through all the groups that were invited, the ones that we thought might be able to provide a kind of interesting and unique kind of global view.

QUESTION: You mentioned foreign assistance, but you know, this is a very sensitive issue. Do you have already a plan or a kind of schedule how to conduct this foreign assistance by the U.S. Government or who is going to participate in this assistance? Or do you have --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, when I talked about foreign assistance, what I meant is our normal bilateral assistance programs, you know, typically run through U.S. Agency for International Development. This is distinct from the assistance that many of these organizations receive, which oftentimes comes from private sources, whether it be from churches, from large private sector institutions. Does that answer your question? I'm not sure -- I'm not quite sure I understood the question.

QUESTION: Yes, but -- yes and no, because you know that the Venezuelan Government already rejected kind of assistance coming from the USAID. And do you have any plan B to replace or to do -- or to continue to -- with this assistance to Venezuelan -- this specific case of Venezuela?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Well, we continue to have assistance programs in Venezuela with groups and institutions that are prepared to work with us. And many of them are managed, you know, through groups like the National Democratic Institute or the International Republican Institute, or other contractors that work in a variety of institutional development and conflict resolution areas.

QUESTION: Mexico has requested a substantive increase in the narcotics assistance for the coming year. Do you have any result, any previews -- any preview of what could be coming from Mexico?

QUESTION: Just a question regarding what time, how can we cover it, and where should we be and --

MR. GALLEGOS: So you should be getting it on your screen if you haven't already in the next few minutes.

The NAU/SPP nonsense marches on.

These people are bound and determined to ruin our country.

I, as a taxpayer, am outraged they are using my bucks to fund this globalist bullsh!t.

on Monday, July 9th, the President and Mrs. Bush will host a White House Conference on the Americas at the Hyatt Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

fyi ping!

this really brings us back to the point I made earlier about what Secretary Rice meant when she used the phrase "alliance of peoples." There's an integration that's taking place in the hemisphere on its own. There's an alliance of people that's taking place in the hemisphere on its own as like-minded people with similar problems seek each other out to share solutions, to share resources and this is a good thing. This is an important thing in the region. And what governments need to be doing is looking for ways to facilitate this, kind of channel, and obviously kind of within a rule of law structure, but ultimately to find ways to promote it.

I'm really not liking what I'm reading here......

Exactly....They’re holding a meeting,just like Bush promised at the Hispanic conference....they have a presser to announce it, but aren’t prepared to tell the media who’s inivted or what it’s going to cost American Taxpayers?

I guess this presser is suppose to quell the ‘myth’ of ‘secret’ meetings...they announced it, right?

It will look at how we, as a country, government, private sector, and ordinary citizens work together with our neighbors to better their lives and advance the cause of social justice in the Americas. Representatives of approximately 150 regional-based organizations and approximately 70 U.S.-based groups have been invited to attend the event.

ALL TRANSPORTATION WILL BE PAID FOR BY US TAXPAYERS...34 countries represented by hundreds...this will cost US TAXPAYERS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.......for the purpose of designing even more ways, apparently, to MERGE the REGION.........more than they've already been doing!

QUESTION: I guess that some of these groups will be participating in this meeting receive money from the U.S. Government to support their activities. I was wondering if you have a ballpark about — I mean, how much money does the U.S. give to these groups on a yearly basis?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: That’s a good question and I don’t have an answer to it.

when the President traveled in the region, one of the things he did was highlight the assistance programs we have in the region now and especially the fact that under the Bush Administration, we’ve doubled our direct foreign assistance to the region. And that direct foreign assistance, you know, covers a variety of programs throughout the hemisphere.

QUESTION: Are there organizations that might have linkages or might be friendly to, say, Evo Morales's coalition or group in Bolivia or maybe some Bolivarian circles that might be affiliated in some way with the Chavezistas?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: When we were reaching out to these groups we didn't have any political litmus test. Our focus was on trying to determine which groups were doing kind of really interesting, kind of cutting-edge work and effective work. And again, as in politics, we're really not interested in whether -- what people's political tendencies are. Whether you're right or left is unimportant in this instance. What's important is the degree to which you're effective in your work, the degree to which you're using your assets and your resources in a creative way, and the degree to which you're having an impact.

It doesn't matter if your agenda is SOCIALISM OR COMMUNISM???? Just as long as "you're having an impact" and are CREATIVE???? wth???

But the group that the President will sit with was selected as we kind of worked through all the groups that were invited, the ones that we thought might be able to provide a kind of interesting and unique kind of global view.

Sorry for all the pings....but this is OUTRAGEOUS!

Let us all tune in to this Conference.

I likely will not be able to be online that day until later in the afternoon....I'd appreciate a ping to any thread created on this; ty.

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