FY 1989 assistance requests for Latin America and the Caribbean

US Department of State Bulletin, Oct, 1988

Statement prepared .for delivery before the Subcommittee oft Foreign Operations of the House Appropriations Committee on April 22, 1988. Mr. Abrams is Assistant Secretary .for Inter-American Affairs.

I am pleased to have this opportunity to present the Administration's requests for bilateral assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean for FY 1989 and to answer your questions. A serious public assessment of the resources available to advance U.S. interests in this hemisphere is badly needed.

In keeping with the austere budget agreement for FY 1989, our assistance requests are 14% below last year's request for economic assistance and 27% below last year's request for military assistance.

The Administration is requesting $1,137 million in bilateral economic assistance. This included $547.5 million in economic support funds (ESF), $371.7 million in development assistance, and $218.2 million in PL 480 commodity assistance.

We also request $197.1 million in military assistance. This included $185.5 million for the military assistance program (MAP) and $11.6 million for international military education and training (IMET). To avoid adding to the already high debt burden, no foreign military sales (FMS) credits are requested, for the second year in a row.

These economic and military assistance accounts, about which I have been asked to testify today, make up 94% of the resources available bilaterally to advance U.S. interests in this hemisphere. The only other explicitly bilateral accounts are $32.2 million for Peace Corps programs and $56.2 million for antinarcotics assistance.

THE POLICY FRAMEWORK

A key element of the Administration's foreign policy is the recognition that this hemisphere-our immediate neighborhood-is of great strategic importance; in fact, critical to our national security. We cannot deal effectively with challenges to our interests in other parts of the world if we are unable to cope with problems closer to home. Historically, our ability to project power in the world, in part, has been based on the absence of threats closer to home.

Unfortunately, many of our allies in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have the resources to provide simultaneously for their own security and the basic economic needs of their people. Because we know they must do both if they are to survive and prosper, and if democracy is to be given a chance to flourish, we must help to make up the shortfall.

In the past, many Latin Americans seemed to view democracy as just another form of government to be tried and discarded if it resulted in no apparent immediate benefits. The current trend of democratization has been accompanied by some interesting and promising political developments that have helped the new democracies break out of the old patterns.

Many Latin Americans now believe tbat open societies are superior to closed ones and that democratic institutions are, therefore, worth building and strengthening. Accompanying this has been the formation of an informal but strong mutual support network among democratic leaders. When, for example, Peru's President Alan Garcia and Argentina's President Raul Alfonsin were undergoing periods of increased civil/ military tension, there were strong public expressions and private efforts in support of them from other democratic leaders.

Respect for human rights has shown improvement in all the nonMarxist and nondictatorial states of Latin America, The marked reduction in the number of human rights abuses in recent years parallels the spread and consolidation of democracy: where democratic government has taken root, the human rights situation has changed dramatically for the better.

The security of the United States and the security of all free countries of this hemisphere benefit from the region-wide movement toward democracy. We have supported this trend not only because it is in accord with our deepest values but also because we believe it is in our interest. There has been not one coup against a democratically elected government during the more than 7 years of the Reagan Administration. And Latin America's growing political maturity is demonstrating that we can enjoy the most constructive long-term relationships with countries where government is founded on the consent of the governed.

For these reasons, we emphasize democracy in our political relations with our neighbors. The modest assistance levels we have requested aim to provide the resources needed to support our quest for sustained democracy in this hemisphere, A reversal of the movement to democracy anywhere will be rejected by us as it will be by all the democracies in the region.

CHALLENGES TO U.S. INTERESTS

The road to democracy is not without obstacles; many challenges lie ahead. Our neighbors face tremendous political, economic, and social problems. Narcotraffickers are sometimes better armed and equipped than governments; debt repayments eat away funds that might otherwise be used for development; insurgencies threaten political stability; and social institutions are overburdened.