Americas summit opens on optimistic note
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Bush invited Fox to his Texas ranch at a joint press conference. The Mexican leader accepted the invite.
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CNN's Harris Whitbeck on the optimistic start of the Summit of the Americas.
CNN's Dana Bash on criticism of President Bush from a former treasury secretary.
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MONTERREY, Mexico (CNN) -- Leaders at the inauguration of a 34-nation Summit of the Americas Monday expressed optimism that seemingly intractable issues of poverty, trade and corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean could be overcome.
"Poverty is the frontier we have to be able to cross," said Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. "There have never been so many impoverished people" in the hemisphere, he said. "Today, we have to talk about how we grow -- with equality."
President Bush told the heads of state that the United States had "substantially increased our aid to developing countries" in the past two years. "U.S. assistance is linked to good governments, investment in people and economic freedom."
But developed countries, he said, "should light a path to reform and economic growth, rather than perpetuate the need for further aid."
He said nations "must work to provide quality education and quality health care for all of our citizens, especially for those suffering from HIV/AIDS."
And, he added, "We must also chart a clear course toward a vibrant, free market that will help lift people out of poverty and create a healthy middle class."
Doing so will require that credit be made available to small businesses, and that property rights be strengthened "so that land can be leveraged as a source of capital to start businesses to hire new workers," he said.
Bush called trade "the most certain path to lasting prosperity," and said opening markets was "a key driver to growth in the region."
Last year, he said, about 83 percent of Latin America's exports to the United States -- some $176 billion worth of goods -- entered the country duty-free. "My country is committed to free and fair trade," he said.
Noting that he signed a proclamation Monday denying entry into the United States to corrupt officials, Bush called on the hemisphere's other heads of state to fight corruption in their countries and deny safe haven to corrupt individuals.
Bush took a swipe at communist Cuba, which was not represented at the meeting, saying, "Dictatorship has no place in the Americas. We must all work for a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba."
Canada's Paul Martin, in his first international meeting as prime minister, appeared more sympathetic to the plight of the poorest residents among the countries represented, and urged that social policies be put in place "so that the benefits of growth will reach all citizens in an equitable way."
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Members of the Partido de Trabajo party join an anti-Iraq war protest in Monterrey on Sunday.
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"Even very small reductions in inequality -- tied to modest growth -- can have very large, positive effects on the alleviation of poverty."
Martin too called for fiscal reform -- but with a "safety net" that would include health care and education. He acknowledged that such protections will not be easy for some of the participants to put in place, and said those countries' richer neighbors had a responsibility to pitch in -- "both bilaterally and through regional intergovernmental institutions."
Martin warned leaders to work against "resurgent protectionism" and challenges to their sometimes fragile democratic institutions.
Mexico's President Vicente Fox, the host of the meeting, joined the calls for a reversal of "the profound levels of inequity and lack of development" in much of the region. "These injustices threaten not just the democracy [in much of the hemisphere], but also assault the dignity of every one of its inhabitants."
He noted that 44 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean live below the poverty line, and said more than half of them have no job, a situation he described as "a powerful threat against our young democracies and hemispheric instability."
