Paul Coverdell: “My point is that a core component of new democracy in the world occurred right in our hemisphere. There was a marvelous…”

“My point is that a core component of new democracy in the world occurred right in our hemisphere. There was a marvelous achievement--to survive the institutions that make democracy work have to be put in place, and we have not done a good job on this. It has been sporadic, it is destabilizing, and we can see it. We have to only pick up a newspaper--Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, Colombia, and the list goes on. No. 2, we have an enormous and powerful adversary in the narcotic cartels. They don't care about a single child anywhere, they don't care about any human life, and they do not care about any country. They are as evil a scourge as the world has ever seen. And they are fueling a criminal syndicate in the United States that is more powerful than anything with which we have ever dealt. Undoubtedly, somebody listening to this saw Godfather I and Godfather II--amateurs, rank amateurs compared to what we are dealing with. The economic opportunity is limitless, boundless, sitting right in our backyard, as I have said. Simply open a door. And we have let it get all frayed; we have not stayed attentive. So, as I say, we can get focused in our own home if we can create, I call it a doctrine of the Americas, where all of us as neighbors demand certain standards, that they be upheld, and that constitutional law is a part of this hemisphere, that civil law enforcement is what we have grown to expect, and a fair judiciary must be in place.”