Political Quotes

“Mr. President, over the weekend, I joined Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia on a trip to Guatemala and Honduras. With us were Senators Merkley, Butler, Welch as well as Guatemalan-American Congresswomen Torres of California and Ramirez of Illinois. Both Guatemala and Honduras have struggled with conflict, corruption, stark inequality, and fragile democratic governments. Many of us have forgotten that until the 1980s, much of Latin America was led by military dictators, sometimes with Cold War-era support from the United States. Guatemala's bloody 36-year civil war only ended in 1996. It is a reminder of why the U.S. attention to this region's nascent and often fragile democracies is so important. Guatemala is facing a deeply challenging Presidential transition. In October, Bernardo Arevalo won in a decisive landslide election where he pledged to tackle endemic corruption. Early polls showed him at 3 percent of the vote. When the final election took place, he won by 20 percent, a 1 million vote plurality, but outgoing President Giammattei, and Attorney General Porras are, unfortunately, attempting to undermine that peaceful transition ahead of the January 14 inauguration. I might add that unlike other elections in Central and South America, this election where Mr. Arevalo prevailed was monitored by international sources, and the votes were challenged in court, counted, and found to be still in his favor, overwhelmingly.…”