Judd Gregg: “I also rise to discuss the recent meetings we held in South America. The nature of the meetings has been outlined by the…”

“I also rise to discuss the recent meetings we held in South America. The nature of the meetings has been outlined by the Senator from Colorado and, obviously, the majority leader. I think I should start by saying that I admire the majority leader for putting together the delegation--and I appreciate having participated in it--which was bipartisan. More importantly, the majority leader chose as his first outreach in the area of foreign policy, in the sense of his taking the status of majority leader of the Senate, which is a significant status, to go to these countries in South America--countries which, regrettably, we probably haven't put as much energy and effort into as we should have over the years, and countries that are important to us in a variety of ways. So I think his choice of these three nations--important nations that are major players in our neighborhood--was significant and appropriate. I appreciated the chance to participate in it. In all three of these nations we are seeing significant change--change which I sort of sense is in a historical context of repeating, in many instances, past actions. South America has, unfortunately, had a history of going from democracy to military leadership to populace leadership and then back to democracy. These three nations have all recently held very democratic elections, and they have elected very outspoken leaders, some of whose views I agree with and some of whose I definitely do not agree with.”