Robert Menendez actually said...

"I think there's a crying clarion call for attention in the Western Hemisphere in our own national interest."

"If in fact we care about growing our economy, then certainly having a more robust middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has a propensity for U.S. goods and services, is in our economi..."

"I look at the enormous inequality, which is one of the underlying root causes of the challenge that we have in the hemisphere, and I say, well, we can't do that alone."

"I think Santos has decided that Colombia's insertion in Latin America... is more important to him right now than the relationship with the United States."