美国国务院
发言人办公室
2021年10月20日
 
基多圣弗朗西斯科大学（Universidad San Francisco de Quito）
厄瓜多尔基多（Quito）
布林肯国务卿：大家早上好。谢谢你，玛塞拉（Marcela）。非常感谢你们。我还要感谢你们一直在从事的出色的工作，努力建立更高的透明度、更强的问责制。
在座的各位，谢谢你们，谢谢你们，谢谢你们今天上午来到这里。我想感谢我们非常热情的主办方，基多圣弗朗西斯科大学。这是一个多么壮观的地方。谢谢你们。（掌声）
请允许我首先告诉你们我为什么在作为国务卿第一次访问南美时来到厄瓜多尔这里。有一条主线贯穿着美国对内和对外政策的每个部分，那就是努力让民主服务于全体人民。
这也是本次访问的重点。因为我们民主国家弥补我们的承诺和我们的实效之间的差距的能力在不小的程度上取决于我们共同做出哪些努力让它变得更好。而且“我们”不仅包括各国政府，还包括我们所服务的人民。
我们可以从厄瓜多尔学到一些重要的东西；从我接下来要去的哥伦比亚；以及从本地区更广大的区域——关于理解民主国家所面临的种种挑战以及我们如何能够战胜它们。
请让我首先举例说明。试想一个国家在自由、公正的选举中选出的领导人随后却一点一点地顽固蚕食民主的支柱——攻击自由媒体、损害法院的独立性并威胁政治对手。
再试想一下这个领导人又试图利用民主工具通过反民主的改革——取消任期限制、填塞法院并将立法人员解职。这是我们这个半球不止一个民主国家的经历。而且这是民主国家可能瓦解的一个方式。
10年以前，厄瓜多尔曾是这样。
但最终，这种企图没有得逞。为什么呢？因为像法院和选举委员会（Electoral Council）这样的机制予以抵制。人权捍卫者、新闻工作者及其他公民社会倡导者，其中包括教授和这所大学的学生，也都这样做，他们在法庭上质疑有关改革。即使他们公开遭到抹黑、威胁和攻击，但他们仍然继续这样做。
此外，成千上万的厄瓜多尔人走上街头抗议——工会会员、新闻工作者、学生和原住民，其中一些人徒步从亚马逊（Amazon）走到基多，全程700公里。即使在他们遭受警察的殴打和抓捕时，人们仍继续抗议。
尽管时任总统在几年里得以通过一系列反民主法案，但其他法案都受阻、被推翻，或因没有足够的支持而撤回。民主坚持住了。
另一个实例是：在2020年春，当全世界大部分地区为应对疫情封城时，COVID-19在厄瓜多尔各地肆虐。在瓜亚基尔（Guayaquil），死亡率骤升了九倍。医院不得不拒收垂死的患者。路边的尸体一连几天都没有人收。一家当地的工厂开始用纸板制作棺材，因为停尸房里已经没有木制棺材了。
一些人试图利用厄瓜多尔口罩、呼吸机和消毒洗手液等至关重要的医疗物资的短缺牟利，导致这一公共卫生紧急状况进一步恶化。今年四月，病毒再次肆虐，厄瓜多尔当时的COVID-19感染率是我们这个半球最高的。
这是民主国家可能被瓦解的另一种方式：在紧急情况下未能满足公民生死攸关的需求。
但事态再次发生了变化。
厄瓜多尔的自由、蓬勃的媒体高光揭露了这次公共卫生应对的失败，以及腐败这个导致失败的原因之一。
该国的总检察长领导了一次深入调查，查明了卫生官员与犯罪分子勾结，以高出13倍的价格将尸袋卖给医院的证据。多名前任官员最终也受到起诉。
还有今年早些时候，厄瓜多尔人口中超过80%的人在选举中投票，促成了两党间权力的和平移交。新政府承诺在就职100天内为全国一半以上的人口接种疫苗，而且在医护工作者、社区领导人、公司企业和其他很多人的共同努力下，他们提前完成了既定目标。
在大学员工和学生志愿者的帮助下，大约4万人就在离我们今天的会议厅不远的大学体育场里接种了疫苗。今天，已有1110万人接种了疫苗。
这还向厄瓜多尔人显示出民主国家能够帮助应对他们所面临的一些最重大的挑战——并开诚布公地这样做，以惠及所有人。这在一个对于民主的信任——在我们这个半球以及全世界各地——正在削弱的时刻尤为重要。
对于观察美洲民主国家近几十年来的一贯表现的局外人而言，那种信任的缺失可能难以理解。我们各国承诺通过《美洲民主宪章》（Inter-American Democratic Charter）在整个地区提倡并捍卫民主已有20年了。各国做出这一承诺的原因，不是因为他们迫于压力，或出于在意识形态上保持一致，而是因为该地区的几个国家曾试图在非民主的制度下实现社会和经济发展，但都失败了。
尽管存在一些例外，但整体而言该地区的民主政府实现了一个前所未有的繁荣、安全和稳定的时期。随着生活贫困的人口减少了一半，拉丁美洲的中产阶级已稳步成长。生活水平和受教育水平都有所提高。新生儿和孕产妇死亡人数都有所下降。
然而，对于很多生活在美洲民主国家中的人来说，他们没有感受到政府做了足够的工作来解决他们所面临的最重大的问题，或与他们的期望和他们的愿望俱进。
经济有所增长，但不平等也有所加剧。而且经济增长往往以破坏环境为代价，造成了我们现在所经历的气候危机。
此外，GDP和股票市场的高涨并没有带来工薪家庭在一个竞争日益激烈的全球经济中成长发展所需的支持和保护，例如负担得起的托儿服务和基本生活工资。它没有建立一个安全网，能在他们的工厂关闭或者他们不得不误工去照顾生病的子女或父母时接住他们。
所有这些问题都因COVID-19而加剧，这场疫情对这个地区的重创比其他任何地区都大，并凸显了近几十年来所取得的成果有多么脆弱。拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的人口占世界总人口的8%，但这个地区与COVID-19相关的死亡人数占全世界的32%。如果算入美国的话，我们的COVID-19死亡人数占全世界的一半以上——一半以上。
经济受到的影响也很严重。拉丁美洲的经济去年收缩了将近8%——又是全世界降幅最大的地区——而且贫困人口增加了2200万人。这个地区的学校关闭的时间比其他任何地区都长，每三个儿童中有两个还没有回到课堂上课。
与全世界各地一样，缺乏服务及被边缘化的社区是遭受打击最严重的。在厄瓜多尔这里，这包括原住民社区、非洲裔群体、妇女和女童、LGBTQI群体以及低收入群体，其中大多数人在非正规部门劳作。
通过激化所有这些长期存在的问题，COVID-19加剧了公民中间对于民主能在最关键的时候发挥效力的怀疑。去年，拉丁美洲有70%的人对民主的运作方式表示不满，高于2013年的大约50%。而且经历这种情况的不仅仅是我们的伙伴。在我的国家，在美国，将近60%的人对于民主运作的方式表示不满。
我们正处于一个民主觉醒的时刻。而对于我们所有人，我们所有相信民主并相信其存续对于我们共同的未来至关重要的人而言，问题在于我们能做些什么来使民主国家能够解决与人民最息息相关的问题。
因此，今天，请允许我强调三个问题，美国认为它们对于响应这一召唤至关重要，特别是在我们这个半球。我们将在这些领域带来想法，但同样重要的是，我们将以谦逊的态度前来聆听。
秉持谦逊的一部分原因在于我们知道可以向我们的邻国学习很多东西，另一部分原因在于我们知道美国未能在我们这个半球一贯践行它的倡导，而且在我国的某些历史时期，我们在美洲支持过的政府没有体现出他们人民的选择或意愿，也没有尊重他们的人权。
第一项挑战——玛塞拉已经谈到过——第一项挑战是腐败问题，这是包括美洲在内的全世界人民每天都面临的现实。据估计，腐败造成的损失高达全球GDP的5%。它遏制增长、阻碍投资、深化不平等。但也许它最严重的恶果是使公民失去了对政府的信任。
事实上，如果回顾一下全世界近些年的绝大多数大规模的公民抗议——乌克兰的独立广场（Maidan）和埃及的解放广场（Tahrir Square）；从罗马尼亚到突尼斯，从苏丹到危地马拉——你们可以发现其核心都是对腐败的深恶痛绝。
这影响到人们日常生活的方方面面，而且它耗费国家资源，这些资源本可以专门用于一所学校、一座医院或一些能切实改善人民生活的事项。
因此，美国正着重于我们如何能够更有效地抗击腐败，拜登总统已首次将其作为一项美国国家安全核心利益。我们正在打击非法融资、截获并冻结被盗资产，并让偷盗分子更难以匿名隐藏。
我们正在增强我们所掌握的对腐败的个人和团体追究责任的工具，从有的放矢的反腐败制裁，到刑事和民事执法行动，再到对腐败官员及其家属拒发签证。
这些工具将帮助我们在远远超出我们国界的范围内提高腐败的成本。
但由于腐败不分国界，而且由于腐败分子非常善于利用我们这个互联互通的全球系统中最薄弱的环节，任何一个国家都无法单凭一己之力有效地抗击腐败，或是只依赖其他政府的帮助也不够。我们在任何地方及任何领域都需要有强大的反腐败合作伙伴。
正因为如此，我们正在开发新型工具和项目，增强伙伴政府、从事调查报道的新闻记者、反腐败活动人士以及公司企业的能力。正因为如此，我们正在深化我们同欧洲联盟（European Union）、7国集团（G7）、经济合作与发展组织（OECD）以及其他和我们共同致力于消除这一祸患的团体和国家的协作。正因为如此，我们必须确保我们自己及我们的合作伙伴履行在2018年美洲峰会（Summit of Americas）上制定的《利马承诺》（Lima Commitment），我们在其中都保证以切实的方式推动反腐败的民主治理。
在这些努力中，我们正在严格审视在抗击腐败中最有效的是什么——这是整个美国政府的各个机构目前正在拜登总统的指示下所进行的一次全面审核的核心问题。我们从中学到的将有助于我们基于这些信息确定如何集中我们的精力和资源向前推进——在国内、在整个美洲地区以及在全世界。
第二项挑战是公民安全。几十年来，美国通过打击跨国犯罪组织为在这个半球减少暴力付出了巨大的投入。而且确有原因：拉丁美洲和加勒比地区是全世界暴力最严重的地区。
但我们同本地区的民主国家合作改善公民安全的记录却好坏参半。原因在于我们往往在试图解决这个问题时过于依赖训练及装备安全部队，却忽视了我们所掌握的其他手段。而且我们过于注重解决有组织犯罪的表象，例如杀人和贩毒行径，却忽视了其根本成因。我们正在努力纠正这种不平衡。
我们正在为扩大经济机会做出更多努力，特别是对于那些可能因为觉得别无选择而被卷入非法活动的服务不足的人口。我们正在针对药物滥用增加预防、治疗和康复方面的投资，以帮助那些努力戒瘾的人——既减少非法药物对我们社区造成的严重伤害，又减少对此类药物的需求，这种需求助长了广泛的暴力和犯罪。我们正在支持以社区为基础的暴力预防工作，帮助陷入暴力犯罪组织和滥用职权的安全部队之间的当地行为者增强权能，并为他们提供修复社区社会结构的工具。我们将继续投资，加强法治，培训对调查和起诉此类案件至关重要的检察官和法官。
强调消除根本原因是我们最近几周与墨西哥政府举行的一系列高层经济和安全对话的核心。参加对话的两国高层领导人来自司法、贸易、财政、商业、发展、国土安全和外交政策等领域，反映了我们现在决心采取的综合方法。明天，在与哥伦比亚的合作伙伴举行高层对话时，我们将采用类似方法。
正如我昨天与拉索总统讨论的那样，我们相信，一种类似的保卫公民安全的全方位方法——不过分依赖安全部队——也最有可能在厄瓜多尔奏效。
我们已经看到，拉索总统本周早些时候宣布了例外状态，总统和我昨天有机会就此进行讨论。就美国而言，我明确表示我们理解民主国家有时需要采取例外措施来确保公民的安全。但是，必须在安全需要和尊重所有公民人权的需要之间取得平衡。另外，安全措施的设计和实施必须符合法治，对范围和期限作出限制，并接受监督和司法审查，这一点也很重要。执行这些措施的安全部队必须遵守国际标准——并在不遵守时被追究责任。
以往的经验告诉我们，如果没有这些限制，例外可能成为规则；旨在保护公民免受一种威胁的努力可能使他们遭受另一种威胁。
拉索总统向我保证，他领导的政府坚决维护这些对厄瓜多尔人民及其民主价值观非常重要的标准。我明确表示，维护这些标准也是美国的优先事项。
第三项挑战是让我们的民主国家着重于应对我们的人民所面临的经济和社会挑战。这应当是显而易见的，但现实是我们往往将更多的精力放在增强公民和政治权利上，虽然它们至关重要——例如自由和公正的选举、法治、言论和集会自由——而没有放在增强人民的经济和社会权利上，例如提高劳动标准、扩大获得应有的教育和医疗的途径，以及提供更具包容性的机会。我们西半球的公民们正在要求我们两者兼顾，而美国也听到了这一呼声。
正是基于这种想法，拜登总统提出为我们的工薪家庭进行数代人以来前所未有的投资。也正是基于这种想法，美国为改善美洲人民的生活和福祉进行了大规模投资。自2020年以来，我们已通过国际开发金融公司（International Development Finance Corporation）在拉丁美洲和加勒比地区投资了超过100亿美元，并以此调动了数十亿美元的私营部门投资。例如，在厄瓜多尔这里，我们正在同生产银行（Banco de la Produccion）合作，促成向小企业提供1.5亿美元贷款。我们从我们的经验中和你们的经验中了解到，小企业是增长的首要驱动力，也是为人民提供就业的最佳途径。
我们不仅仅提供这些投资，还采取了透明的方式；将当地社区作为合作伙伴对待，而不是让他们陷入一种恶性债务循环；我们采取对于环境可持续的方式，而不是一味采掘；并且尊重劳工权利和人权。
进行这样的投资有助于戳穿一种迷思，即专制政府总喜欢标榜自己能够更好地满足人民的基本需求。独裁者给人民的是一种伪选择：要么享有基本的公民和政治权利，要么享有更高的生活水平。但尽管独裁者做出了改善人民福祉的种种许诺，他们的一贯表现却是另一回事。
不过，仅仅因为我们这个半球的民主国家可能表现得比较好，并不意味着我们在服务人民方面做得够好了。
对于服务不足的人口尤其如此。根深蒂固的、由来已久的歧视在我们的民主国家普遍存在。这种不公正的根源很深，一直可以追溯到奴隶制和殖民时期。而美国的历程与这段历史密不可分，在某种程度上令人惭愧，因为我们的国家曾在延续剥削和种族主义中扮演的角色，但与此同时又鼓舞人心，因为一代又一代美国人，包括今天如此众多的人们，毕生致力于回击历史遗留的丑恶的种族主义以及所有形式的歧视。
种族主义不利于民主制度实现繁荣、稳定和公平。它助长了两极分化和不信任。它剥夺了民主国家可以从多元化和包容性社区和工作场所中汲取的力量、创新和创造力。我们的所有社区和机构必须共同、紧迫地努力应对这一挑战。例如我所领导的政府部门，我在国务院的首要任务之一就是确保我们的外交官队伍反映出美国非凡的多元化。我们的外交政策也会因此变得更好。
我认为，在这方面，我们可以向基多圣弗朗西斯科大学学习。自成立以来，该大学将促进公平和包容作为其使命的核心部分。每年，这所大学都为数百名原住民和非裔厄瓜多尔人提供在这里学习的机会，这些人由于长期处于不发达和机会不平等的环境而难以在高等院校就读。由于学生群体更加多元化，这所大学的每一位学生都会受到更好的教育。
因此，当我们看到我们民主国家中的切实挑战时，我们也无疑拥有应对它们的最佳方式。那就是将这些问题公诸于众，齐心协力，包括同不总是与你意见一致的人共同努力，而这正是解决问题的方式。这一直都是民主最强大的实力：一种自我完善的能力。
美国建立在一项基本原则之上：我们的国家使命就是建立一个更完美的联邦。这意味着我们承认我们的制度并不完美，而且永远都不会达到完美，但我们将力争让我们的努力符合建国先贤的理念。
因为任何威胁都能够以更完善和更多的民主来化解 – 一个开放的制度比一个封闭的制度能更好地为人民应对任何挑战。
对于民主国家面临的所有挑战，我认为我们有理由保持乐观。特别是在西半球，我们有一批深度融合的合作伙伴，不仅拥有共同的价值观，还通过文化和社区联系在一起。我们在自然资源和生物多样性方面得天独厚，只要我们善加保护。
但最重要的是，我认为我们应当因为我们的人民而感到乐观：他们是民主的核心。看看长期以来我们任何一个民主国家的奋力前行你就会一次又一次地认识到，这是由普通人民、而不是由政府推动的。这些人往往很年轻，往往付出很大代价，却坚定不移地致力于改善他们的家庭和社区的生活。正是这些人不断弥补着民主国家的承诺与结果之间的差距。
我们完全有理由相信公民们会继续这样做。厄瓜多尔最近的历史表明了这一点。我们在美国的经历也是如此，我们的民主也受到了考验。
尽管他们在民主制度下对许多事情感到沮丧，但西半球的大多数人都怀有这种信念。拉丁美洲约有63%的人仍然认为民主是最好的政治制度，而仅有13%的人对威权政府有这种看法。
的确，有些人将美洲国家或其他地方批评民主政府的抗议和大规模运动视为民主正在衰落的迹象。但我却将它视为民主的实力的象征。我看到正是因为人们对自己的体制有足够的信念才试图去修正它。
我们最大的风险不在于我们的公民对于民主的批评过多，而在于他们不再关心民主，乃至放弃它。
这就是我对于美洲的民主前景充满信心的原因，因为我们有最了不起的人民来努力改善这个制度。
戴安娜·萨拉查·门德斯（Diana Salazar Méndez）就是一个例子。她出生在由此往北的伊瓦拉，由一位单身母亲抚养成人。在她很小的时候，母亲就向她反复强调为社区服务的重要性，以及做人最重要的是诚信。戴安娜自己打工支付大学的学费，白天工作，晚上上课，她撰写的论文的题目是厄瓜多尔境内的非洲移民人口贩运问题。
她说她一心要从事推动社会公正的工作，因为这一理想渗透到她的血液里。她的叔叔由于是非裔厄瓜多尔人而被禁止参军。在完成法律学业后，戴安娜由于同样的原因多次与检察官的职务失之交臂。
但她没有放弃，最终得到了她的第一份工作，此后她在职业生涯中一直致力于让有权势的人承担责任。黑手党、政客，包括前总统和企业家。她曾被抹黑、威胁，曾在一次拦截毒贩的行动中差点被困在海上。但她拒绝被吓倒。当被问及原因时，她说：“El que tiene la verdad no debe tener miedo。”意思是“站在正义一边就没有恐惧。”
当然，戴安娜今天已经是厄瓜多尔的司法部长。 （掌声）
尼娜·瓜琳达（Nina Gualinda）是另一个例子。她是厄瓜多尔原住民部落基奇瓦（Kichwa）社区的领导人。2001 年，尼娜年仅 8 岁，当时一家石油公司来到她和家人居住的亚马逊地区进行钻探。她的母亲和婶婶带领社区反对该项目，因此不断受到威胁和攻击。但她们没有放弃抵制，通过公民不服从、组织起来、法律挑战等多种形式从事维权活动，这是尼娜受到的早期启蒙。
十年后，当她所在社区的案件最终在美洲法院审理时，18 岁的尼娜在听证会上代表她的社区作证。法院裁定，厄瓜多尔在许可石油公司在其土地上开展业务之前必须咨询原住民社区。近十年后，作为领导者之一，尼娜带领一群原住民妇女收集了超过 250,000 个签名，要求政府调查针对亚马逊女性维权者的系统性攻击。她们的投诉被转给厄瓜多尔司法部长戴安娜·萨拉查。
试想一下，这两位出色的女性的人生轨迹相交的可能性是多么渺茫。一位是非裔厄瓜多尔人，因为其黑人身份而被剥夺了担任初级检察官的资格。另一位是原住民领导人，由于在 8岁的时候看到自己的社区受到入侵而开始努力为社区争取发言权。
然而，她们的人生道路交叉象征着源于个人的民主国家的独特力量。她们分别在政府内部和外部工作，但两人都克服了许多障碍。正是有了像戴安娜和尼娜这样的人，民主才能发挥作用——不断发展，自我完善。这些人亲身体验过无法正常运作的制度带来的后果，他们看到了民主原则与其实践之间的差距，并决定尽管如此仍然为民主制度的进步奉献出自己的一生——为了他们自己，也为了后代。
民主制度是有效的，因为这些人永不放弃。他们顽强地捍卫已经取得的每一厘米的进步，因为他们知道试图削弱民主的人同样不遗余力。独裁者永远不会停止篡权图谋；腐败分子永远不会停止寻找损人利己的途径。这种现象比比皆是。
这就是为什么我们每一个人，尤其是未来的一代代人，都必须保持参与，并带上其他人同行。因为这是民主最重要的特点——它是一个永远不会结束的项目。
只要我们的社会允许像尼娜和戴安娜这样的人从内部推动制度的改进，我们就可以断言，民主不仅会持续下去，而且会胜出。
非常感谢。谢谢大家。谢谢。
（掌声）
欲查看原稿内容:  https://www.state.gov/making-democracy-deliver-for-the-americas/
本译文仅供参考，只有英文原稿才可以被视为权威资料来源。

ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
UNIVERSIDAD SAN FRANCISCO DE QUITO
QUITO, ECUADOR
OCTOBER 20, 2021
MS BUENO:  Buenos días.  Good morning and welcome, Mr. Ambassador of the United States, authorities, members of San Francisco de Quito University, civil society, dear students.  Welcome to Ecuador, Mr. Secretary, or as, humbled, that early father of environmentalism called us, welcome to the country of the four worlds.  The landscape that greeted you today is part of the wonderful Andean region that joins the Amazon rainforest as well as the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, where the breathtaking Galapagos Islands make us proud every day.
I’m Marcela Bueno, country director of the Pan American Development Foundation, or PADF, an international organization that has been working for almost 60 years throughout the continent to create a hemisphere of opportunities for all.  In these four worlds, democracy was born thanks to treasured individuals of our history.  One of them, Matilde Hidalgo, was the first woman to vote in Latin America in 1924.
This morning, I see remarkable people in the audience.  I see colleagues from various sectors, and I know the work they have done to benefit our country.  I see authorities fighting for a better world.  And I see young people preparing for a future of hope.  These are just some of the faces of this country, Mr. Secretary, some faces of this region.  It’s an honor to have you here this morning, and an exceptional opportunity to hear from a partner and key ally as the United States, a country that was built on the fundamental principles of human dignity and also freedom.
Today, we seek to squarely face the challenges ahead for this country of the four worlds, for the region, and, of course, for the planet.  This exchange of ideas with Secretary of State Blinken today reminds us that democracy is built on dialogue, on learning, openness, hard work, tolerance, and the use of inclusive and rigorous methodologies to strengthen institutions and promote sustainable livelihoods for the most vulnerable.
And in terms of this democracy that was – that we are trying to perfect every day is the fight against corruption.  Corruption undermines governance, and it’s using public resources and policies for the benefit of the few rather for the common good.  No country is immune to this serious challenge today.  All of us here seek to defend, to strengthen, to renew democracy. And that begins by creating safe spaces for dialogue like the one that we’re sharing this morning.
Therefore, standing before you today, I celebrate the struggles that we have overcame to defend democracy in the region.  I celebrate the battles won to defend freedom, and I celebrate that we can come together from all sectors, from different countries to build and dream about a more transparent world.  And above all, I celebrate our most fundamental principle that is human dignity.
Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Buenos días a todos.  Gracias, Marcela.  Thank you so much.  And I want to thank you as well the remarkable work that you’ve been doing to try to build greater transparency, greater accountability.
And to everyone here, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here this morning.  I want to thank our very gracious host, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.  What a spectacular, spectacular place.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
Let me start if I can by telling you why I’ve come here, to Ecuador, on my first visit as Secretary to South America.  There’s a thread that runs throughout every part of United States policy, domestic and foreign, and that is working to make democracy work for all people.
That’s the focus of this trip as well.  Because the ability of our democracies to close the gap between what we promise and what we deliver depends in no small part on what we do, together, to make it better.  And that “we” includes not just governments, but the people we serve.
And there’s something important to be learned from Ecuador; from Colombia, where I’ll travel next; and from the region more broadly – when it comes to understanding the challenges facing democracies and how we can overcome them.
Let me start with an example.  Consider a country where a leader is elected in a free and fair election, and then sets about chipping away slowly but surely at the pillars of democracy – attacking the free press, undermining the independence of the courts, threatening political opponents.
Now, imagine that leader then seeks to use the levers of democracy to pass anti-democratic reforms – eliminating term limits, packing courts, firing legislators.
That’s the story of more than one democracy in our hemisphere.  And it’s one of the ways that democracies can come undone.
A decade ago, that was Ecuador.
And yet ultimately, that effort did not succeed.  Why?  Institutions like the courts and the Electoral Council pushed back.  So did human rights defenders, journalists, and other civil society advocates, including professors, students from this university, who challenged the reforms in the courts.  And even when they were publicly smeared, threatened, attacked, they kept at it.
What’s more, tens of thousands of Ecuadorians took to the streets to protest – trade unionists, journalists, students, indigenous people, some of whom made a 700-kilometer trek on foot from the Amazon to Quito.  And even when they were beaten, arrested by police, people kept protesting.
And while the president at the time succeeded in passing a number of anti-democratic bills over the years, others were blocked, overturned, withdrawn in the face of insufficient support.  Democracy persevered.
Another example:  In the spring of 2020, as much of the world locked down in response to the pandemic, COVID-19 tore across Ecuador.  In Guayaquil, the mortality rate shot up nine times.  Hospitals were forced to turn away the dying.  Bodies were left out on sidewalks for days.  A local manufacturer started making coffins out of cardboard, because morgues had run out of wooden ones.
The public health emergency was made worse by some who sought to profit off of Ecuador’s shortage of vital medical supplies, like masks, ventilators, sanitizer.  In April of this year, the virus surged again, and Ecuador had the highest COVID-19 rate in our hemisphere.
This is another way that democracies can come undone: by falling short of meeting citizens’ life-and-death needs in an emergency.
But once again, things changed.
Ecuador’s free, vibrant press put a bright light on the public health failure and the corruption that helped contribute to it.
The country’s attorney general led a rigorous investigation that uncovered evidence of collusion between health officials and criminals to sell body bags to hospitals at 13 times their price.  Multiple former officials were eventually indicted.
And, earlier this year, more than 80 percent of Ecuador’s population voted in an election that led to a peaceful handover of power between parties.  The new government promised to vaccinate more than half of the country’s population in its first 100 days and – together with health care workers, community leaders, businesses, and many others – they hit the target ahead of schedule.
Approximately 40,000 people were vaccinated not far from where we’re gathered today, in the university’s arena, with the help of university staff and student volunteers.  And more Ecuadorians are being vaccinated every day.  Today, over 11 million people have received their jabs.
It has also demonstrated to Ecuadorians that democracies can help address some of the biggest challenges they face – and do it openly, to the benefit of all.  This is so important at a time when trust in democracy – in our hemisphere and around the world – is declining.
For outsiders looking at the track record of democracies in the Americas in recent decades, the loss of trust may be a little hard to understand.  It’s been two decades since our nations committed to promote and defend democracy across the region through the Inter-American Democratic Charter.  Countries made this commitment not because they were pressured, or out of ideological conformity, but rather because a number of countries in the region had tried to deliver social and economic development through non-democratic systems and failed.
And while there are some exceptions, on the whole democratic governments in the region have delivered a period of unprecedented prosperity, security, and stability.  Latin America’s middle class has grown steadily as the number of people living in poverty has been cut in half.  Living standards and access to education have gone up.  Infant mortality, maternal mortality have gone down.
And yet, for many people living in democracies in the Americas, it doesn’t feel like government is doing enough to address the biggest problems they face, or keeping pace with their expectations and their aspirations.
Economies have grown, but so has inequity.  And economic growth has too often been built on environmental devastation, contributing to the climate crisis that we are now experiencing.
What’s more, rising GDPs, rising stock markets have not come with an increase in the support and protections that working families need to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy, like affordable childcare, a living wage.  It hasn’t created a safety net that catches people when the factory where they work closes, or they have to miss work to care for a sick child or parent.
All of these problems have been worsened by COVID-19, which has hit this region harder than any other, and underscored just how vulnerable the gains of recent decades are.  Latin America and the Caribbean account for about 8 percent of the world’s population, but the region has 32 percent of the world’s COVID-19 related deaths.  If you add in the United States, we account for more than half – more than half – of the world’s COVID-19 deaths.
The economic effects have also been devastating.  Latin America’s economy contracted by nearly 8 percent last year – again, the largest decline of any region in the world – and the number of people living in poverty rose by 22 million.  The region’s schools have stayed shut longer than any other, with two out of every three children still not back in classrooms.
And as with every part of the world, underserved and marginalized communities are the ones that are hardest hit.  Here in Ecuador, that means indigenous communities, people of African descent, women and girls, LGBTQI people, low-income people, most of whom work in the informal sector.
By turbocharging all of these long-standing problems, COVID-19 has accelerated skepticism among citizens that democracy can deliver when it matters the most.  Last year, 70 percent of Latin Americans were dissatisfied with the way democracy works – up from approximately 50 percent in 2013.  And it’s not just our partners who are experiencing this.  In my country, in the United States, nearly 60 percent of people are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working.
So we find ourselves in a moment of democratic reckoning.  And the question for all of us who believe in democracy and who believe its survival is vital to our shared future, the question is:  What can we do to make democracies deliver on the issues that matter most to our people?
So today, with your indulgence, I’d like to highlight three issues that the United States sees as critically important to answering this call, particularly for our own hemisphere.  They are areas where we come with ideas, but just as important, we come to listen with humility.
The humility is in part because we know there is so much to learn from our neighbors, and it comes in part because we know that the United States has not always practiced what it preached in our hemisphere, that there are times in our history when we supported governments in the Americas that did not reflect the choice or the will of their people and did not respect their human rights.
The first challenge – Marcela talked about this – the first challenge is corruption, which is a daily reality for people around the world, including in the Americas.  Corruption is estimated to cost up to 5 percent of global GDP.  It stifles growth, it discourages investment, it deepens inequities. But maybe its greatest toll is on citizens’ trust in government.
In fact, if you look at the vast majority of broad-based civilian uprisings around the world in recent years –the Maidan in Ukraine, Tahrir Square in Egypt; from Romania to Tunisia, from Sudan to Guatemala – you will find at their core a total revulsion at corruption.
It affects people in every aspect of their daily lives, and it drains resources from the state that could be spent and dedicated to a school, to a hospital, to something that actually improves lives of people.
So the United States is focusing on how we can more effectively fight corruption, which President Biden has for the first time designated as a core U.S. national security interest.  We’re cracking down on illicit financing, seizing and freezing stolen assets, making it harder for those who steal to hide behind anonymity.
We’re strengthening the tools that we have to hold accountable corrupt individuals and groups, from targeted anticorruption sanctions, to criminal and civil enforcement actions, to denying visas to corrupt officials and their families.
These tools will help us raise the cost of corruption far beyond our borders.
But because corruption is borderless, and because corrupt actors are very adept at exploiting the weakest links in our interconnected global system, no country can effectively fight corruption alone, or even just with the help of other governments.  We need strong anticorruption partners everywhere – and in every field.
That’s why we’re developing new tools and programs to enhance the capacity of partner governments, investigative journalists, anticorruption campaigners, businesses.  It’s why we’re deepening our collaboration with the European Union, the G7, the OECD, and other groups of countries that share our commitment to tackling this scourge.  It’s why we’re holding ourself and our partners to the Lima Commitment we made at the 2018 Summit of the Americas, where we all pledged to advance democratic governance against corruption in concrete ways.
Across these efforts, we’re taking a hard look at what works best in fighting corruption – a question at the heart of a comprehensive review that agencies across the U.S. Government are currently undertaking at the instruction of President Biden.  What we learn will help inform how we focus our energy and resources going forward – at home, across the Americas, around the world.
The second challenge is civilian security.  For decades, the United States has made massive investments in reducing violence in the hemisphere through combating transnational criminal organizations.  And for good reason: Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region in the world.
But our record on partnering with the region’s democracies to improve civilian security has been mixed.  That’s because often, we tried to fix this problem by relying too much on training and equipping security forces, and too little on the other tools in our kit.  We focused too much on addressing the symptoms of organized crime, like homicides and drug trafficking, and too little on the root causes.  We’re working to correct that imbalance.
We’re doing more to expand economic opportunity, especially for underserved populations who might be drawn into illicit activity because they feel they have no other choice.  We’re increasing our investment in substance abuse prevention, treatment, recovery for those struggling with addiction – both to reduce the profound harm that illicit drugs inflict on our communities, and to reduce the demand in the United States fueling so much violence and criminal activity.  We’re supporting community-based violence prevention efforts, which empower the local actors who are caught between violent criminal organizations and abusive security forces, and give them the tools to repair the social fabric of their communities.  And we’re continuing to invest in shoring up the rule of law, training prosecutors and judges who are crucial to investigating and prosecuting these cases.
This emphasis on root causes is at the heart of a series of high level economic and security dialogues that we convened over recent weeks with the Government of Mexico.  The range of senior leaders from both countries who took part – drawn from justice, trade, treasury, commerce, development, homeland security, and foreign policy – reflects the comprehensive approach that we are now determined to take.  We and our partners in Colombia will bring a similar approach to tomorrow’s High-Level Dialogue.
And as I discussed with President Lasso yesterday, we believe a similarly holistic approach to citizen security – one that is not overly reliant on security forces – is most likely to be effective here in Ecuador as well.
We have seen the state of exception that President Lasso declared earlier this week, and the president and I had a chance to discuss it yesterday.  For the United States, I made clear that we understand that there are times democracies need to take exceptional measures to ensure the safety and security of their citizens.  But it is essential to balance that need against the need to respect the human rights of all citizens.  It’s also crucial that these measures are designed and implemented in accordance with the rule of law, limited in scope and duration, and subject to oversight and judicial review.  The security forces that carry out these measures must abide by international standards – and be held accountable when they are not doing so.
Without these limits, we have seen how the exception can become the rule; how efforts aimed at protecting citizens from one threat can leave them vulnerable to another.
President Lasso assured me that his government is committed to upholding these standards, which are so important to the Ecuadorian people and their democratic values.  And I made clear that maintaining these standards is also a priority for the United States.
The third challenge is focusing our democracies on tackling the economic and social challenges that are facing our people.  Now, this should be obvious, but the reality is we’ve often put more energy into strengthening civil and political rights, as vital and important as they are – free and fair elections, the rule of law, freedom of speech and assembly – and less into strengthening people’s economic and social rights, like bolstering labor standards, expanding access to adequate education and health, providing more inclusive opportunities.  People across our hemisphere are demanding that we do both, and the United States hears that call.
That’s the idea behind President Biden’s efforts to make a once-in-generations investment in our working families.  It’s the idea driving massive investments the United States is making in improving the lives and welfare of people around the Americas.  Since 2020, we’ve invested more than $10 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean through the International Development Finance Corporation.  That in turn leverages billions more in private sector investment.  Here in Ecuador, for example, we’re working with the Banco de la Producción to analyze – excuse me, to catalyze $150 million in loans to small business.  Small business, we know from our experience, from your experience, is a primary driver of growth and the best way to get people jobs.
We’re not just making these investments, we’re doing it in a way that is transparent; that treats local communities as partners rather than miring them in a pernicious cycle of debt; that’s sustainable for the environment, rather than extractive; and that respects labor rights and human rights.
Making these kinds of investments helps puncture the myth that authoritarian governments like to tell about themselves: that they are better at delivering for people’s basic needs.  Autocrats offer people a false choice: you can either have basic civil and political rights, or you can have a higher standard of living.  But for all the promises autocrats have made about improving people’s welfare, their track record, that tells a different story.
But just because the democracies may be performing better in the hemisphere doesn’t mean we’re doing well enough by our people.
And that’s especially true for underserved populations.  Deep, longstanding discrimination is rife in our democracies.  The roots of this injustice run deep, all the way back to slavery and colonization.  And the United States’ story is inextricably bound up in this history, in ways that are humbling, because of the role our nation played in perpetuating exploitation and racism, and at the same time inspiring, because of the generations of Americans, including so many people today, who have dedicated their lives to beating back the ugly legacy of racism and all forms of discrimination.
Racism makes democracies less prosperous, less stable, less equitable.  It fosters polarization and distrust.  And it robs democracies of the strength, the innovation, the creativity that can be drawn from diverse and inclusive communities and workplaces.  It requires a concerted, urgent effort on the part of all of our communities and institutions to address this challenge.  Including government institutions like the one I lead, where one of my top priorities at the State Department is ensuring that our diplomats reflect America in all of its remarkable diversity.  Our foreign policy will be better for it as well.
The Universidad San Francisco de Quito has something, I think, to teach us about this.  Since the founding of this institution, the university has made promoting equity and inclusion a core part of its mission.  Every year, the university makes it possible for hundreds of indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian students to study here, groups that have traditionally been under-represented in higher education due to chronic underdevelopment and unequal access to opportunity.  Every student who attends this university gets a better education because of its more diverse student body.
So while we see real challenges in our democracies, we also have no doubt about the best way to tackle them.  It’s putting these problems out in the open, working together, including with people that you don’t always see eye-to-eye with – that’s the way to fix them.  This has always been democracy’s greatest strength: an ability to improve on itself.
In the United States, we’re founded on the basic principle that our national mission is to form a more perfect union, and by definition that’s an acknowledgment that we are not perfect and never will be, but we will constantly strive to match what we do to the ideals of our founders.
There’s no threat that we face that better democracy, more democracy cannot fix – no challenge where a closed system would do better for people than an open one.
And for all the challenges facing democracies, I think we have reason to be optimistic.  Particularly in our hemisphere, where we have a deeply integrated group of partners who not only share our values, but are also bound together by culture and community, and where we are blessed with a remarkable wealth in natural resources and biodiversity, provided we protect them.
But most of all, I think we should be optimistic because of our people: the demos at the heart of democracy.  Look at the march forward of any of our democracies over time and what you’ll see, time and again, is that it’s been driven not by governments, but by ordinary people.  Women and men, often young ones, often with a lot to lose, who were committed to improving the lives of their families and their communities.  These are the people who have consistently closed the gap between what democracies promise and what they deliver.
We have every reason to believe that citizens will keep doing so.  Ecuador’s recent history shows that that’s true.  So does our experience in the United States, where our democracy has also been tested.
And for all their frustrations with democracy, the majority of people in the hemisphere share that faith.  Some 63 percent of people in Latin America still believe democracy is the best system of government, compared to 13 percent who feel that way about authoritarian government.
Indeed, some look at protests and mass movements criticizing democratic governments in the Americas or elsewhere and see it as a sign that democracy is in decline.  I see it as a sign of democracy’s strength.  I see people who believe enough in their system to want to try to fix it.
Our greatest risk is not that our citizens are too critical of democracy, but rather that they stop caring about it.  That they give up.
And that’s why I’m confident in the future of democracy in the Americas.  Because we have the most extraordinary individuals working to make the system better.
People like Diana Salazar Méndez.  She was raised north of here, in Ibarra, by a single mother, who drilled into her from an early age the importance of serving her community and – above else – integrity.  Diana paid her way through university, working days and taking classes by night, writing her thesis on the human trafficking of African migrants across Ecuador.
She said that she felt drawn to the work of social justice because she has it in her blood.  Her uncle had been blocked from pursuing a career in the military because he was Afro-Ecuadorian.  And after she finished her studies in the law, Diana was passed over multiple times for appointments as a prosecutor for the same reason.
But she stayed at it, eventually got her first post, and has since dedicated her career to holding powerful people to account.  Mafias.  Politicians, including former presidents.  Businessmen.  She has been smeared, threatened, was once almost lost at sea in an operation to intercept drug smugglers.  But she refused to be intimidated.  Asked why, she said, “El que tiene la verdad no debe tener miedo.”
“He who is right should not be afraid.”
Today, Diana is, of course, Ecuador’s Attorney General.  (Applause.)
And people like Nina Gualinda, a leader from Ecuador’s indigenous Kichwa community.  In 2001, Nina was just eight years old when an oil company came to drill on the land in the Amazon where she and her family live.  Her mother and aunt led the community in opposing the project, and they endured constant threats and attacks for their efforts.  But they kept resisting – through civil disobedience, organizing, legal challenges – giving Nina an education in advocacy.
When, after a decade, her community’s case finally made its way before the Inter-American Court, 18-year-old Nina spoke in the hearing on the part of the community.  The court ruled that Ecuador must consult indigenous communities before licensing oil companies to do business on their land.  Almost a decade later, Nina helped lead a group of indigenous women in collecting more than 250,000 signatures demanding that the government investigate the systemic attacks against women defenders of the Amazon.  A petition that was handed over to the Attorney General of Ecuador, Diana Salazar.
Just think how improbable it is that the trajectories of these two extraordinary women would intersect.  An Afro-Ecuadorian, once passed over for an entry-level prosecutor job because she is black.  An indigenous leader whose struggle to give her community a say in its future began when she saw her community invaded as an eight-year-old girl.
And yet, the meeting of their paths is emblematic of the singular strength of democracies to be shaped by individuals.  One working from inside of government, the other from outside, but both coming from places where so many odds were stacked against them.  Democracy works – it evolves, it improves on itself – because of people like Diana and Nina.  People who experience first-hand the consequences of a system that doesn’t work the way it should, who see the gap between democracies’ principles and its practices, and decide to dedicate their lives to bettering it anyway – for people like them, and for generations to come.
And it works because they don’t give up.  They tenaciously defend every centimeter of progress that’s been made, knowing that the forces seeking to weaken democracy are just as relentless.  Autocrats will never stop plotting to take power; the corrupt will never stop looking for ways to profit at others’ expense.  Just look around.
That’s the reason it’s so important that each and every one of us, particularly rising generations, all of you, stay engaged, and bring others along with us.  Because that’s the thing about democracy – it’s a project that’s never finished.
And as long as our societies make it possible for people like Nina and Diana to improve the system from within, we can be sure that democracy will not only persevere, it will prevail.
Thank you so much.  Gracias a todos.  Thank you.
(Applause.)
MS BUENO:  Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.  And so now we have a chance to have a little conversation with you.  So to start this conversation, you were talking about some of these things, and I would love to know:  What do you think about young people in Ecuador and the region?
Considering the social protests that you were mentioning and that have occurred in Latin America in the recent months and years, and this year’s cases of corruption in various countries, and the growing wave of migration, it is evident the region is going through very difficult times.  And the situation was exacerbated by the pandemic, which changed almost everything we knew.  What message would you share at the regional level, especially with young people so that democratic values in the fight against corruption become a priority for life?
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  So thank you, Marcela.  I think I’d say a few things.  First of all, as we were just discussing, what I think we’ve seen time and again in our common history is that young people with their energy, with their enthusiasm, with their openness to new ideas, are drivers of change.  And our societies simply don’t advance without that.
Those of us who do our jobs for a few years or a few decades or more, even when we try really hard, we sometimes become a little bit set in our ways.  We have a way of doing things, a way of thinking about things.  That constantly needs to be challenged, and the people who challenge it the best usually are younger generations, because just because something has been done one way for the last 50 or a hundred years doesn’t mean it has to be done the same way for the next 50 or a hundred years.
So it’s usually important, especially for those of us who are in positions of responsibility, whether it’s in government or in the private sector or in NGOs, to make sure that we are hearing from, listening to, engaging with younger generations.  That’s the first thing.
The second thing is, to your point, all of us in different ways have had a once-in-generations experience with COVID-19, and as we were talking about, that’s only put a brighter light on so many of the challenges and inequities that our societies face.  But I hope that we can approach this moment with the spirit of trying to find in crisis, in catastrophe, actual opportunity.  Because sometimes, something like COVID-19 is also an opportunity to reset what you’re doing, to look at how you can do things differently, how you can do things better.
We’re focused a lot, for example, on how do we build our economies back in a more equitable way.  For many, many years, we looked at the measures of success in an economy just by the overall number of growth in the economy.  In the United States, we often look to our stock market.  And we lost sight of the fact that growth without equity is not ultimately sustainable and doesn’t do the job.  So in all aspects of our life, there’s an opportunity now to use this moment to think, “Okay, how can we do what we’ve been doing better?  How can we do it in a way that reaches and captures more people?  How can we do it with greater equity?”  And again, I think many of the young people here today will bring their ideas, their passion to answering that question.
MS BUENO:  Thank you very much, and talking about young people, I would love to have Camila Becerra, president of the student government of Universidad San Francisco, she is going to ask you a question.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Great.
QUESTION:  Such a pleasure, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.
QUESTION:  Thank you for being here, and also, welcome to Ecuador.  Well, as they already present me, my name is Camila.  I’m the president of the university’s student government, and, well, I have a question for you.
As you said before, the instability of certain countries in South and Central America, as well, for example, Afghanistan, is clear.  And this causes many people to have to leave their country due to different threats, and in this regard, Joe Biden has promised a more human immigration policy.
And, well, my question is:  How is this currently being carried out, and what is the plan of action regard to this?  Thank you very much.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much, and thank you for your leadership, for your engagement on so many things.  It’s wonderful to hear.  So a few things, and this is an incredibly important question.  It’s also a very complicated one.
Let’s start with this.  We’re living in our hemisphere in an almost unprecedented moment of migration and irregular migrations of various kinds: the Northern Triangle countries; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Venezuela, as Ecuadorians know so well; Haitian populations not only from Haiti but many residing in Chile and Brazil; Ecuadorians.  And all of this is coming together for a whole variety of reasons to include the fact that, as we were saying, COVID-19 has had such a devastating economic impact that it is denied opportunity in places where opportunity was already lacking.  And then, of course, with the relative lifting of COVID, that’s created an environment in which people have felt like now is the time to try to do something else.  So that’s one aspect of things.  It’s almost unprecedented.
That means that we have to find ways to address the challenge together, because no one of our countries addressing it alone is going to succeed.  We have to have a sense of shared responsibility and common action.  And by the way, that’s one of the things that we’ll be talking about later this afternoon in Bogota where, with the foreign minister, we will be meeting with our colleagues to focus on that issue.
But to your point about a humane system, one that is safe, that respects the rule of law but that is humane and that is founded on human dignity – maybe the most important thing of all – we have a lot of work to do.  And so I think there are two things that we need to focus on:  the short term and the medium and long term.
In the short term, we do have to get a handle, as we would say, on this challenge, and that means countries taking steps to make it clear that people cannot simply move freely from south to north and they will not be able to get into the United States.  There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and so we have to work together in a humane way to do that, to make sure that people who are in need of protection get it, but for those who are not and don’t have a regular way to come to our countries, they will have to return to the countries that they started from in their journeys.
But as important, that’s a – these are near-term measures that don’t answer the fundamental problem.  And the fundamental problem and challenge requires a few things.  First, in the United States, we are working very hard to expand and increase legal pathways to migration so that people who want to come and contribute, as generation after generation has done in my country, can do so, and do so legally.  So we’re working on that.
We’re also working to put far more resources into our own asylum system and process because that system has, over many years, been overwhelmed, so that if people are coming to our country seeking asylum, as they have a right to do and as has been our tradition for many years, that they are given a very quick, effective, and open hearing, and that we can decide very quickly whether they meet the requirements for asylum or not.  If they do, they can come to the United States.  If they don’t, they will need to return to the countries that they came from.  But that requires us to put a lot more effort and resources into the system.
Finally, and maybe most important of all, if together we are not addressing the root causes of what is motivating people to move, to leave, then we really will not get at the challenge.
Recently, I have a colleague from Central America who said that there should be a right to remain.  And that means, simply put, that people have to have opportunity; they have to be treated with dignity; they have to see that they can build a future for themselves and their families in their countries of origin because if they don’t have that, it’s not really a surprise that we see these mass movements of people.  The idea that someone gets up in the morning and says, you know what?  I’m going to leave behind everything I know – my family, my friends, my community, my culture, my language, my experience – I’m going to make an incredibly hazardous journey that puts my life at risk to try to go to a country where maybe you’re not – maybe I’m welcome, maybe I’m not, that doesn’t just happen.  It happens because there’s something driving and pushing people to feel that their only choice is to do that.  We have to give them another choice, and of course we have to deal with other drivers of migration – violence, conflict, corruption.  All of those things come together.  Governments have to play their parts.  All of us have to play our parts.
So I’m sorry for going on so long, but it’s a big, big challenge and one that has to be addressed both in the immediate, to deal with the current challenge, but also to deal with these longer-term aspects because if we don’t, we won’t succeed.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
MS BUENO:  Mr. Secretary, you are surrounded this morning by wonderful women, let me tell you.  And so I would love to call on Fernanda Perugachi.  She has a question for you.  Where are you, Fernanda?  Oh, over there.  Thank you.
QUESTION:  (via translation) Good morning with everyone.
My name is Fernanda Estefania Perugachi [inaudible] I come representing one of the indigenous and ancestral peoples of Ecuador, I come from the south of Imbabura province, from Otavalo county, from a rural community .
I am a daughter of the sun, which welcomes you today, on this morning. Welcome to Ecuador. I come with my mom today who is an inspiration for me and she is a midwife who is preserving ancestral practices in the area of medicine. (Applause.)
I am a youth who thinks that pursuing your dreams has no limits, since dreams are yours and nobody can take them away. I have looked for and found the opportunities to participate in several programs that the U.S Embassy supports, for which I am very grateful as this has been one of the main motivations to continue with this fight, you can say, where we the youth from these indigenous peoples are motivated to have a voice and be the pioneers in the sense of education, equality, and gender equality too. And among them my question goes related to the topic and we know very well that the United States is among the countries that promotes equality and human rights, now that we have been affected by the pandemic and all of this, working on the improvement and support for gender equality, seen through the lens of inclusion, rural communities have suffered and they have been negatively affected by this inequality that we live in. From our own experience, how are we going to protect that, so that we can continue and so that you can still offer us these tools to motivate us and to tell the youth of these communities that they should not limit themselves for belonging to an indigenous community, but instead it is us that are protecting our land thanks to the support we find in you. Once again thank you, it is an honor for me to be here, talking from our own community, from our own peoples. (Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, let me first say it’s my honor to hear from you and to be with you today, to be with your mother today.  Thank you for being here, thank you for sharing that with all of us, and thank you for what you’re doing every single day.
One of the things that COVID-19 has exposed are some of the very inequities that you just described.  Because we’ve seen the pandemic itself have a disproportionate impact on underserved communities around the world, including in the United States.  We’ve seen violence against women and girls increase significantly during the pandemic for a variety of reasons.  And, of course, we’ve seen a devastating not just health impact but economic impact – again, with underserved communities feeling the biggest part of the burden.
And this gets back to what we were saying.  If we’ve now seen that even more clearly – because it’s not as if this wasn’t already the case, but COVID has made it more visible, I think, to many of us – now, do we use the opportunity to do something about it?
And so for example, as we are looking at how to direct resources around the world to help economies rebound from the pandemic, one of the things we’re focused on is making sure that those resources are directed more at underserved communities.  Here in Ecuador, to cite just one small example, we have a program through something called the Development Finance Corporation, which has loaned a significant amount of money to one of your leading banks, but with a focus on in turn lending that money to small and medium sized businesses, including in indigenous communities, and also to small businesses that are run by women and women entrepreneurs.  That’s a way of putting resources to support people, to give them a chance to start a business, to earn a better salary.  That’s one small example.
In a totally different way, we’re looking at what tools governments can have to do a more effective job in combating violence against women.  In our own country, this has been an issue for many years and for President Biden maybe the most important issue, if you ask him, that he’s worked on.  One of the things that he’s proudest of in his career, even – maybe even prouder of than being President, is the fact that many years ago he wrote a law called the Violence Against Women Act that worked to help the United States deal with this very, very, horrific problem that we were seeing in our communities with resources, with laws, with new tools that allowed us to combat violence against women.  We now work on that internationally as well.
So it’s a long way of saying that for each of the challenges that you mentioned, let’s use this moment to see if we can’t do a better job in addressing them.
And finally, let me say this.  I think, again, in our – in my own country we have a challenge that’s existed for a long time: an urban and rural divide.  That’s something that we also have to close.  So many of us now are dependent on technology in all aspects of our lives, but we know that there’s what’s called a digital divide between communities that have access to information technology and communities that don’t.  The communities that don’t are going to be significantly disadvantaged in this economy that we all live with.  So we have to do a better job in making sure that that divide is closed, that rural communities benefit in the same way that urban ones do from technology as well as from investment and support.
So in many of these ways we have a lot of work to do, and it’s so important that you put the spotlight on it and help us do it.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
MS BUENO:  Thank you.  Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.  And as Fernanda said, even the sunshine came out to receive you today, but also because you said things in such a beautiful way, and we’ll always remember – now more than ever – that democratic values should be the priority of our lives.
Thank you very much, and thank you all for being here, and have a very nice rest of the day and a good trip to Colombia also.  Thank you for everything you are doing.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Gracias. Gracias. Thank you.  (Applause.)
# # #