SECRETARY RICE: Well, obviously, it was a disappointment to see what happened to the immigration bill, because the President worked very hard to try to bring about a bipartisan bill that would have modernized our immigration system, both in terms of security at the border and in terms of finding a way for people who are here to be treated with the kind of dignity that they deserve. And so it was a disappointment.

I think there will be an assessment of what we can do. There are no plans currently because obviously, the Congress is only a few weeks more in session now before the summer break. But I do think that the principles that were embodied in the immigration bill are important for people in the region to know, because they really are, to my mind, the best principles that the United States stands on, which is that we are a country of immigrants. We are a country of laws. And so people need to respect our laws and illegal immigration cannot be rewarded.

But we understand also, as the President often said when he was governor of Texas, that family values don't stop at the Rio Grande. And there are people who are working here who are contributing to the American economy and who need to be treated in a humane fashion. And so those are the principles on which that bill was put forward and I hope that we'll find a way to address those principles again.

The only other point that I would make is that, of course, we will do everything that we can to continue to work with our neighbors to improve economic conditions in the neighborhood because, obviously, every country wants its most ambitious citizens to stay home and to work for the betterment of the country. And people who will go through what these people have gone through to get to the United States are clearly ambitious. And so we'll begin to work on the economic side, too.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, José Carreño with El Universal of Mexico. I wonder -- the relation with Mexico seems to have shifted towards security -- a greater security position, and that it's told that Mexico's asking for about a billion dollars also in aid, specifically to fight drugs and violence, (inaudible) violence -- can you tell us about that specific requests?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think the broad -- the relations -- the first point I would make is that it's a very broad relationship with Mexico and it, of course, continues to have a strong economic development component launched largely in the context of NAFTA, but also the kind of work we've done on the environment. We're neighbors, so we have many very important economic and environmental issues that we are working together on. And of course, the relationship remains important culturally; the number of students going back and forth, the kind of people-to-people contacts.

And so it's a broad relationship, but obviously, security has taken on a greater role because we want our citizens to be secure on both sides of the border, and particularly, the kinds of problems that are associated with gangland warfare and with drugs need to be addressed. And so we are working with President Calderon and his administration to see what we can do to help address the concerns that Mexico has about security.

We are also going to work in a regional context because, of course, these issues affect also Central America and you get a pressure outward from Central America into Mexico and into the United States of criminal elements as well. And so there -- when the President was in the region recently, he met with President Calderon, but he also -- when he was in Guatemala, they talked about the importance of a regional security -- regional security efforts.

So we will look at proposals that are being made by Mexico. We see it as an opportunity for neighbors to address common problems that affect all of our populations, but that's how we want to look at it. And we're looking at the specifics and we'll work on the specifics.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, a very fast --

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, sure.

QUESTION: -- follow-up if I may. But Congress has been very reluctant to, for instance, approve the requests from the Administration. For instance, in the case of Colombia, they have switched, et cetera. What will be the possibilities of the Administration to come out with this kind of request? Will the Administration be able to come out with a full -- let's say with a full -- with everything that the Mexicans are asking, or will there be any kind of limits?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think we have to look more closely and we're just doing that now, at an expert level, at what we can do together and what we should do together. We are obviously very favorable -- favorably inclined toward ideas from our Mexican neighbors that would make populations more secure. That's extremely important. It's important to the Government of Mexico, it's important to the Government of the United States; as I said, it's important regionally.

I think we have to look at the specifics, but the situation in Colombia and the situation in Mexico are, of course, different. They have different -- the Colombian situation has a different origin in terms of the FARC and the terrorism there and ultimately, the drug trade there. But in the whole region, we all have to recognize that the combination of criminal elements, terrorist elements, problems of corruption and rule of law, the drug trade all come together to put populations at risk. And so we're going to want to try to be responsive to Mexico's concerns in this area, although I can't comment on what we'll be able to do about the specifics to that.

QUESTION: Antonieta Cadiz of El Mercurio. In -- I have to ask about Chile. Considering the delicate situations in the region as problems with democracy in Venezuela and Cuban transition, what is the role that the United States expects from a country like Chile within the region?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, first of all, let me say that we have just an excellent relationship with Chile and we have for a number of years; a free trade agreement that's working very well for both sides; I think political relations that have been very strong. And we expect of Chile what we expect of ourselves, which is that we will uphold the values that we share, we will uphold the values of the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the OAS. It is a good thing that Chile remains active in the region and has good relations with all of the countries of the region, but I have found that Chile has been very active in promoting these values and in promoting democracy.

Now in the case of Venezuela, it's obviously important, when something happens like RCTV, for people to speak up about that, because it's not right for a government to close down free media because they think they're going to be criticized.

The Cuban transition is something that I think we'll all have an opportunity to work together on because there is a transition underway in Cuba. We don't know when it will come to an end, but it's underway. And what we need to say to the Cuban people, in no uncertain terms, is that they -- we will stand for their right to free and fair elections, when that transition happens, that we're not going to tolerate the transfer of power from one dictator to another, that the Cuban people have the same rights to democracy and liberty and freedom that we all enjoy. A country like Chile that has gone through some very terrible times in terms of tyranny, in terms of oppression, perhaps can speak to that even more effectively than can the United States.

And so I would hope that we could work together on this so that the Cuban people know that we intend to stand for their rights. And I should say too that we expect the future of Cuba to be decided by Cubans on the island, Cubans who will have to emerge from this authoritarian situation to claim their democratic future. But they need the support of countries like Chile and countries like the United States. I think our work with Chile, our relationship with Chile also shows that the United States doesn't look at whether a government is from the left or from the right. That's not the issue. We have excellent relations with Chile, excellent relations with Brazil, excellent relations with Uruguay, all governments of the left.

But what we want to do is to cooperate with governments that govern democratically, that are trying to deal with the concerns and the aspirations of their people, and that will uphold rule of law. That is, for us, the only basis for a good relationship.

QUESTION: I'm Christina Ozaeta of the Spanish news agency. I would like to know what you expect from the conference that's taking place today.

SECRETARY RICE: This conference is celebrating the relationship of countries in the Americas. But it's celebrating it not just from the point of view of the relationship of governments, but from the relationship of our peoples. So it's that well represented for the businesspeople there, well represented with civil society. I suspect there's some academic university kinds of people there. Because the point that we want to make is that the President and this administration are very devoted to a Latin America that is free and democratic, that is prosperous and has open economies, but their people are benefiting from those -- from economic growth and from trade. And where we are attentive to help, where we are attentive to education, where the United States is having doubled its foreign assistance to Latin America is sending a message that we know that when you have democracies, they have to deliver for their people. People who have gone out and held elections and they've voted for people, they expect those governments to deal with their needs. And we know, too, that there have been disappointments in parts of the region about how well democracies have delivered.

It's -- I think it is not by any means a rejection of democracy. It is rather that people want to hold their democratic governments accountable. So we want to help those democratic governments be accountable to their people, be responsive to the needs of their people and that's why we've had this doubling of assistance. We also want very much for Latin America to be a region that is forward looking, that recognizes that if you looked at Latin America 20 years ago or 25 years ago, you would never have thought that you would have the wide range of democratic governments that you do in Latin America. So we have something to celebrate, but we want to celebrate at the level of our governments, but we also want to celebrate it at the level of our peoples and that's really what this conference will do.

QUESTION: Hugo Alconada from La Nación Alconada from Argentina. My question is, of course, regarding Argentina. You just mentioned Uruguay, Brazil and Chile, like three countries which are ones are -- from the left and they have an excellent relationship with the U.S. What about Argentina? What can be achieved? Argentina is not like Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, but neither is Venezuela and Bolivia. What can --

SECRETARY RICE: Absolutely not. And in fact, there is -- I think we have a good relationship with Argentina. We've not always agreed about some of the steps that have been taken in Argentina. But I would remind everyone that the United Status was the most supportive of Argentina. When Argentina was in real trouble a few years ago, it was the United States that intervened with the IMF, to support Argentina for terms of its standby agreement and not just once, several times. And so we have been very supportive of Argentina. I hope that as Argentina looks to its future, it looks to preserve the kind of free market principals that are producing growth in the rest of the region. I think it's a good thing that Argentina has been able to deal with debt issues and the like. Those are all good -- good elements. And clearly the stability of the Argentine Government has been a relief for Argentines who, as we remember went through several presidencies in a very short period of time.

Yes, it was really a difficult time. I was National Security Advisor at the time. But again, I would just say that we look to all of our neighbors for active, democratic principles, for free market principles and for standing up for the rest of the neighborhood to do the same. And so speaking out against activities and policies in the region that are not helpful. So, no, I would not suggest that our relations with Argentina are bad by any stretch of the imagination. But we do not agree on everything, but I would just ask Argentina to remember how strongly the United States supported it in times of trouble.

QUESTION: And would you leave your message for the Argentines, not their government, the Argentines?

SECRETARY RICE: That they have a friend in the United States and that we've demonstrated that time and time again. And that it's important to pay attention to the real means of progress: free markets; free trade; open economies; job growth that is based on real economic progress; to not give in to tendencies that would be short-term solutions to long-term problems, because short-term solutions to long-term problems always come back to haunt you. You can't fix what is wrong with an economy by government intervention in that economy that stifles the private sector because if we've learned anything worldwide now, it is that private sector growth, not government sector growth is the real engine for economic development. And so I would say that sometimes patience is required to have the right structural foundation for prosperity.

Yes.

QUESTION: All right. Mauricio Rabuffetti with Agence France Presse. Last week, during a meeting between President Chavez of Venezuela and President Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran, both presidents appears to move forward with kind of anti-American alliance laying the foundations of a joint petrochemical plant, saying they have brotherly ties and telling (inaudible) total who are hurt by this friendly relations between nations to die of their pain. They also called the United States and Europe barbarians. And my question is, you are worried about the fact that Venezuela and Iran are working together and also criticizing the United States together.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the first part of that is we have a positive agenda for Latin America and it has very little to do with worrying about criticism for Hugo Chavez. It's -- the positive agenda with Latin America is the kind of thing we've been talking about here -- extraordinarily good relationships with Mexico that I think go beyond where we've been before, with Chile, with Brazil -- you know, differences with Argentina, but still good relations. So -- and working on democratic accountability and healthcare and education and that's what the U.S. agenda is in Latin America.

Now, I suppose I would ask, what that meeting did for the people of Venezuela and for the people of Iran. After all Ahmadi-Nejad left behind him gas ration and riots at gas stations and two Security Council resolutions that isolate Iran, declining export credits from countries actually that can't help Iran, like the Europeans, financial institutions leaving the country because they will not accept the reputational and the investment risk of dealing with a country that's under a Chapter 7 resolution. And if the meeting in Venezuela helped them to deal with that then I suppose it's was a good thing from his point of view. I think this does nothing for the people of Iran and nothing for the people of Venezuela. From the point of view of the United States, we're going to continue to pursue policies that cooperate with governments, wherever they come from on the political spectrum in Latin America that are prepared to try and make life better for their people. They're going to continue to pursue that. And concerning Iran, we're going to continue to pursue the -- now what is an international policy, not a U.S. policy, an international policy, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from -- to stop Iran from making trouble in most of the Middle East, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And we're going to continue to pursue Iran's isolation. Now, the Iranian people deserve better and we have tried simultaneously to reach out to the Iranian people and to let them know that we want Iran to be a strong and developed and technologically sophisticated country in accordance with its great history and great national character. And so those are the policies we are going to pursue and no, we're not going to be unnerved by a meeting between Hugo Chavez and Ahmadi-Nejad, who seem to me to have bigger problems.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Adriana Garcia from Reuters, Latin America. I want to talk about Brazil and especially talking about Venezuela -- who may seem as a possible leader in the region, someone that can influence other countries, but he doesn't have the oil money that Chavez has. So how do you see the relationship with the U.S. going to the next level after the visit and the ethanol agreement, what we can expect for future?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes, well, we consider Brazil a strong regional partner because of Brazil's leadership, but also a global partner. And I'll come back to the ethanol agreement, but when you look at what we've been doing with Brazil globally, we have some small education projects in Africa, we are going to work on malaria in San Tome. We -- Brazil has been active with us in the region in Haiti. And of course, you have the ethanol agreement, the alternative fuels agreement that you mentioned, which we are seeking not just to improve alternative energy supply for the United States and Brazil, but also for the region. We're going to work with Haiti, with the Central American states, and given the voluminous land that could be given over to sugar cane development, and sugar cane is a very efficient crop for ethanol, we think this is a very promising area.

So it's not just the ethanol agreement. It's what it brings us in terms of cooperation and in helping others to come to alternative fuels. I know that there were those, apparently Venezuela and Cuba, who found this agreement somewhat unnerving -- speaking of unnerving -- and since it's not aimed at anybody, it's aimed at the effort to create alternatives to a carbon-based economy. And that, of course, has not just -- or carbon-based energy for economic growth. And that's not just for the energy supply -- of course, that's important -- but also for the environment, because if we are going to improve our environmental stewardship, if we're not going to have increases in greenhouse gas emissions, we're going to have to find alternatives to oil and to carbon-based sources for energy.

So we think that the ethanol agreement with Brazil is just the beginning of a transformed relationship that is appropriate to the size and importance of Brazil both regionally and globally.

I would mention too that in many ways, the United States and Brazil are more alike than most places: big, multiethnic democracies; huge population of African descent. I've been very interested myself in the issues concerning Afro-Brazilians, as with Afro-Colombians and other African descent populations in Latin America, because that -- an indigenous people represent, still, a kind of marginalized population. And one of the things that we've been trying to do in the work that we're doing on the social justice issues is to make sure that some of our (inaudible) and some of our programs address these marginalized populations as well.

I've asked several times -- Sean has heard me -- of our people who run our exchanges, "Are you certain that the populations that we are bringing to the United States also include indigenous people and include people of African descent?" Because I know that if 30 years ago or 40 years ago, in the United States, you had just gone through ordinary processes to identify people who might go on an exchange, you would never have identified African Americans as a part of that group.

And I want to be sure that our exchanges are identifying that generation of people of African descent and indigenous people who then can benefit from the experience of, say, an exchange program in the United States or an international visitors program or even a university scholarship and can go back to help diversify the upper segments of those societies.

You know, we started out in the United States in a not very good place from -- in this regard. When the Constitution came into being in the United States, my ancestors were three-fifths of a man in that Constitution. The ability of African Americans to vote was really not fully guaranteed until 1964 in the -- 1965 in the United States. I remember that and -- I'm not that old and I still remember that.

And yet, here I am. I'm the 66th Secretary of State of the United States and I'm not even the first black Secretary of State. That was Colin Powell. So we've made progress, but we had to be very systematic in making sure that we were creating opportunities for people of color to come up through the ranks and to have opportunities so that they could then emerge into the government and into higher ranks of business and into higher ranks of universities.

And in talking to my colleagues in Latin America, I think this is a process that's just really beginning in Latin America. And it's a process that I really want to see the United States support because multiethnic democracies need to preserve the belief that you can progress by merit, that it doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you're going. They have to preserve the belief that you don't have to be of a particular color or a particular ethnic background or a particular economic status in life in order to progress. Democracies have to do that. Authoritarian regimes can be very hierarchical and don't have to, but democracies have to do that. And so that's another element of the policy that very much attracts me to Brazil, because it's a wonderful, vibrant culture with so many cultures mixed in one, like the United States.

QUESTION: Can I follow up on that?

SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, sure.

QUESTION: Do you fear that the -- Brazil can be seen as an imperialist country in the region? Because you know, Latin America -- you know, countries have issues with each other all the time. And we do -- we have the same language.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: It's big like the U.S.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: So how do you address that?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think the countries of Latin America all are fiercely independent, so I don't think anyone is going to do that. And I find my Brazilian colleagues quite aware of and sensitive to any sense that that might be the case, that they recognize the importance of equality of relations among the states. And I've found Brazil respectful of that.

Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: If I may, one very, very fast, last question. Do you believe that Senator's -- McCain's complaints about the quote -- "The Bush Administration lost Latin America," unquote? Is that true?

SECRETARY RICE: You know, I look at what is going on in Latin America. I look at the doubling of assistance to Latin America. I look at the fact that 15, 20 years ago, you would never have thought you had this many democratic states in Latin America. I look at our outstanding relations with Brazil, with Chile, even countries of the left. I look at Central America, where despite the fact that in Nicaragua, the Sandanistas came back to power, we have excellent relations with all of Central America, a Central America Free Trade Agreement that's making real benefits to people. I look at the Millennium Challenge Account that has huge assistance programs in those countries, look at free trade agreements that I hope we will pass for Panama and Peru and for Colombia.

I think our policies in Latin America, and particularly given now the way that after the President's speech we are able to highlight our own interest in social justice -- look, I think I can -- I think it would be fair criticism of American policy, not just of this Administration but of American policy, that we were very focused on macroeconomic issues and on growth and on free trade, all of which are very important. But in recent years, we've begun to really try to make the link between sound macroeconomic policies and good outcomes for a population in terms of healthcare, in terms of education, in terms of job growth, in terms of opportunity, in terms of dealing with marginalized populations. And I think this President has made that link.

And so I consider Latin America to be a good story and I don't know where the notion of having lost Latin America -- when I think about the region, when I think of the continent, I think of a continent that is so far better than it was just a few years ago and that for the most part -- and there are exceptions, but for the most part is moving forward.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

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