SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, thank you for allowing me to come. As you can imagine, last night we had the State of the Union; it was two hours, the speech, and then we got on a plane and came here. And when I told my colleagues I needed to come here to Saint Kitts and Nevis on a work trip, they were like, "Oh, sure, you're going on a work trip." (Laughter.) But in fact it is, with our important partners, allies, and friends from the region, and I want to thank you for giving me this small opportunity to share some time with you and to be a part of this gathering.
I don't know when the last time - you said 10 years ago was the last time all the members were together, or the last time a secretary of state joined you?
MODERATOR: They told me 10 years ago. That is what I am told.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I was hoping it had been some 30 years since a secretary of state came. (Laughter.) Anyway, I'm happy to be here. This is - in many ways, the Caribbean Basin is home for me, having grown up and lived almost the entirety of my life in Miami, and during my career in the United States Senate followed very carefully the issues that impact this region. And I am very happy to be in an administration that's giving priority to the Western Hemisphere after largely being ignored for a very long time. There's extraordinary opportunities. We share two things: We share common opportunities, and we share some common challenges. And that's what we hope to confront.
I want to start out by saying that I'm also happy to be part of an administration that is not constrained by outdated orthodoxy, outdated boilerplate platitudes about partnerships and the like. We are interested in rebuilding and constructing a new dynamic in this Western Hemisphere in which we partner with all of you on the issues we share in common. I won't go long. I don't want to go long, but I want to touch upon a few of those because I think they're important and they impact the broader Americas.
The first is the one I've shared with many of you individually and will share with you again now: We believe that perhaps the most urgent security threat in the region - that includes us, but obviously all of you - is the threat of these transnational criminal organizations, many of you - many of whom have funding and power that rival if not exceed that of many of the nation-states that they threaten. We recognize that it is an interlocked challenge that comes from a broader perspective. Number one, they're obviously fueled by narcotrafficking and other illicit means. Oftentimes, those drugs and the proceeds from those drugs - those drugs are destined for the United States, but the proceeds from those drugs, the money they're ultimately making, is being made in the streets of our country. This is a danger in the countries that they transit, and it's ultimately a danger to the national security of the United States.
We've also watched with alarm at the level of armament that these groups have. We recognize that many of these groups are buying weaponry from the United States, and that we are committed and continue to work very hard with our law enforcement agencies to shut that down. I hope you have seen, both in the case of Haiti but in other dynamics, that we have not shied away, not just from designating groups for what they are - these are terroristic organizations - but even individuals who are responsible for being supportive of them. We've also gone after them, and this is something that we have as a shared dynamic.
We have a long history of working together on responding to these challenges, but I think our cooperation will have to grow even deeper and our commitment to it will have to grow even stronger because these groups grow stronger.
I point you only to something not in the Caribbean Basin, but nonetheless indicative of what we're - the challenges that we're facing here, and that is the role that these drug cartels have established for themselves in Mexico. I'm not sure if you've seen some of the imagery of these groups after their leader was killed, but they're out there with full military gear, military weaponry, armed transports - very dangerous. And it is something that we need to address collectively and together.
The second thing is there are extraordinary opportunities for economic advancement, to work together on issues like energy. Energy is critical for the future; it's critical for every economy in order to prosper. Many of the countries represented here today have energy resources that I know you seek to explore responsibly, safely, but in a way that generates wealth and prosperity for your people and your countries, and we want to be your partner in that regard. So that's another area of - that hopefully we can cooperate on very closely together. And I would add to that that part of the dynamics there is some of the regional - some of the regional opportunities that are occurring.
Irrespective of how some of you may have individually felt about our operations and our policy towards Venezuela, I will tell you this, and I will tell you this without any apology or without any apprehension: Venezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago. The progress being made there is substantial, and there's a long ways to go. But the new interim authorities, led by Delcy Rodríguez, have done things that eight or nine weeks ago would have been unimaginable. They have released political prisoners; they have closed Helicoide, which is their most infamous prison of all. They are, for the first time in a long time, generating oil revenue that's going to the benefit of their people, using those funds not just to make payroll for government services but to purchase medical equipment that's necessary for their system.
There's a long ways to go, and we're committed to making it work. We have opened - reopened our embassy in Caracas, where we have an excellent chargé who's on the ground, along with other government officials, and we intend to continue to build on that. Now, we believe strongly - and I think all of you would share this view - that ultimately, in order for them to take the next step to truly develop that country and to truly benefit from that country's riches for the benefit of their people, they will need the legitimacy of democratic - fair, democratic elections. But our initial priority in the aftermath of Maduro's capture was to ensure that there wasn't instability, that there wasn't mass migration, that there wasn't spillover violence, and we believe we have achieved that.
Now we are in the process from going from that phase of stability to a phase of recovery. That country needs to recover from a lot of things, including deep, internal fractures, but also some dysfunction that existed in their economic systems. I say all this to you because ultimately we do believe that a prosperous, free Venezuela who's governed by a legitimate government who has the interests of their people in mind could also be an extraordinary partner and asset to many of the countries represented here today in terms of energy needs and the like, and also one less source of instability in the region. So we expect to work very closely with all of you on that topic as well to the extent possible, and I think it's related to the topic of security that I highlighted.
The third point is just the broader stability of the region. We want the region to be seen. And I include the region of the southern United States, which we know is part of the Caribbean Basin. We want it to be a place that is attractive for inbound investment. Many of you have taken on the - and done a tremendous job of seeking to diversify your economies and continue to seek ways to diversify your economies. To the extent that there are opportunities for American businesses or American investors to be a part of that, we want to facilitate that. We want to be a part of making that happen.
Here's the bottom line: the stronger, the safer, the more prosperous, and the more secure that all of your counties are, the stronger, safer, more secure, and prosperous the United States is going to be. We view our security, our prosperity, our stability to be intricately tied to yours and we are going to evidence in the actions we're prepared to take and in the priority that we want to give this our intent to follow through on it, which is why I'm here today, which is why I wanted to come here today and interact with all of you collectively and a few of you individually in the time that's permitted to me.
So I want to thank you for this opportunity to address you. I hope that my presence here today serves as a real-world demonstration of our commitment to being your partner, to - I don't even want to call it resetting relations because it's really not about a reset. I mean, we have longstanding ties to each of you bilaterally and all of you collectively, but reinvigorating our relationships because we have a lot in common to work on, both opportunities and challenges, and the United States is committed to doing that. And certainly over the next three years and I remain in this post, it will be personal priority to me. It will be one that I will be personally engaged in and it's one that I hope to leave for my successor, whoever that may be, a very strong and stable relationship that they can continue to build upon as well.
So I want to thank you for this opportunity to address you and to join you here today in this gathering. (Applause.)
