Speech #970281974

The region clearly offers a vast new market for American products. if only greater economic and political stability can be brought about there. Besides economic and security interests. the United States is bound by an increasing web of social ties with the Caribbean Basin countries. Some estimate that. excluding Mexicans. over 250.000 illegal immigrants now enter the United States yearly from the countries of the Caribbean Sea and Central America. Their desperate desire to seek political or economic emancipation in this country is perhaps matched only in magnitude by the strain on the services our National and State Governments provide them once they are here. I note that for the entire region in fiscal year 1982 the United States targeted about $475 million in developmental aid. the Federal Government and the State of Florida have spent over twice that on Cuban and Haitian refugees since the Mariel boatlift. The ability of the United States to exploit these increasingly strong ties to the Caribbean Basin countries rests on their own stability. As the nations of Central America struggle to end armed conflict among themselves and with Communist guerrillas. as the Caribbean nations attempt to restructure their economies away from centuries of dependency on transfers from their former colonial sovereigns. an historic opportunity presents itself to the United States to aid in placing them on a firm. permanent path to growth and stability.