(bell tolling)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, please
welcome to the stage, Ricardo Ernst, Baratta Chair
in Global Business and executive director
of the Latin America Leadership program,
Georgetown University.
(audience applauding)
- Good afternoon, buenas tardes a todos.
Bienvenidos, welcome.
My name is Ricardo Ernst, and in addition
to being a professor in the McDonough School of Business
for over 30 years, I am the executive director
of the Latin America Leadership program.
As a proud Venezuelan-American,
it is an honor for me to welcome back
to Georgetown Ivan Duque Marquez,
current president of the Republic of Colombia,
and almost as important, an alumnus of Georgetown,
since he graduated with a master in Policy Management
at the McCourt School of Public Policy.
With its academic strengths, Washington DC location,
Jesuit values, and regional networks,
Georgetown is a leading US university
engaged in Latin America.
Faculty and students across research
and teaching programs engage critical challenges
facing the region, including economic growth
and innovation, governance, and the rule of law,
social and cultural cohesion, and hemispheric relations.
Our university has deep historical ties
to Latin America, reaching all the way
back to 1789 founding, when the Society of Jesus
had already been running universities
in Spanish America for more than a century and a half.
Today, Georgetown is part of a hemispheric network
of Jesuit universities spanning 58 institutions.
Georgetown's current engagement with Latin America
spans across Georgetown schools in the main campus,
medical center, and law center.
Main hubs of research, teaching, and outreach
include the Center for Latin American Studies at SFS,
the Latin American Leadership Program,
the Center for Advancement for the Rule of Law
in the Americas, at the Law Center,
the Department of Spanish and Portuguese,
and the American Initiative at the college.
Regarding the region, as the third most populated country
in South America, and one of the
longest-standing democracies in Latin America,
Colombia has been essential in providing solutions
to the most pressing challenges
of the region, by promoting security,
prosperity, and democratic governance
across the western hemisphere.
As we all know, the situation in the region
is extremely fragile.
This is President Duque's first official visit
to the US, so we are very thankful
that he has accepted our invitation
to visit one of his Alma Maters
in the company of his wife, Maria Juliana Ruiz,
and other reflections on the status
of critical issues in Colombia and Latin America,
including democracy, security, immigration,
peace, and socioeconomic growth, and trade.
Today's event is cosponsored by
the Center for Latin American Studies,
and the Colombian Law Student's Association
at Georgetown University Law Center, Plus Colombia.
To introduce President Duque,
we welcome today Ana Elena Khouri,
president of the Colombian Law Student Association
at Georgetown University Law Center.
(audience applauding)
- Good afternoon, Georgetown.
My name is Ana Khouri.
I'm a Colombian LLM student at
Georgetown University Law Center
and the president of the Colombian law students
at Georgetown.
I'm pleased to welcome you to the conversation
with his excellency, the president
of the Republic of Colombia, Ivan Duque Marquez,
and Dean William Trainer, about the policy agenda
in Latin America.
Before starting my presentation,
I would like to thank Latin American Leadership Program
and the Center for Latin American Studies
for cohosting this event.
I would like to welcome
I would like to give special welcome
to Mrs. Maria Juliana Ruiz Sandoval,
the first lady of Colombia.
I also want to welcome the presidential delegation
and all the members of our diplomatic corps
who are here with us.
I want to give special thanks to the Council of Colombia
in Washington DC, Mrs. Erika Salamanca,
who's helping us to make this event possible.
Latin America is now facing a swing in its policy agenda.
New topics and concerns are nowadays on the table
for Latin American leaders.
On behalf of the Colombian Law students in Georgetown,
I'm pleased to welcome you today, one of such new leaders.
President Duque graduated as a lawyer in Colombia.
He earned a master's degree in Public Policy Management
from Georgetown University.
Before running for president, he was a senator.
During his tenure in congress, he introduced
different bills, including the Orange Economy Law
for the promotion of the creative economy,
and the protection of our culture.
He lived in DC for many years,
where he worked at the Interamerican Development Bank.
As most of us, President Duque dreamed big.
He studied at Georgetown, and he worked hard
to fulfill his dreams.
As Colombians, we are very proud to say
that President Duque is a fellow Hoya.
Moderating today's event is Dean William Trainer.
He's a professor, executive vice-president,
and dean of Georgetown University Law Center.
Now, it is my great honor to introduce his excellency,
the president of the Republic of Colombia,
Ivan Duque Marquez.
(audience applauding)
- Thank you so much.
- I think actually this is your chair.
- Thank you, dean, thank you.
- Well, President Duque, we're delighted
to have you back at Georgetown.
And I understand this is a room
that has personal significance to you,
that this is where you did your capstone presentation.
- You're not gonna give me notes today.
- No. (laughing)
But I know that Professor Joe Ferrara,
who was your capstone advisor is very proud of you.
And we're really delighted to have you back.
- It's a great honor for me, Dean Trainer,
to be back in Georgetown.
I feel the Hoya spirit right here, don't we?
Are there any Hoyas here?
So, I am very happy to be here.
I also want to express my gratitude
for Joe Ferrara for being here today.
He was my capstone director, and one
of the professors who really made a great influence on me,
for the good, and I also want to thank Ricardo Ernst,
a good friend that I haven't seen in a long time.
Great to see you again, Ricardo.
And dean, I'm very happy to be back in Georgetown.
And I take this opportunity to thank the school
for everything that the school has done for me.
I am proud to be a public policy graduate,
and I always remember the lessons I took
from Georgetown in my daily activities,
so it's a great honor for me to be here.
- Oh, that's true, we're honored to have you back.
We're honored that you're making us part
of your really packed first visit
to the United States as president.
And we're also honored to have the president
of Colombia, because of Colombia's importance,
in many ways, as an economic leader,
as an example of democracy.
Your election is the process
a series of peaceful transitions.
And also, generally, Colombia is an example
of a transition to peace from a very violent period.
As we're talking about a number of major issues,
it's particularly important for us to be in dialogue
with Colombia, so thank you for being here.
I have a number of questions that I'll ask you,
and then at the end we've gotten questions
from our studio audience, and so
I think the last 15 minutes or so,
I'll read those questions, if I can.
- Sure.
- But let me start, so yesterday,
you had a meeting with President Trump.
And there were a number of issues
that you talked about at your joint press conference.
And I'd like to focus on, to begin, on two of them.
You talked about drug policy, and then obviously
you also talked about Venezuela.
So, let me start on drug policy.
Colombia has been a leader in calling for debate
about drug policies at the international level,
particularly at the UN and the OAS.
It initiated a necessary debate about the effects
of prohibitionism in the war on drugs in Latin America,
and exploring regulatory alternatives
based on public health and harm reduction.
So, what's your administration's position on drug policy?
- Well, let me first begin by saying
something that I found very important.
The meeting we had with President Trump,
and also the meetings that we've had
with members of congress, have been very important.
Colombia has received always bipartisan support.
And I think that's something that has to be praised,
because Plan Colombia began in the late '90, 1999, 2000.
It was Bill Clinton who helped the Plan Colombia,
early beginnings, then President Bush,
President Obama, now President Trump.
So, I always want to praise that,
because our relationship has been for a long time
a brotherhood relationship, and
I am very glad and pleased that we feel the support,
from the White House and also from congress,
when it comes to face the drug problem.
Now, the discussion on whether is prohibition
or if it's a different action,
or if it's legalization, I think it's a broad discussion.
It's not just a discussion whether
you can do it internally in one country,
because it requires that there is a broad,
international consensus, and as for today
the broad international consensus, whether we like it
or not, is that the world has rejected drugs.
Now, what the approach is is very important,
because I think public health ought to be considered,
but we also have to consider the things
that can affect national security,
and the capacity of the state in a country like Colombia.
So, Plan Colombia, when it was launched in 1999
to the year 2012, had a big success,
and was to reduce from 160,000 hectares
to less than 60,000 hectares.
But in the last five years, we have jumped
from 60,000 to 200,000 hectares of coca.
And that means deterioration of the environment.
It's one of the main causes of deforestation.
That means that we have narcotrafficking structures
threatening different parts of the country,
and most of those organizations are in bed
with the Sinaloa Cartel and other cartels
in other parts of the world.
So, when I took office, I had to take a stand.
The first stand was, yes, we need
to put an end to the exponential growth
of the illegal crops, and we also need to consider
that Colombia is no longer a producing country,
we're also a consuming country.
We had 800,000 people consuming drugs in Colombia,
and we're a low-income country.
So, yes, we had to put public health,
we had to put an end to the usage and carrying
of personal dosage in the streets,
not taking people to prison, but putting fines,
and it has been working.
But more importantly, what I think has to be done
is to have prevention as a very important tool,
and to dismantle money laundering organizations,
and also putting an end to the cartels
that are putting in danger the lives of many people.
So, I consider this a holistic approach,
and yes, we will deliver.
My goal is by the end of my administration
to eradicate more than 60% of the illegal crops
that we have, but more than just eradicate,
make people that are living from an illegal crop
be part of the legal economy of Colombia.
- So, could you talk in some specifics,
what concrete steps are you envisioning you'll take?
- Well, for example, when we look at areas
where we have an exponential growth,
like the region of Catatumbo on the border zone
with Venezuela, I was visiting there
during the second day of my administration,
and I saw an oil-pump-extracting company,
where 49% of the owners were former coca crop growers.
And they decided leave aside the path of illegality,
and now they're working in a legal and productive industry
with sustainable practices, environmental practices,
labor practices, and I consider that the kind of examples
that we have to set for other regions in Colombia.
In the southern part of Colombia,
we have been working with USAID,
and we have made cocoa, sacha inchi, and other products,
a sustainable new alternative for those families.
And when it comes to people that were involved
in criminal activities, for example with FARC,
after the peace process,
we have launched 19 productive projects based on legal
and sustainable crops, what we call contractual agriculture
so that we have companies buying their products
in a sustainable way, with a fixed price,
with a low interest rate of credit,
and also with micro-insurance.
I believe those things are successful,
and definitely during these three year and a half
three and a half years that I have for my administration,
my goal is not only to reduce substantially
to less than 60% the amount of illegal crops,
but also have a change in those areas, where violence
derived from narcotrafficking have been a tragedy.
And that implies bringing the private sector,
and creating a sustainable, contractual environment
of the growers and the buyers.
- So, a lot of your focus is on economic growth
as an alternative to coca production.
- Yes, but also formalization, because
when we talk about Colombia, always the conversation
of drugs comes into the table,
but in fact Colombia has a very vibrant economy.
I would say that one of the things
that we have to praise is that during the last 20 years,
Colombia passed from being considered a failed state
to a vibrant economy, and I always thank
the support of allies like the United States,
in the bipartisan way we have gotten that support.
And today, the Colombian economy has one big step to make.
We became a member of the OECD,
but our income per capita is $7,000.
I want to put Colombia in the path
of becoming a high-income country,
and that implies that we need to put the economy
growing above 4% pretty fast.
So, we took decisions like lowering the tax rate
on corporations, especially SMEs,
and eliminate red tape, have unified taxing policies
for the smallest enterprises,
so they don't have to go through much red tape,
and they have a differentiated tax rate,
and so they can formalize.
And in the last trimester of 2018,
we got the economy growing, and we'll announce
the data pretty soon, I believe about 3.4%.
And for this year, my expectation is that the economy
is gonna grow above 3.5%, and that will be
the highest economic growth in the last five years,
and that's a major achievement
for the first year of my administration.
- [Dean] And that's been a big focus of yours,
the economic growth.
- Not only growth, but it's economic growth
also linked with what I call social justice.
We just presented to congress the new
national development plan,
and the national development plan is based on
what I call a virtuous circle that is legality,
plus entrepreneurship, equals fairness.
Legality, the rule of law, fighting corruption,
fighting crime, entrepreneurship.
We need to have more SMEs, more startups.
We want to have the creative economy playing a big role,
science, technology, renewable energies,
and we have made regulation decisions
to empower those sectors, but the end
of the story, the consequences of legality
plus entrepreneurship is fairness.
And this is where we're gonna make the biggest bet.
We are going to have this year the largest education budget
in Colombian history, where we plan to pass
from four to seven million students
that are receiving daily meals,
with the micronutrients they need
for their prefrontal cortex of the brain,
in order to be able to learn better.
And we are going to pass from one million
to two million children with full early childhood attention.
Those are big reforms, but when it comes
to the biggest number, by the year 2022,
we expect to get out of poverty, 1.5 million people
from extreme poverty, and 3.4 million people
from poverty into what I call the emerging middle-class.
Those are the numbers that we wanna get with
the right combination of policies in this administration.
- So, now, one of the things you mentioned was
your focus on the creative economy,
and you've written about that.
Can you talk more about what your vision is,
and how you see that as part of the larger economic focus?
- Well, when I graduated from Georgetown in 2007,
I remember that I had a conversation with Joe Ferrara,
and he told me what are you gonna do next?
So, I said, "I'm gonna work at the IDB,
"but I really wanna have a shift in my career."
Well, that shift took four years to make it,
because since then I started reading some of the theories
by Ken Robinson, about what he called
the STEAM education, science, technology, engineering,
arts, and math, and I started reading the reports
on the creative industries in Great Britain.
And I said, "Well, this is what I wanna do next."
And I decided to start writing public policy articles
about the creative economy, and I found that
in a country like the US, the creative economy
is more than 9% of GDP.
In a country like Great Britain, it's more than 11%.
In Germany, it's 9%, and then I thought
what's going on in Latin America,
and what's going on in Colombia?
And the conclusion that I got is that the creative economy
has been growing, facing all the difficulties,
and nobody has realized that in a country like Colombia,
it's 3 times bigger in the contribution to GDP
than the coffee sector, or even 1.1% bigger,
1.1 times bigger than the mining economy of Colombia.
So, we needed to have the right policies,
the right regulations, and the right enhancers.
So, when I decided to run for office, became a senator,
I launched a bill, we got the bill approved.
And now as president, I'm putting this together,
because my goal is to make it jump to 6% of GDP
in four years, and we started with one simple decision,
that I think requires audacity.
We presented in the Economic Reactivation plan,
zero income tax for creative industries,
for startup in the creative industries,
as long as a minimum amount of jobs are generated,
and as along as you invest up to a cap.
But I am pretty certain that this is going
to have more dynamism, and the same things happens
with the technology sector, because it's somehow
intertwined with the Orange Economy.
We have now, in Medellin, we launched this a few weeks ago,
the first, fourth industrial revolution center
in a Spanish speaking country in Medellin, in Colombia,
to work on artificial intelligence,
internet of things, and also blockchain.
The integration of technology and the creative economy,
if you ask me, I think is going to be
the next industrial revolution in Colombia.
- And then on trade, what's your policy?
- On trade, I had this conversation this morning in the IDB.
We tend to talk about
a lot about trade when it comes
to technocratic or academic environments.
But when we look at the results in Latin America,
I think there are two things that I really
they don't really make me happy.
The first one is that intra-regional trade is tiny,
and if you don't have a larger intra-regional trade,
you will always be exposed to external shocks.
So, the right way to minimize and to adopt,
and to prevent external shocks is to have more trade
within our region, so my first policy
is to enhance what we call the Pacific Alliance,
try to build a coalition of the Pacific Alliance,
where you have Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Chile
with Mercosur, so we can broaden the market.
And we can get at least to 30%
of our trade be intra-regional.
And the second thing in a country like Colombia
is that trade or exports as a percentage of GDP
in Colombia is just 16%.
Compared to Mexico, to Chile, to Peru, we're staying back.
So, we definitely need to expand
the weight of exports to GDP.
How do we do that?
We also need to broaden the export basket.
So that's why creative industries play a role,
services play a role, and industrial exports play a role.
And I am very happy that in the first four months
of the administration, we got nontraditional exports
to grow 8.9%, so those are the kinds
of things we wanna put together.
And last but not least, eliminate the red tape that
sometimes affects being successful when it comes to trade.
We have here the minister of trade,
and in the four months of our administration,
we eliminated, we rationalized, and we digitalized
more than 100 procedures, and it is all producing
a positive impact on allowing people to export.
So those are the kinds of things that are part
of my strategy, and I have said that I will not sign,
or negotiate new agreements, until we have really taken
advantages of the markets that we have already developed.
- [Dean] And what role does trade with
the United States play in your vision?
- Well, the United States is our major trading partner.
We have more than 40% of our exports coming to the US.
The US is also the first source
of foreign direct investment.
We have a trade deficit with the US overall, $1.5 billion,
but I think that's compensated by other things.
For example, we get regularly $2 billion or more
of foreign direct investment per year.
We also receive
something close to 600,000 US tourists to Colombia.
The US plays a very important role in portfolio investments
in the country, but definitely we need to have more trade.
And we want to expand the trade basket.
One of the things that I'm requesting from the US,
that will have an impact on the areas
that have been affected by violence,
to have more admissibility of products.
It took us four years to get the Hass avocado
into the US market, and we need to shorten those times.
And my goal is to at least get 90 products
on the road of admissibility during my administration.
- So, now, let me turn from economics to Venezuela.
What should be done, what are the next steps?
- This has been my moral stand.
And it has been a moral cause for many years,
and I remember that when I was a senator,
I was always pushing to have resolutions
against the Maduro regime, and sometimes
I got some criticism by someone who said,
"Why are you getting so involved in Venezuela?
"You should think more about what's going in Colombia."
And I said, "You know what, at the end,
"this is simpler than you think."
What would you do, if you were living in a condo,
and your neighbor next door, every single night,
is beating his wife, his children,
and you hear the screams through the walls?
Would you wake up, next day,
and just pretend everything is okay,
and say, hi, in the elevator and be gentle?
Or you should denounce what is morally wrong?
So, when I was a senator I denounced Nicolas Maduro
before the International Criminal Court.
I got the support of 77 members of my congress,
56 members of the Chilean parliament.
People didn't believe we were going anywhere,
and we got a previous investigation going on.
And I said when I ran for the presidency
that if I became the president of Colombia,
I will call all their heads of state
to join me in that action, and now we have 9 heads
of state who are requesting that investigation
and a formal accusation to happen.
So, this is a moral stand, and as of today,
I always said that we needed to create
a diplomatic blockade.
We have now most of the countries in the western hemisphere
recognizing Juan Guido as the president.
Now, we have most of the European countries,
and yes, we have to keep on strengthening
that diplomatic blockade, and now we need
to make a call so that there are defections
in the Venezuelan army, some of the leaders
to start pledging loyalty to Juan Guido
as the genuine president of Venezuela.
And I've seen some members of the media asking me,
"Do you think this is going to last?"
Do you think Maduro will stay?
I don't think we should be discussing that.
We should do everything we can to let the Venezuelan people
liberate from the most brutal dictatorship
we have seen in years, and this is a moral cause.
And as president of Colombia,
I will continue promoting the diplomatic blockade
to get Venezuelan people free of Nicolas Maduro.
(audience applauding)
Thank you, dean.
- But what will happen?
(audience laughing)
- I was very impressed because
at the end of last year, I gave a couple of interviews
talking about diplomatic blockade.
And then many people thought, this is crazy.
What kind of diplomatic blockade can happen,
but in January the fourth, the Lima Group,
this group that was created by more than 14 countries
in Latin America, met and we signed a declaration.
And I want to also highlight the work
of our minister of foreign relations, Carlos Holmes
who's here with us, because in that declaration
the first thing we have ever seen in Latin America
is a diplomatic blockade initiated,
because Maduro was supposed to take his oath
of office on January the 10th.
He was left alone, and most of the countries did not
recognize him as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
We also recognized the national assembly
as the only legitimate democratic entity
or power in Venezuela, and we called for Juan Guido
to assume the presidency and call for elections,
and a presidential transition, democratic transition.
I think that was a major step.
And then since that day, then the OAS came.
And then a few weeks ago,
we all, the countries of the Lima Group,
gave the legitimacy to Juan Guido as president.
The European countries have also been supporting him.
And in the last week, I saw one of the most respectful
journalists in Latin America saying,
the diplomatic blockade is the way,
and now the defections are about to happen.
Well, the first defection came with one colonel,
who was the chief strategists of the air force,
who withdrew his support from Maduro,
assumed the loyalty of Juan Guido as president,
and left the country.
So, if you ask me, I think the national assembly
and other countries should offer different treatments
to the military who decide to support Guido.
And I think this is about to happen in a domino effect
in the following days.
- [Dean] So, do you think there'll be a transition soon?
- I am sure, Maduro
will try always to bluff
and to try to make people believe that he has real power.
I don't know if he's gonna last a day, a week,
a month, or two months, but I think what the world
is seeing now does not have any reverse.
This blockade is giving hope to the Venezuelan people,
and now his latest mistake is trying to obstruct
the entrance of humanitarian aid.
And on February the 23rd, President Guido is calling
to have a caravan of humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela.
I am telling everyone, and I think all of us
should give the message that on the 23rd of February,
the world is going to do anything we can
to let the humanitarian aid enter Venezuela.
And I'm pretty certain that the military forces are going
to allow the humanitarian aid to enter
and protect the people, and that will be
the beginning of the end of Nicolas Maduro
as the dictator of Venezuela.
(audience applauding)
- And would you envision military intervention
as a possibility at some point?
- I got that question today, and I said
that I was not good at interpreting node paths, so.
No, I have always believed that
the military option has been always a creation
in the mind of Maduro to try to demonize
some of the countries who are calling him to step out.
I think the diplomatic blockade,
and what I consider the domino effect
of defections in the Venezuelan army
are the most important tools that we have.
And I don't think raising the issue
of military intervention is helpful,
but I also think that it's very clear
that the world tells Nicolas Maduro
that trying to obstruct the entrance
of humanitarian aid is a crime against humanity.
So, he has to feel that as well.
- So, let me ask, in terms of the precedent,
when is it that the leader of a country
should be subject to diplomatic immunity?
What's the test?
- For me
for me, diplomatic immunity
in the sense of the conversations that we're having
about behaviors like crimes against humanity.
I don't believe in any immunity for those kinds of--
- [Dean] I'm sorry, I mean the diplomatic blockade
that you were talking about. - Oh, the diplomatic blockade.
The diplomatic blockade is a tool that nobody thought
was gonna be viable, but in order
for the diplomatic blockade to work
there had to be a change in Venezuela.
And I think the biggest change was
that the national assembly decided to unite
again and to identify who could be the leader
that could make this transition possible.
And I haven't had the privilege to meet him personally,
but I consider Juan Guido a hero.
And sometimes, heroes appear in the right moment,
at the right time, in the right place.
I think he's a courageous man.
I think he's a brave man.
I think he's a genuine and true patriot.
And I think this is going to be the leader
that is gonna help this transition happen.
So, we all have to give him support.
A guy who has decided to be in the streets
facing a brutal dictatorship for a change?
Imagine what has happened in Venezuela.
The dictatorship has derailed the economy,
it has destroyed the institution,
have impoverished the whole country,
and we see millions of inflation rates.
That's insane people aren't dying.
Well, this guy stood up to the moment,
and now what the world cannot do is let
the power and the force of Venezuelan people
in the streets fade away, so that's why
we have to be close to him.
That's why as Colombians, not only we have received
our brothers from Venezuela, more than 1.2 million,
but we also have to do everything in our power
to let the humanitarian aid enter Venezuela.
So, Colombia and the rest of the western hemisphere
need to give a strong message in favor of Juan Guido.
I think the European Union should do the same.
And if the regime of Nicolas Maduro keeps on trying
to obstruct the access of humanitarian aid,
I think this as a crime against humanity
needs a strong rejection, not only from the OAS,
but from the United Nations, and that will imply
that if he doesn't let the humanitarian aid enter Venezuela,
he has to have an immediate sanction
by the International Criminal Court.
- Now, let me ask, the 1.2 million refugees,
how are you able to handle so many people immediately?
- It's complicated, it's complicated.
I remember that when I took office,
one of the biggest challenges in the analysis we made
was that 1.2 million migrants in less than two years
has economic effects, social effects.
Last week I spoke with Angela Merkel by phone,
and we were talking about the figures,
and she received 1.5 Syrian refugees
in a period of five years, four years,
and it cost 1% of GDP to Germany, that is a country
that has an income per capita above $27,000.
Colombia has received 1.2 million Venezuelan brothers
in less than two years, and we have an income per capita
of $7,000, so the challenge is big, yes, it is.
But I said that it is our moral duty,
first of all, to express fraternity.
And the second thing, to recognize
that in the 20th century, many Colombians went
to Venezuela in the search for hope,
and the Venezuelan brothers opened their arms,
and received them, so we will do all in our hands
to be well organized, to help with the migration system.
And obviously, the biggest challenge that we face,
I think, is healthcare, 'cause the Maduro regime
has not vaccinated, in five years, children.
We were a country free of chicken pox,
and last year we had 412 cases,
because there were children that were coming
to Colombia without vaccination, so we have to act.
We have called the international community
to provide funds, and we have been receiving funds.
We now have some instruments, and I think
we have to pull everything together.
Now, the reason why I'm so keen that we need to
all unite to get Maduro out of the government is because
the major source of this humanitarian crisis
and this migration crisis is the dictatorship.
If the dictatorship does not come to an end, three years
down the road we might not have 1.2 million but two.
And then the effect is gonna be even more complex.
So, I think this is the moment.
We have to seek the moment, and we have to be
all united to make all the pressure we can.
We have students here, we have leaders
from the university here.
The heads of state, we have been doing our work,
but we also need to make this a world movement.
We need to have people in their social networks.
We need to have people in the media.
We need to have people in academia.
Everything putting pressure, and make this cause
as it was the cause in the 1980s to liberate Mandela,
or as it was to save Darfur.
This has to be a global effort, and I think together,
thinking on the 23rd of February we have to say,
Maduro, your time has come to leave Venezuela.
- You make a very powerful case about the course
of action that you're pursuing.
Let me, there's one another topic I wanna touch on
before I open up questions.
The peace accords with FARC, what do you see
as the challenges, what do you see as the strengths?
What will you be doing differently moving forward?
- When I ran for the presidency,
and you know that sometimes in politics,
especially in the days of fake news,
people sometimes try to oversimplify statements or visions.
So, I was accused by some of my contenders
as an enemy of peace, which I'm not
and which I have never been.
But I always said that peace requires legality,
no impunity, and the right measures.
Since the day I took office, I was very clear
that the people that genuinely are in the path of
reincorporating from criminal activities, we want them
to succeed, we want to give them the opportunity.
That's why we have launched productive projects,
that's why we have worked with them
to eliminate illegal crops.
That's why we have also put together
the regional development plans
that are part of the accords, and that are linked with
the national development plan, thinking on the longterm.
But I must be honest, we also have to be tough
with the people that want to go back to criminal activities.
There were people who were dissidents of FARC,
for example, a guy so-called Guacho,
who killed three Ecuadorian journalists,
who was in bed with the Sinaloa Cartel.
He was working in the Pacific Basin of Colombia,
and he was an absolute criminal.
We looked for me, we found him,
and in a military operation he was killed.
There was another guy so-called Rodrigo Cadete,
a very dangerous man, he was controlling drug businesses
in the southern part of the country,
and yes, we also fought against his organization.
He was killed in a military operation,
and some of the members of his group were taken to justice.
Well, that means that we are going to also be
very tough with the people that wanna go
back to criminal activities.
But I also feel that the greatest challenge
has to do with justice.
I have the expectation that the transitional justice
will in effect guarantee truth, justice,
reparation, and non-repetition.
But there are many victims who will want to see
the reparation in the form of a proportional justice.
So, I look forward for that transitional justice
to really deliver on that,
because if there's impunity, I think
that could become a great danger for Colombia,
because many people will believe that justice
was not really a reality and that it was all a con.
- So let me
I mean, there's a lot to pursue on that,
but there's one specific followup I wanted to touch on
before I go to questions from the audience.
Georgetown's Institute for Women Peace and Security
recently released a report on the role women
played in the Colombian peace process.
So what particular role do you see women playing in
the critical current, and future challenges facing Colombia?
- When I ran for the presidency, I remember that
we made an exercise with a group of friends,
and we analyzed previous presidential programs
on the rights of women, and I can tell you
that most of the programs said,
"In our administration, we will empower women
"to be a source of social transformation."
And I said, "Well, I don't wanna have
"the same old, same old, I really wanna make a difference."
And I said that if I was elected the candidate of my party,
I will look for to have the first woman vice-president
in Colombia's history, and I'm glad to tell you
that I am very happy to have a person
like Martha Lucia Ramirez being the first woman
vice-president of Colombia.
And I also said that I wanted to have the first
parity cabinet in my country.
And we have established the first
parity cabinet in Colombia.
42% of the vice ministers of Colombia are women.
60% of the superintendents are women,
and that is a demonstration that, yes,
we want to empower women to be leaders in Colombia.
And I wanna see now the private sector doing the same thing,
because sometimes I get the applauses
from the private sector, but when it comes
to board of directors, board of directors
don't have a parity policy.
When you look at the top 20 corporations in Colombia,
or the top 50, the ones that have a woman CEO are very few.
So, the changes have to come from the private sector,
but also from the public sector, and also from academia.
Those are the kinds of challenges we want to embrace,
and those are the changes we want to be committed.
But there's something that worries me,
and it is machismo in Latin America.
Sometimes, when we face violence against women,
I see that the policy approach is always to
let's provide women the right advisory.
Let's create the right centers to attend the needs of women,
but you know what, nobody is realizing that
if we really wanna make a change on the rights of women,
we have to educate men differently, with respect to women.
(audience cheering and applauding)
And those are the things that we want to change.
- It's very powerful.
- Thank you, dean.
- So, now, let me
I'm gonna read some of the questions from our audience.
And if it's your question, I'd like you to stand up.
From Cristina Cuervo Rengifo.
- Hola, Cristina.
- And Cristina writes, have you thought
of capitalizing on the talent of the Colombian diaspora?
If so, how?
- Yes, and I lived in the United States for almost 13 years.
I traveled throughout different places in the United States,
and I got to meet very talented people from the diaspora.
I don't
I don't feel that the theory of the '80s,
where people said that those are fled-away brains
has to happen in the 21st century,
because we have the technology, and we have the capabilities
to make people actively participate.
And yes, with our ministry of foreign relations,
we want to make easier for people to come back
to Colombia, if they want to come back, but also
to actively participate in different processes
and activities in Colombia.
We just launched a group of,
we call it sabios,
savvy persons who are gonna work on the development
of science and technology, and we have a combination
of people from the diaspora and people that are in Colombia,
and even we invited people from other countries.
So, yes, I want to continually invite
the Colombian diaspora to participate.
We have a big diaspora in the creative industries
that can be very helpful to Colombia.
And I also believe that the diaspora needs
to have instruments to be connected to Colombia,
so that people can invest in the country easily,
or that they can participate in academia easily.
That's why we want to amalgamize university titles
in a fast way, so people don't graduate
from Georgetown, I have to wait two years to get the title
amalgamized to be able to work for the government.
We're trying to simplify all that.
So, yes, the talent of the diaspora is something
that I value, and that I consider a very important tool
for the development of Colombia.
- Very good.
Next question from the vice president
of the Venezuelan Perspectives, Georgetown, Juan Cabello.
- Thanks to God you clarified,
because I said, oh, the vice president is here?
(laughing)
- Juan writes--
- Where's Juan?
Juan, un placer.
- [Juan] Un placer.
- Considering that many of us aspire to be like you,
what can you tell us that made you
stand out from your Georgetown class,
and what advice can you give us
to emerge in the political field?
- When I was in Georgetown, and I was
in the Public Policy School,
I had great teachers.
Teachers that I had tremendous respect.
Joe Ferrara is here, but I also had EJ Dionne.
He was a great professor of mine.
I had Professor Campbell, and I had another professor.
I don't remember his last name, Jason Mendel,
from the School of International Security Studies.
They all made a great influence on me,
and when I was in those classes,
I realized that after I graduated I wanted to be
in the path of public service.
When I was a student, I was also working at the IDB
representing Colombia at the board of directors.
And even though most of the knowledge
or the learning that I took from the school
were more technocratic, at the end I decided
that you really need to enter politics,
because you cannot just be dependent on
who appoints you to a certain position.
You have to be in the field.
You have to be in the arena.
You have to get the human touch.
You need to get to the people,
and motivate the people to do things differently,
and join you in a cause.
So, yes, the university had a very high impact on me
on considering that it's not just knowledge.
It's also participating actively in politics.
So, I know there are many brilliant people
in this room who are about to graduate,
who are doing their postgraduate studies.
My call to you is all this knowledge is valuable
in public service, but it is more valuable
if you use it also in politics,
if you use it in the streets connecting to the people,
selling and sending and inviting to the right message.
So, I will also tell you, dean,
that maybe the class that I did not have
was about electoral politics.
I had to learn that in the streets,
and walking and getting elected.
But I think the people who are here,
this great school, this school that has opened the doors
to many international students,
and many Latin American international students,
should be considered as
the birth of the new political class of Latin America.
I've met people from Venezuela here,
who I believe need to see, not my example,
but the example of Juan Guido in his own country,
and go back and work for Venezuela
in the reconstruction of Venezuela.
And that's my invitation.
Search for that call, respond to that call,
and consider that public policy knowledge is very important,
but it's more important if you apply it in the politics
as the right way of making things happen,
and changing the status quo in our countries.
- That's right, and that
really resonates with the core mission
of Georgetown, women and men for others.
And it's a great question and a great answer.
Actually, let me just followup on that last thing,
'cause Abdulle, a graduate student.
- [President Duque] Where's Abdulle?
Abdulle, how are you?
- So, talked about bridging the gap
between the rich and the poor,
so Abdulle writes, how do you plan
to close the gap between the rich and the poor?
Do you have any new policy that you'll be pursuing?
- I think things sometimes are obvious,
but let me go to education.
And maybe, take a couple of minutes,
two minutes to respond this.
The big gaps begin in education.
When I was working as a senator,
I made a presentation about the two lines in a race,
where you have the low-income child,
and you have the high-income child
the child from a high-income family.
The kid from the low-income family
in a country like Colombia does not get
integral early childhood attention or coverage,
does not have the possibility to go to a preschool.
If he goes to a school, he will only go
on average four hours, because of his journey.
And then, maybe, on a very few occasions he might be able
to finish school, and then go to the university.
Well, the kid from the high-income family,
he is born, he gets all the micronutrients
from an early stage, he gets omega-3,
he gets zinc, he gets vitamin C, he gets everything
he needs for the prefrontal cortex
of the brain to be developed.
Then most of the time, he goes to a preschool.
Then he goes to a school that has great infrastructure,
bilingual tuition, he has the laboratories.
He has the music room, he has all the sports capabilities.
And then he goes there for seven hours,
and maybe he has extra time, and most of the time
he goes to the university.
So, how do you close the gap?
That's where you start, and those are the kinds
of reforms that we wanna make,
and those are the reforms that we have put in place.
So, by the year 2022, my expectation is to have 300,000 kids
going to free, public universities,
that are from the poorest families of Colombia.
That's why we want to duplicate the amount of children
that have full attention in early childhood,
from one million to two million,
and that's why we want to duplicate
the amount of children that go to school
for seven hours in a single journey,
and also giving them the possibility to graduate
as high school graduates, and also with technical capacities
that can be used to find a job.
Those are the kinds of reforms that I think
are useful to close the gaps.
I will mention more, but I think if we close the gap
of education, where the race of these two lines
is put in a fairness context, I think we will be able
to change Colombia for the good,
and expand the middle class, and think
of becoming a high-income country in the next two decades.
Thank you, Abdulle.
(audience applauding)
Thank you, dean. - That's very true.
Actually, I think that's a great way to end.
I think that's very powerful,
and I just wanna say once again,
Mr. President, we're honored that
you have joined us on your first trip
back to the United States, and we hope you come back soon.
- Thank you so much, dean.
I am proud to be a Hoya, and I want to send
always my gratitude to all the Hoyas that are here,
that are gonna go back to Latin America
and make a difference, thank you so much.
- Thank you, thank you.
Pleasure talking with you.
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