and i am long-winded. i am retired now, but my experience was wonderful. because of my experience and because it was a partnership, the business kept me for 30 days, they hired me for a time, i worked for a bank, and from there, i came to ohio and got another job at a bank. i retired from general motors. that job training and experience showed me that i was really smart. i discovered how smart i was. host: thank you very much. your exploration in the federal jobs program -- what do they cost and are they effective? guest: we are not spending a lot, not nearly enough, only

$3.6 billion allocated for the coming to school year. there was a spurt the year during the stimulus, but that has run out. there is not a lot being spend in other economies. i think there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the obama administration and on capitol hill. host: t do improvements? guest: less bureaucracy and a lot more participation by business. i am not a great advocate for business influence on legislation, but this is one area where you need business almost directing the show. host: this viewer tweeting in -- thank you very much for being on the of "washington journal." going live to the council of the

americas and you can see their conference room there. this is a live event. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, ambassador brownfield, who will be introduced by the vice-president of the council of the americas eric farnsworth. this event will be live. at 11:30 today, it begins our iowa coverage. you will see a lot of the presidential candidates throughout the day. than they have a debate tonight. saturday is the straw poll. live on c-span. c-span.org is the place for all of this information on politics. saturdayk a.m. morning, "book tv."

all we can on c-span to it, this weekend, we have a book party for juan williams. join us on "book tv" on c-span2. here is the council. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> good morning, everyone. good morning, everyone, and welcome. we are pleased that you have chosen to join us today. we are delighted you are here to be with us instead of out on the golf course. that speaks well of all of you and certainly the speaker that we have today big bany. i am eric farnsworth and your co-host this morning.

to address these issues, we are honored to have with us the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs ambassador brownfield. we are also honored to have so many ambassadors and other dignitaries in the audience with us today. as all of you know, the combined mission of the americas society and the council of the americas for the exchange of ideas and the development of policies that build opportunities in the region and promote solutions to ongoing challenges. we believe strongly in this 10th anniversary year of the charter that healthy democracies are critical to regional well-being. we are joined in our program this morning by three other top institutions of study and learning on hemispheric issues

here in washington bank the center core strategic and international studies. the institute for national strategic studies at the national defense university. and the center for hemispheric defense studies. i thank all of you for your participation and collaboration with us here this morning as well. central america it was once the land which washington viewed latin america. many of us in this room were first introduced to the region through the conflict did 1980's and the democratic consolidations of the 1990's. the gains for the region were dramatic and real. what nobody counted on was the significant increase in drug violence that is challenged and undermined those gains.

the homicide rate is now more than four times the global average. corruption and impunity are rampant. the police and security forces have been penetrated by drug gangs in some cases. it must be said that the united states is not blameless in this scenario. it is our appetite for illegal narcotics and our inability to stop illegal weapons across mexico that is fuelling the crisis. the region itself also must do more. working together in a new way on some of the most interested issues including security and raising revenue to pay for it, even showing a willingness to cede sovereignty to each other. this was part of the message that the secretary of state henry clinton took with her when she met with her counterparts

in june. -- this was part of the message that the secretary of state hillary clinton took with her when she met with her counterparts in june. the speaker this morning was on the trip with the secretary and was charged with implementing the broad vision that was laid out. ambassador brownfield is a super person for the job. he is one of the most talented officers in the foreign service, and his leadership is driving u.s. policy in the region. bill was an ambassador to three latin american countries. he has also served in argentina, el salvador, geneva, and elsewhere. he has been the deputy assistant secretary of state twice. a native of texas, bill began

his career as a roughneck in the oil patch. it is not the normal crowning one would suspect for the foreign service, but he is not your typical foreign service officer. i met him 20 years ago when i was a desk officer and he was the inter-american executive assistant. i had been impressed as he has taken on some of the more complicated issues on behalf of the united states successfully. perhaps the oil patch draining where you have to roll up your sleeves and find a way to get the job done was more valuable training then we know. ladies and gentlemen, would you please join me in welcoming to the podium the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs ambassadors william brownfield. [applause] >> dr. farnsworth, trying to

make me feel old by referring to those ancient years gone by. ladies and gentlemen, it is quite clear that we are in the month of august in washington, where many people have a lot of time on their hands. nevertheless, i am decided to see all of you here this morning, and i hope the time that you dedicate to this conversation will not be time police spend. dr. eric farnsworth, many thanks with some degree of seriousness. may i also thank the council of the americas as the principal host. and the center for hemispheric defense studies, without whose support, ladies and gentlemen,

we would not be here this morning. that may or may not be a good thing depending upon how the next hour plays out. ladies and gentlemen, distinguished ambassadors, and members of the diplomatic community, distinguished members of the media, and ladies and gentlemen, i would like to begin with a story, a make-beleive story. once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived two kingdoms. one kingdom in the south, in mountain kingdom. in that kingdom, for reasons having to do with culture and history and tradition, to a certain extent, but also economics and the desire to make money to a very large extent,

people in that southern mountain kingdom produced a substance, let's say several substances, that if misused cost of physical harm to people, but nevertheless some people liked to use it. to the north, there is a large kingdom, and in the kingdom there are many people who have an appetite, a taste for this stuff and willing to pay money for it and have some degree of sacrifice in order to use this stuff. and, as is inevitable in a sad story and fable of this nature, as you can well imagine, over time, the people that eventually took over the process by which this product was produced and then transported and sold in the northern kingdom were criminals.

what happened, ladies and gentlemen? i would like to offer you my only three visual aids in my presentation this morning if i may. maestro, may i have the first map, please? what happened? i have given away the surprise, but most of you probably figured out where i was talking about in my story and my fabled. if you had asked me 21 years ago in 1990 what is my calculation in terms of how illicit drugs are moving from south america to north america, i would have said to you the overwhelming majority is moving through the caribbean.

sometimes, the western caribbean, sometimes the eastern caribbean, sometimes by sea or air. i would have acknowledged small arrows, but that is not the only route. that would be the dominant route. what happened? as you can well imagine, those both in south america and north america and in the caribbean took steps, countermeasures, efforts to shut down this route of transportation. how would things look 10 years later? i would suggest -- i am going to try it myself this time. things would look more like this. ne, the big thick arrow is moving up the eastern pacific. there is a new arrow that you are beginning to see in the year 2000, which symbolically

represents the movement of the product across the atlantic to new markets in europe and elsewhere around the world. the other two arrows have not disappeared. i am not suggesting that no product move 11 years ago through the caribbean or central america, but they were no longer the dominant routes. may i note as well the fact that i start my big arrow in columbia is not my insertion that all of the product comes from colombia, but by acknowledging that i do not have a map big enough to show all of the points of origin from which the product is moving. by 2000, we were confronting a different situation. the response was in the year 2000, a colombian plan was

strongly supported by other governments including my own to address, stop, reduce, and eventually eliminate the flow of the product from columbia. greater efforts with a number of governments to interrupt the flow of narcotics through the eastern pacific, and what do we see the end 10 years later? we see something that looks very much like this. as a result of the efforts in northern south america, in the caribbean, and in the eastern pacific, you now see the overwhelming majority of the flow of narcotics products through central america on its way to the north american market. and, i might add, beginning in

the year 2007, you see a squeeze at both ends of the central american isthmus. but the beginnings of an impact of the efforts to put the squeeze on the routes to the north in mexico. ladies and gentlemen, i give you this long saga -- here is what i will do. not to show you how skillful i am with maps and powerpoint presentations, but to give you some understanding of how we got to where we are today. today?re are wer t let's ask ourselves the question -- how serious is this threat? that is affecting, and in my

opinion, threatening the very core institutions of central america today. first, we calculate that more than 95% -- let me repeat that figure. more than 95% of all illicit drugs that enter north america from south america have transited central america. 95%. what impact might that have on the region? here is a statistic from 2010, the last year we have a full statistics. in 2010, the homicide rate in honduras was 82 per 100,000 population. in el salvador, 65. guatemala, 41. to put that in some perspective for you, here in the united

states, a society not known around the world for its passivism and a lack of violence, our homicide rate is somewhat below 5. more than 70,000 youth in the seven countries of central america and overwhelmingly focused on the number 3 of guatemala, honduras, and all salvador are calculated to be members of gangs. i say "calculated" because the gangs do not participate in an official censuses, and do not provide their statistics to local governments and institutions. but the calculation is about 70,000. the entire population of central america is about one seventh the population of the united states of america. if you play the statistical

game and see what this would correlate to in the united states, it would be half a million gang members on the streets of the united states cities. ladies and gentlemen, central america in a very real sense is a victim. it is a victim of geography. it can do nothing about that. it is now, always has been, and presumed until the end of the world will be located between the two large continents south and north america. it is a victim of the fact that there is a large demand for a particular product, an illicit product, in north america, and a large capability to supply that demand in south america. it is a victim in a very real sense of progress elsewhere in

the region. progress in columbia where thanks to the heroic efforts of a large number of colombian citizens, the problem has been squeezed down substantially over the last 11 years, and the progress that we see beginning, i submit, more on that later, in mexico with the mexican government's efforts to retake control of its own community, streets, and borders. central america, to a very real extent, is a victim to those factors which it cannot control. it is also a victim of some internal factors, which perhaps does share responsibility for, and more on that in a moment.

ladies and gentlemen, several members of the media, and obviously none of those who are present with us here today who are far too brilliant to make this assertion, but in recent months, members of the media have discussed and suggested that we have discovered the crises and the problems afflicting central america today pending we have not discovered them. it is not as though we were oblivious to what was happening. i would suggest to you that this is a natural and inevitable progression. we knew it was happening. we knew it was going to happen. if i could use the metaphor of three houses located side-by- side on a street. 1 house erupted in flames. the community, due to resource

and budgetary issues, have only one firetruck. where does the fire truck go? it goes to the house that is burning. sure enough, sparks pass over to the third house and it starts to burn as well. the fire truck goes to the third house. it knows perfectly well that the house in between is eventually going to burn, but you only have one firetruck. you are watching that house in the middle and you know at some point in time you are going to have to go after it but you only have one truck and you are going to focus the truck on the house that is burning. it is burning today, ladies and gentlemen. i suggest to you what we will talk about for the remainder of this morning is where to put that fire truck, how many people we can put on that truck, and how we can get maximum value out of that truck.

i address and assess this problem as a pyramid. here is how my thinking goes. at the top of the pyramid of those threats that are actively attacking the institution of the seven states of central america bank identified two from a security front. one threat are the international drug trafficking organizations. the other threat are the gangs. item fully aware that there is a great deal of overlap between those two institutions, but all gangs do not traffic drugs, and all trafficking organizations do not use gangs as their implementing operators. there are two of them. they are actively attacking the institutions of the states of central america. the next level of my pyramid are the vulnerabilities.

what do these gangs and trafficking organizations use in order to accomplish their business or other purposes? there are many. if we had 20 hours, which could probably come up with a 500-page book. one -- a culture that tends to accept violence as a matter of the history of the last 35 years. second -- prisons that operate in such a way to actually allow the recycling of people that go into the prison system for whatever offenses or crimes they may have committed. third -- poorest borders that provide an opportunity as opposed to obstacles for people who wished to move product along the land route of the isthmus. fourth -- widespread corruption. corruption in institutions,

governments, and businesses. fifth -- wheat institutions generally been been an institution can be weak, corrupt or not. sixth - disaffected youth. hundreds of thousands of young men and women who do not see a prosperous future for themselves, and therfore, are looking for laternatives. finally, poverty and unemployment, frequently going hand-in-hand. they are different issues. the fact that a community and a society that does not offer economic opportunity to its people has to assume that its people are going to try to take care of themselves and their families through some other means. that is the second level of my pyramid. the vulnerabilities that are

taken advantage of. the third and final level would be the programs, the activities that the governments themselves, their international partners, the international community at supportgo's can try to that would reduce and eventually eliminate those vulnerabilities. because once you remove those vulnerabilities, the bad guys at the top of your pyramid have no basis upon which to operate. if they do not have a lot of poverty and unemployment which caused weak institutions, port borders, and prison systems that do no work, they will find it far more difficult to operate either as a gang or as a trafficking organization. so that is the concept. who endorsed that concept.

in march of this year in this city of san salvador, the president of the united states, a very wise man stood with the president of el salvador and said, "there is a threat that is affecting central america. it affects all of us. we need a new partnership, which he calls the partnership for citizens security in central america. ladies and gentlemen, i endorse, support, a plot, and am prepared to do everything in my power to follow up on the president's commitment to move this partnership forward. i will do so together with all other parts of my government based upon some very simple principles.

some of them are difficult principles. for example, number one, we have limited resources to work with. on the 23rd of june in the city of guatemalans, the secretary of state committed $290 million from the united states government to support this effort in the course of this year. not $2.9 billion, or $29 billion, $290 million. to get to this number, i had to offer her some old money that was still available for spending this year, some new money, and some creative thinking. i do not see, unless you think i am missing something, i do not see the likelihood of a vast infusion of new funds coming from that element of the united

states government's that is constitutionally entitled to fund and appropriate the taxpayers' money in the united states in the foreseeable future. my first principle is we have to have an approach that except the reality that we have limited resources. second printable. if you have limited resources, how can you expand your resource base and build on the number of donors that are prepared to support this effort? in some cases, there are some that are heroically engaged in this effort. i would mention the government's of canada, colombia, spain, the european union in its commission, the into development government bank. this is a core group that has already along with the government that i represent committed its resources and its

efforts to address this threat. our challenge, principal number two, is how we can build on and expand that donor base. principal number three, where we have fewer resources -- can we by reorganizing our effort distributing the workload, focusing and prioritizing, sequencing in a different way, expand the impact of the limited resources that we have? this is complicated stuff. because a government usual approach to this problem is let's throw money at it. without naming other locations in the world, be they located in central asia or the middle east, but i will name nine, we have a very different set of realities that we must deal with in this complicated situation. it does require an approach that

is almost unprecedented among governments, international organizations, and ngo's. fourth principle -- these are regional threats. they affect the entire central america region. the solution must be a regional as well. this becomes complicated as i will explain in a moment because the world for the last 60 or 70 years has been set up on the basis bilateral relationships. if you have a problem, government work together to solve the problem. is rare that government a works with b, c, d, e, and f to solve the problem at the same time.

principal number five but -- the threats emanate from central america bank the leadership in the process must come from central america. it cannot be an imposed solution. that does not work. it does not work when you are dealing with a limited resource base. fortunately, we have an institution established by the seven governments of central america than cells that already exist and created and designed to accomplish just exactly this coordination purpose. it is called -- [inaudible] [laughter] and it represents all seven of the governments of central america and provide, if you will, a regional leadership to

what the larger international community could do. i am fairly emphatic about this point. there are two partners that must be partners in this effort, for geographical reasons, political reasons, for socioeconomic reasons, for law enforcement reasons. we talk about this as the central american initiative. we should probably talk about it as the meso american initiative. you cannot address this issue involving the seven governments in central america without incorporating the government of colombia and mexico into the solution. two countries that served in very different positions in terms of their historical development in addressing these problems. by no means do you treat them as exactly the same sort of government in terms of their contribution, but you have to

acknowledge you cannot solve central america's crises without incorporating colombia and mexico into the solution. there is finally a lesson that i submit that we have all learned over the last 30 or 40 years, that we had better remember today. there is no silver bullet solution. there is no one single program, one single project, one single operation that if we do it and correctly it will solve the problem. no, ladies and gentlemen. it took us many, many years to get into this mess, it is going to take years to get out of 8. we have learned over time, starting, if you will, in the 1970's, that as you address these drug-related threats, you have to have an approach that

addresses all elements of the problem. from education, treatment, and rehabilitation at one end, the demand side, all the way down through interdiction, money laundering, financial crimes, chemicals, production capabilities on the supply side. you can not focus on only one element. if you do, the criminal organizations have proved to be masters at developing a workaround and actually using your focus and priority as the means by which they facilitate and improve their own networks and their own operations. so, what is this initiative?

i am going to give you my view of what it is, and then you will follow up on doubted the with questions that i will attempt to answer. 7 countries in central america, so they deserve five pillars. here are the five that constitute the core of this initiative. first, safe streets. if a mother is terrified of allowing her children to go out and play, you obviously have a community security problem. you have to solve the problem at tehe retail level. how can you give a community sufficient confidence in their security that they feel comfortable playing, living, working in their own neighborhoods and communities. second, disrupt the traffickers'. i have suggested to you of thetwo core threats to the

institutions and the states of central america are the trafficking organizations. there must be an element that attacks them directly, whether it is interdiction, strength in borders, eliminating or reducing their ability to launder money or transact financial crimes. there must be an element that attacks of the organizations themselves. third is strong and accountable government. this is what we refer to as institution building. the institutions are not just law enforcement, but clearly they are a key component to it. it is corrections, prosecutors, courts, all the institutions that constitute the rule of law continue on in any country, any society, and the

community around the world. in essence, the objective is to make each of those institutions sufficiently strong, transparent, and accountable, that they not only can do their job but they have the respect and support of the communities and society that they served. fourth is strong communities. strong communities move us into what is the traditional and economic development sphere. development agencies to implement generation and business generation. they build basic public services that makes them function. they support education systems and health-care systems that provide a community a core. the communities citizens a stake in the future of their own community, a desire to actually

make the institutions work because they see a future for themselves and their families in that community. the fifth pillar i suggest to you required by the circumstances that we deal with in terms of resources is enhanced cooperation. cooperation internally by which i mean the seven governments of central america, their own institution and capabilities to work among themselves to address this regional threat, but also cooperation in the external cents, cooperation among potential donors, governments, organizations, and ngo's to supoport the strategy, the policy, the initiative, the effort in central america. ladies and gentlemen, i conclude

with a sobering observation for you. we have fought, for the last 11 years or so, -- thought that the big initiative that we have been working on in this hemisphere -- we have been working fairly aggressively with the government of colombia since 1999. we regard these as being complicated but also models for how also modelsin a multilateral way to address a multilateral threats. i submit to you that central america, despite the fact that we are dealing with smaller states, central america in a very real way is no more complicated than columbia -- more complicated than columbia and the initiative. because we have seven different

governments and societies and communities. each of whom have hundreds of years of history, hundreds of years of developing their own mindset, their own attitudes among themselves and between themselves and their neighbors, and we must work in a way that links them all together in a positive way. we will make mistakes. please make sure you got that on record. brownfield acknowledges that we will make mistakes. there will be a missteps. we will learn from those mistakes and missteps. it would not surprise me at all if i were to learn some of those at this morning. i will listen carefully. i believe it is possible to learn from your mistakes.

one mistake we don't need to make -- we do not need to learn a lesson that we already know. here in the united states of america, ignore what is happening in central america today. because, ladies and gentlemen, the decision is very, very simple. if we ignore these threats, these problems, and these crazies in central america today, we will address them on our own front porches tomorrow. with that sobering thought, i thank you. dr. eric farnsworth, i turned its back over to you. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you, bill. as promised, those were terrific remarks. think you for making the time to make them today. thank you for joinnig us. we have about 15 minutes for some questions. i want to ask the first 1. we have circulating microphones for you. we ask that you identify yourself by name and organization. you laid out a comprehensive strategy which makes a lot of sense. you touched on a lot of points. it is a complicated issue. we have commitments from the highest levels.

it is a strategy that is going to take time to implement. i guess the question would be the situation on the ground right now is pretty bad in some places, so there may be a disconnect in terms of getting at the drug trafficking organizations and at the gangs who are causing trouble right now as well as allowing the possible disconnect in terms of following that strategy to take effect. in the interim, who keeps the peace? reference specifically to a proposal that the a: president of guatemalans made about the idea of a regional security force or something like that. there are some ideas out there. i would like to get your reaction to who keeps the peace today in those circumstances. >> in the interest of time, i suppose i did not bore the

audience by going through country by country what we are already doing. i want to make it clear to you and to everyone else in the room that we are not starting at point zero. we do have bilateral programs, between the united states and all salvador, guatemala, costa rica, nicaragua, panama, and belize. those programs have not disappeared. they give us a starting point. so the simple answer of oil this larger initiative takes form, we have a bilateral approach that continues. as does spain, colombia, which is doing heroic service in my opinion in assisting of the training of thousands of law enforcement personnel in central america, as does canada and the european union.

we are not waiting before we get started. now, the president has made some -- i would call them -- he has thrown out some ideas for consideration. that is how you develop, improve, fine tune an approach. my own view and believe is what we have to do, our challenge within the seven governments in central america as well as the international community to support them, is to reach common agreement and understanding on the basic elements of the strategy. i would suggest that we are pretty close to being there. that is what the summit in june was all about. and about two weeks' time, most of the major donors plus the

executive secretary it will meet and what we will do is try to take this strategy, this set of objectives, divide them up to individual chewable parts and then decide who is in the lead and will have lead responsibility for this part and how we will sequinence it. you can do some things all the time and all things some of the time, but you cannot do all things all of the time. in a sense, that is what we have to address in this initiative. where do we start? where do we put our initial focus? how would this sequence out over the next one year to five years? who is in the lead? what country? it also means within the central america seven as well.

that is my suggestion as to where we are. fort hold me responsible not yet having all details of a fully fleshed out plan. we are in the first inning of a nine-inning game. we hope it is only nine innings. we are, at this time, still sorting out. we got our lineups more or less, but we are still sorting out how the flow of the game is going to proceed. >> let's take one round of questions. i am going to start way in the back. start in the back with this young woman right here. >> ambassador brownfield, thank you very much. i have three questions. >> can you turn the microphone up? is it on?

much better. >> i want to know if your strategy is not the same thing as the central american regional security initiative. that is a factual question. i have been working -- the partnership for growth is something in el salvador that we have been working on quite a bit. a lot of the economic growth initiatives that are a part of that have to do with security and crime. my point is the need in government in the united states where we are coming up with a strategy on how to deal with central america -- " we get a greater cooperation or sharing of ideas between various groups that are organized to address these challenges? i mean the intelligence -- your group and other organizations.

i often feel we address problems in different stovepipes. break it their. thank you for those. there was a question in the aisle. >> they are both in the aisle. >> street louis committee on foreign relations. you mention very briefly the problems of the courts and prosecutors. i think we need to look at that very closely. when the courts do not work, how you expect the police to work? when the public has no confidence in the courts, how do you expect them to work? when the governments have the inability to protect those who take a stand against the cartels or try to dispense justice, how can you expect the courts to work? how do we deal with these basic

issues? >> let's go for the third person there. >> thank you very much. >> could you identify yourself? >> i am a retired foreign service officer. u.s. domestic demand is certainly a considerable problem which you noted. what is being done, what can be done, and what coordination exists among various u.s. government, state, and local agencies to deal with domestic demand? >> eric? >> i will try to respond in the order in which the questions came forward. i wrote them down so i have a vague recollection. first, you are absolutely correct. there is a complete

interrelation. what the president was proposing in march of this year in san salvador was a collective, multilateral international community effort. that was the citizens' security partnership. the other is the central america regional security initiative, the u.s. component from the security and law enforcement side. my answer to your question is the security partnership is a large umbrella that covers the entire international community that is attempting to address these issues and the other is the u.s. law-enforcement rule of law side and the contribution to that effort. the partnership for growth. you are correct.

there is some danger in having proliferation of initiatives and the partnership for growth. i am fully aware that much of this week members of the department of commerce as well as the department of state were san in some cases are in ain salvador working this economic, business, trade, prosperity- driven agenda and initiative. there is obvious overlap between that and a citizens' security partnership. as a speaker so brilliantly articulated a few minutes ago, one of the core pillars has to be building strong and resilience communities. to do that, there must be economic growth, jobs, business opportunity. now, there has to be cross

communication between the two sets of people. but there always will be different communities and institutions between those responsible for law enforcement, rule of law, and citizens security on the one hand, and those responsible for economic development and growth, the school policy, budgetary policy, and business development on the other. that does not mean that the two groups do not talk to each other. if i might close this question with something so obvious it could be a cliche, you are not going to have security if you do not have economic growth, and you are not going to have economic growth unless you have security. i think we probably learned that lesson over the last 2000 or 3000 years. next, a very valid point about the difference between training

police, which is almost a numerical issue -- how many police candidates can you run through a basic course or a more sophisticated course to get their skill level to the point where they can do their job well? that is something we have become much better at. we, the international community, over the past 24 years. part of the rule of law continue room but separate from prosecutors and courts. we have learned, by the way on that front, something we have attempted to learn from that in some ways, prosecutors and courts are more complicated in the sense that there is a common, a global standard by which police are supposed to operate. judicial systems and legal systems are inherently sovereign

and different. we, for example, have a common law system in the united states of america, except for louisiana, and that has certain traditions. other countries of the world including six of the seven governments and legal systems in central america have a code- based system. it is kind of difficult to get all of them to fit into one category. i will offer my own observation based upon the -- i guess i started doing this and all salvador when i was a very, very young foreign service officer between 1981 and 1983. it is easier to work with prosecutors contend it is to work with the judges and courts. because when you move into the judicial front, you are moving into a nation's absolute

sovereign territory where there is at resistance to any other government or institution. not just the u.s., but any other coming in and trying to tell them how to run their judicial system. prosecutors are a little easier in that there is talent that should be applicable to the prosecutor anywhere. the process by which an individual attempts to convince an adjudication mechanism, that this individual in fact has committed this crime and should be sanctioned it there for. we have learned over the last 30 years that there are certain common themes or threads that you can bring to bear on prosecutors' almost anywhere. you are correct in your underlying assumption. if that element of the rule of

law continue room is not also addressed, this initiative will not succeed. finally, u.s. demand. i got to tell you that you can ask the same question in the year 1965 or 1955, and in many ways, the fundamentals of the question have not changed. the simple answer to your question is we have not yet solved demand in the united states of america. i do not want to oversimplify the matter to suggest that it is a problem only in the united states of america. the demand in the united states for cocaine has probably dropped as much as 50% over the last 10 years. cocaine production out of south america has not dropped 50%. it has gone to other markets. increasingly and europe, south

america, and latin america itself. demand is elastic. what is the cooperation between elements -- please remember, we are a federal system -- state, municipal, and local governments? in some places, it works very well. in some places, it does not work very well or at i am the assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. the director of the of a sudden national drug control policy, sometimes referred to as the drug czar, is the position who has had the responsibility of linking all of these elements together into a common strategy. i am offering a personal

opinion, i made great -- i am a great admirer of the drug czar. he has an extensive law enforcement background he most recently served as chief of police in seattle and he has an academic background but he brings to this job a commitment that demand has to be an essential and perhaps of the most important element to the long-term solution. if you attack the problem that way, i am optimistic that eventually you will see results. >> i think that is a terrific note to end on. i know there are a lot of questions out there. i have several more i would like to ask but we are at a time. i want to thank the center for strategic and international studies and the center for hemisphere defense studies for their cooperation today. i want to thank all of you and i would ask all of you to please

join me in thanking ambassador brownfield for his outstanding comments this morning. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [no audio] [no audio] [room chatter]

[general conversation] >> the ambassador joined secretary of state hillary clinton earlier this year in her travels to guatemala to talk about drug-related violence there and develop a strategy for the problem there. secretary of state clinton today speaking about the humanitarian crisis in the horn of africa, the famine there. we will cover her remarks later in our program schedules. our road to the white house coverage will resume. republican presidential candidate mitt romney will make

comments there in iowa. later, president obama travels to holland, mich. to talk about the economy and jobs. he will tour the johnson controls' battery facility and we will have that live for you at 2:45 eastern. >> it might not surprise you don that we have live coverage of the house on cspan. >> you can watch live events at c-span.org >> see them when everyone on the cspan video library. >> cspan 2 has books. >> explore american history tv on c-span 3. it is washington your way, cspan, >> created by cable and provided as a public service. >> we are going to iowa with mitt romney and about half an hour.

until then, our conversation with the postmaster general. "washington journal" continues. >> patrick donahoe is the u.s. postmaster general and u.s. postal service ceo. general, thanks for coming on. w would you describe the financial health of the po office? guest: we are in tough shape right now. we are being affected by two major issuest one time. one of them is electronic. people pay bills online and there's less first-class mail. that has a negative effect on our finances. a snail's pace is great for us. it keeps post offices open. the other thing that's happening is the downturn in the economy, people spending less in advertising dollars. half of our revenue comes from advertising. host: our revenues up in the

post office? guest: revenues are do. in the last a full year's -- last 4 years we have los 22% of our mail volume. first-class mail is the driver in this. that is our most expensive and the one product that brings in the most cash to our coffers. host: our postal operations profitable on their own? guest: if we have the right balance of cost and revenue, yes. what we are trying to do right now is get squared away from the cost perspective. we have some request to congress to make some changes in the law and we are doing some things on our own. we have a very efficient organization. in the last 10 years we reduced the head counts in our organization by 250,000 people. that is while we continue to deliver to 150 million addresses.

our people are very productive and do a good job. we are having issues with some requirements from congress. we are required every year to repay retiree health benefits to the tune of $5.5 billion. that is like 30% of our expenses. along with that, as we've lost mail volume, we need to move to five-day delivery. thostwo are worth $8.5 billion. we would be profitable if we do that this year. we would save $3 billion if we went to a five-day delivery. host: can you do that or does that have to be approved by the folks up there? guest: there's a lot in congress that requires us to deliver six days a week. if we could do it we would have done it. we would have reacted much more quickly and would not have been

in the position we are right no host: let's put the numbers on the screen. if you want to talk with the postmaster general patrick donahoe, they are on the screen. go ahead and dial in. you can send us an e-mail or send a tweet. we have set aside a fourthine this morning for postal workers in case you wanto call in as a no. how many postal employees are there right now? guest: 560,000 career employees. and another 80,000 temporary people that still in on saturdays and whatnot. we have a big payroll. host: your web site, what is your rationship? are you a government agency anymore?

what is the relationship between the post office and attacked their ample government? guest: we are part of the executive branch of the federal government. we are not considered an agency, but it's something like that, like fannie mae and freddie mac, an organization that is affiliated with the executive branch. host: then you are a dotcom still? guest: yes. you can do plenty of work on the website from a retail prospeive. right now over 45% of all transactions of the postal service happened outside the brick and mortar. a substantial portion. if 20% happens on the internet. host: what does it cost the american taxpayer per year to have postal service? guest: nothing. we take no tax money.

we are self-contained. that is why this whole thing is a major issue going forward for us. we are unlike any other business. we are governed by the revenues that come into the organization. if we experience a downfall in revenue, we have to make decisions on efficiency improvements and whatnot. we have done that. but when you hit a brick wall of around how to deliver mail six days a week, that $3 billion is something i need better control over to continue to reduce costs. host: you have to answer to congress. what is your plea to to with the u.s. postal regulatory commission? guest: we are part of the executive branch. there is a regulator. there's also a board of directors, than have postal management. the governors are just. like any just they set policy and we carry out that policy. the regulator is in a position,

like any regulator for the utility, where they're looking at prices and level of service and those types of things. host: the governors are the regulatory commissions? guest: no, it's a board of governors like a board of directors. . and host: what is your relationship with the regulator? guest: their role is like a utility regulator. they are looking at prices, level of service, extended service, any changes we make. in some cases they have to give a thumbs-up, like pricing. they have to register an opinion. host: last week we had the vice chair of the postal service some near thanksgiving. host: right before christmas. guest: there is a real need for speed because this is an important question for america. the posl service does not have

the same place in society as the way it used to. it is still a important part of the american fabric, particularly in rural america. host: that was in response to a question that we asked about how long it will take the regulatory commission get back to the post office regarding the inquiry for an advisory committee on changes to the post office. guest: one of the things that he said is true. we are an important part of the american economy and american society. we work with regulators in a way that tries to make sure we are providing a level of service that americans look for. the going forward for the postal service is important. we have control it -- it is important that we he control over finances. we don't wt to cut back to the point we are n providing what america is looking for. host: there's a knock said this

morning in the baltimore sun newspaper. "reducing postal service is not the answer." " that's why i was asking you if postal operations were profitable. he agrees with you. he says post office management, union, and key legislators asked the congress -- do you agree? guest: i agree that we have to

move away from the pre-funding of retirement. the second issue is looking forward. changing the requirement to pre- fund $5.5 billion would've been a great solution four years ago. with our revenues continuing to go down, even if we reduced that funding and just do that, next august we are out of cash. so you have to take many more steps to change what we are doing. that is why we are pushing congress to refund some of the overpayments we have made into a retirement systems, to give us the operating cash that we need to handle some of these business changes going forward. host: among the bad ideas that he writes, is frenzy has

produced the ending saturday delivery. guest: we have to address all of our costs. we will keep post offices open so that people can come in and buy stamps or mail packages. if you need delivery on saturday, we will continue to n our networks. the problem going forward is that our revenues will be $55.5 billion. we are not the small potatoes operation. our revenue next year will b $64 billion. you cannot sit idly by the sideline and help wonder two changes to some funding -- you cannot sit idly by the solemn

and hope one or two changes will help that. host: you sat down and predicted your budgets and projected $67.7 billion -- host: total revenue, $49.9 billion. are you on track t match your net loss, or will be greater than the $6.4 billion the new projected? guest: it will be greater. our standard mail at that time was up 9% over the same period last year. we were feeling a first-class mail had slowed a little.

we have seen practically since about thanksgiving is a quickening drop-off in the advertising mail along with the drop-off of first-class mail. we have taken a lot of costs out this year. we will have 30,000 fewer people. our people are doing a good job. you cannot catch up to that type of revenue loss unless you make revenue change. host: patrick donahoe is the postmaster general of the united states. donald works for the post office in massachusetts. caller: i retired as a letter carrier. i was also a clerk. i have an observation.

the post office seems to be top- heavy with supervisors. most of them take the job because they don't want to get dirty or sweat. they perform no useful function as far as i can saee. these people can be used in other areas that involve work. to follow people around with a stopwatch is just a form of harassment. host: mr. donahoe. guest: donald, thank you for your service. we have management like any other business. you can take a look over the past few years. we he reduced the headcount by 250,000 people. 250,000 people. we have reducedanagement by 20,000 people.

10% of the total. you have to have people to take care of things like purchasing. you have to have people that take care of payroll. a substantial portion of management does that. from a standpoint of making sure that things run correctly, you have to have people to do that. i appreciate donald's service. i have to disree that we are top-heavy in management. we are conscious of taking layers out just like everything else. host: anthony in alabama. caller: i am north of montgomery, alabama, the state catal. guy. small-government it seems to me it is clear that

you are unever able to get ahead of the game. why shouldn't the postal serve become privatized? guest: our focus right now is on profitability. without refunding and some other requirements to deliver mail at six days a week, we can be very profitable. the postal service has done a great job from the standpoint of service and productivity. we're asking congress to give us more freedom to act like a business. the big issue around privatization is our requirement to provide universal service. that is universal service including places like alaska, including places like alaska, hawaii, and we do that. if you are in private industry, it is hard to get profits at the

level that you want with some of those requirements. that is the balance that we manage. let us manage this like we know how to do would. -- like we know how to do it. host: what about the business that competes with fedex. is that growing? guest: our fastest growing area is packages. is packages. we are fedex's largest customer. we use their planes during the day. it is growing at about a 6% rate. we work with ups and fedex to deliver last mile with our letter carriers.

that is growing in double digits. e-commerce is very strong in the united states. it continues to be strong and we play a vital role. host: next call from long island, new york, marylilyn. caller: the thing i am against very strongly is the note delivered on saturday. every time there is a holiday on monday, you have three ys with no mail divery. you have the nerve to tell us to to the post office. a lot of people but get medications delivered to not drive. i think maybe you should take when state or another day during the week. there are too many monday holidays and three days without mail is too much. guest: let me respond to that

question. we are proposed that one solution would be to have mail solution would be to have mail delivered on saturday -- that is in play and there is some discussion around that. from the standpoint the post of laws, the idea is that people need debt service and we want to make sure they know it is out there. the key thing for us looking at saturday is by far the lightest day of the week. if you had no delivered on wednesday, it would have a disruptive effect on business. that is why we picked saturday. host: our people sensitive to any slight changen their mail delivery? for example, what time the markets delivered or if you switch a carrier?

the carrier in my neighbor just got switched and i almost called. he knew the neighborhood. guest: people are sensitive. even though there has been a lot of change in this country with the internet and people paying bills on-line, we still play an important role in people's lives. and so the day the post office is critical in the local community. we're trying to balance how you can provide that service and cost at the same time. we've had to reduce our letter carrier routes by about 16,000 over the course of the past four years. when you adjust one route, you have to adjust all of them. as you make these changes, it will affect everybody. we're trying to figure out what

are the bigger things we can adjust and get back to a normal tone and make sure we're delivering for the american public. host: is christmas your biggest season and is a profitable? guest: you have the fall mailing season which is the end of august, september, october, and november. and then christmas. we generally have letter by the christmas because you have less advertising in the mail, but we have more packages. host: liverpool, new york. gail is a postal worker. caller: i am concerned about the tea party republicans who have been elected to congress including one of my own from the 25th. i'm concerned about reducing retirees' pension funds. mr. any information you can

provide for me? -- is there any information you can provide r me? guest: thank you for your service. what we've talked about as we work with congress is focusing on the resolution of the health benefit payment. that was not resolved in any chges to a person's retirement norther health benefit contributions. and asking congress to goes back the overpayment were made into a federal employmee payment system. the key for us is to get the finances safe and get back to profitability. thank you. host: do you expect congress to act this fall on your wish list? guest: i'm going to do everything i can to encourage congress to act this fall.

we have a deadline of september 30, when i am retired -- i'm required to make the payment. we have been working closely with the house and the senate'. there are bills out there. congressman conley has a bill. when people come back from recess, to try to hammer out what we can to get a very good, effective, comprehensive bill to address the we need going forward. the heth benefit issue has to be addressed. host: have the proposed closing about 3700 post offices? post: we're reviewing 3654 offices. these are very low-transaction post offices and will we're

doing is seeing any employee we uld pvide service in a better manner. the idea is that many of these small towns have a store and the post office and both of them don't have much business. we think if you take the work of the post office and provided at the store, that is helping them from the standpoint to keep their lights on and it saves money for us. as we work through this, we'll be taking plenty of the input from the local communities and making the decisions. in some cases, we may consolidate one office to another. next call is from georgia, rosemary. caller: your tracking system is a service that comes with a fee.

itry time i've tried to use on line, it doesn't work. tracking works just fine on ups and fedex. i want it to work. what problems have you had? caller: it indicates that the item never left from the originating place. five days later, i get the package. i go back online and it will say that it was delivered, but nothing in between the originating place and the actual delivery. guest: you bring up a point that we are woing on right now. filling in gaps across the country are key for us. if you buy eight delivery confirmation with priority mail, we