Remarks Upon Arrival at Guatemala City

President Mendez, ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Over this weekend, we have visited with the Presidents from five Central American nations, and today this is the last of five very successful stops in Central America where we have had the chance to look into the faces of the people of these great countries.

I have heard, Mr. President, that Guatemala is called "the land of eternal spring." Surely, that phrase describes the warm hospitality which Guatemala always shows its visitors.

There is perhaps no country in all the Americas which reveals more clearly than Guatemala, Mr. President, the richness of the past--and the challenge of the future.

The Central American Common Market, for example, promises a new dawn of regional cooperation; a new beginning toward prosperity for all the people of Central America.

The Alliance for Progress, if we are faithful to its charter, can mean a new dawn of progress for all of us.

And until we reach the day when all of our children are properly fed and clothed, until all of our children have all the education that they can take, until all of our families are properly housed, until all of our men and women who want to work have work at decent wages, then we will not have discharged our obligation or our responsibilities to these people.

But the plans this week were plans that were laid to try to reach those goals.

We have much to do and a little time to do it in. But the five Presidents who met in San Salvador agreed that we had begun, that we were going to continue, and that we were going to do all that we could to reach those goals at the earliest possible date.

For the 6 years that we have had the Alliance for Progress, the meetings that we have just concluded give me faith that these countries and this great region of Central America can be a workshop for opportunity and a workshop for achievement in this area of the world--for leaders, for citizens, for workers in factories, for people on the farms, and, above all, for the children who make this land shine with new greatness, if they are only given a chance.

So I am happy to be here this afternoon, Mr. President, at the last stop on this friendship trip that we have taken, to see La Aurora in Guatemala.

Though my visit cannot last but a short time, the friendship and good feeling of my fellow Americans toward your country will, I am sure, endure for a long, long time to come.

Mucha suerte--y vaya con Dios.