 The size of the Latin American economy and its young demographics are especially important for the United States, because our economy is tied much more closely to the economies of our neighbors than to those across the oceans. Forty-three percent of all of our exports stay in the Western Hemisphere. We export more than three times as much to Latin America than we do to China. And I want to repeat that because I don't think there are very many Americans who understand or know that. We export more than three times as much to Latin America than we do to China. We export more to Latin America than to Europe and more to Chile or Colombia than to Russia. North America is the largest free trade area in the world. Latin America has undergone such a profound democratic transformation that it can now be a model and even a mentor for those fighting to create and protect democracy everywhere. Let's not forget that before the Middle East, it was Latin America that people dismissed as arid ground for democracy. We can still recall a time when dictators and strongmen dominated the hemisphere. And plenty of Americans thought that friendly autocrats were the best we could ever hope for. But citizens coming together, asserting their fundamental rights in the face of autocrats and military governments, overcame the doubts of the world and the challenges of transition to build democracies that deliver results. The very ideals we hope for in Egypt and Tunisia have already taken place in our own hemisphere. So Colombia, in short, had gone from a source of danger to itself and others to a source of inspiration to all of us and to becoming a vital partner in the great debates of our time. Now the real credit goes to the Colombian people and to the leaders who had to make very hard choices, not just once or twice, but over and over again. But the United States played an important, some would say, an essential role. The money we invested in planned Colombia over that decade, while significant, is less than we spend in Afghanistan in a single week. When President Obama returns from Latin America, he will have set the stage for more stories like Colombia's in the years ahead. Stories with powerful implications for trade and jobs, for education and innovation, for many advances in human potential that we will be so proud to see and that we will benefit from.