I would like to begin my remarks by conveying our
greetings to Mr. Sam Kutesa, President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. At the same time, I
wish to express our appreciation to Mr. John Ashe for
his recognized leadership and exceptional performance
as President at the sixty-eighth session. I should
also like to take the opportunity to congratulate the
Secretary-General for his stewardship and especially
for the success of the recent United Nations Climate
Summit 2014.
Since September 2013, when the President of
Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, addressed the General
Assembly (see A/68/PV.12), 12 months have passed with
significant progress for Guatemala in three priority
areas of our domestic policy, in spite of our having to
face some new challenges, including a recent prolonged
drought.
First, I can report that we have advanced in the
battle against chronic malnutrition among children.
According to an independent investigation, in one year,
the program Zero Hunger has succeeded in reducing
chronic malnutrition on the same scale as that achieved
during the past decade, that is, by almost 2 per cent.
That means that, should that trend be maintained,
by the end of this Administration we will have been
able to reduce the rate of chronic malnutrition beyond
that achieved since 1985, proving that democracy and
appropriate policies would have enabled us to make
progress for Guatemalan children.
Secondly, I would like to say that the Administration
of President Pérez Molina has also advanced in
complying with the Pact for Peace, Security and
Justice. For the third consecutive year, the number
of homicides in Guatemala has decreased, with a
cumulative contraction of 25 per cent between 2011
and 2014. With that, we are coming closer to achieving
the same levels of security recorded after the Peace
Accords were signed in 1996. That progress shows that
the measures taken are producing the expected results
and that Guatemalan democracy is slowly winning its
battle against crime and impunity, in the framework of
respect for the law and compliance with human rights.
With regard to that second achievement, once more
we express our appreciation for the support received
from the International Commission against Impunity
in Guatemala (CICIG), an entity that has strengthened
criminal prosecution against mafia networks, some
of which even infiltrated the security and justice
establishment. As the final year of the mandate of CICIG
approaches, after nearly eight years of cooperation
with three democratically elected Governments, our
assessment is that international cooperation programme,
supported by the United Nations, was fully justified,
since Guatemalan institutions today are better prepared
to take on their constitutional role.
Moreover, this last year will be critical to
ensuring the institutional sustainability of the judicial
investigations and procedures already under way.
We thank the United Nations and the international
community for joining us and leaving that great
legacy for Guatemala. Our country will now have the
responsibility of strengthening a system of security and
justice capable of reducing impunity and ensuring the
total separation between criminal networks and our
public institutions.
A third advancement that I would like to share
with the Assembly has to do with competitiveness and
the business climate. In the past two years we have
advanced eight steps in the Global Competitiveness
Index, established by the World Economic Forum. In
fact, the World Bank has highlighted us for the second
consecutive year as one of the most reformed countries
in the world in terms of improving the business climate,
jumping 19 positions in the respective report. That
is due to the actions of the present Administration
in the framework of the Pact for Oversight and
Competitiveness.
That improvement in the business climate is
above all the result of administrative improvements
that have reduced bureaucratic procedures, supported
additionally by a progressive improvement in the
country’s infrastructure. In addition, as we informed
the Climate Change Summit, our commitment
regarding economic progress is made within the context
of increasing sustainability. The change in the energy
matrix towards more sustainable and environmentally
friendly energy sources and away from fossil fuels,
which produce greenhouse gases, is being achieved by
bringing into the system more plants that depend on
the sustainable use of water, geothermal sources, solar
energy and even natural gas.
In that context, we have gone ahead with various
strategic agreements with our neighbouring countries.
For example, with Mexico, we can report on the projects
to reconstruct and modernize border crossings on land
and the signing of a historic agreement for a project
that will transport gas from the Gulf of Mexico to
Guatemala and all of Central America. With Belize, we
are moving forward and have negotiated 15 important
bilateral agreements in all areas, which we will sign
in December. They will strengthen the relations not
only between our Governments but also between our
peoples. In the Central American Integration System,
we are making progress in consolidating our integration
process, and the next goal is to establish a customs
union. In addition, relations between Central America
and the Caribbean are becoming increasingly intensive,
guaranteeing greater markets and improved economic
and political relations among our countries.
In the context of advances in the social, economic,
security and justice areas, we cannot forget some
challenges that have gained a higher profile during the
current year. In that regard, I must refer to the crisis
of the Central American child migrants on the border
between the United States and Mexico. The crisis,
provoked by diverse factors in both Central America
and the United States, has alerted us to the need to move
more quickly on the path towards greater prosperity, in
particular for children and adolescents.
We trust that the people and Government of
the United States understand that the migrant crisis
requires a strategic response that attacks the structural
roots of the phenomenon and provides sustained
actions. That implies working together to promote
development and prosperity in Guatemala, Honduras
and El Salvador and intelligent management of seasonal
work for migrants that both satisfies the demands of
the labour market in the United States and provides for
workers from Central America. It is also important to
make the necessary efforts to regulate the situation of
undocumented persons in the United States. Above all,
migrants must not be criminalized, because migration
is neither a sin nor a crime. It is the networks of human
traffickers that are criminal, promoting corruption,
extortion, kidnapping and sexual abuse.
In the same vein, I cannot fail to mention the
challenge posed by the shortage of rain this year in all
the Central American region. The drought has led to the
loss of crops of basic foods for hundreds of thousands of
families, and addressing the food crisis will incur a cost
of close to $50 million for Guatemala alone during the
next eight months. It is clear that the drought is a result
of climate change and that, without decisive action by
our Government and the solidarity of the international
community, many families will find themselves in a
very vulnerable situation due to hunger. The speeches
during the Climate Change Summit must translate
into direct humanitarian assistance that reaches the
most needy communities in Central America and the
Caribbean. It is time to transform rhetoric into action.
I would like to mention three important processes
driving the United Nations that Guatemala strongly
supports.
First is putting together a post-2015 development
agenda that must clearly embrace inclusive and
sustainable development goals, including those related
to promoting justice for all. In that context, we must
also incorporate specific goals to avoid man-made
climate change.
Secondly, Guatemala is committed to supporting
the 2016 special session of the General Assembly
to discuss the world drug problem. President Pérez
Molina, together with other Presidents of the Western
Hemisphere, is determined to promote, through
leadership, a frank and sincere debate on this issue,
utilizing as a main reference the two declarations
emanating from the General Assembly of the
Organization of American States during the past 18
months. During the most recent extraordinary session,
held a few days ago in my country, I was charged with
transmitting to the presidency of this General Assembly
and to the United Nations Commission on Drugs and
Crime the text of the resolution, which I will do in due
time. Our focus must be comprehensive, objective and
evidence-based. And our goals must be realistic and
measurable — no more dead products of the war against
drugs, no more false promises. A comprehensive focus
is necessary.
Thirdly, Guatemala will follow up on the resolution
and recommendations of the World Conference on
Indigenous Peoples (resolution 69/2) and work to see
that the world recognizes the rights of the indigenous
peoples as one of the basic platforms of the international
legal architecture of human rights.
Like many of the heads of delegation who preceded
me in speaking, I view with growing concern the
deteriorating security landscape facing various parts of
the globe. The exceptional cruelty of militant jihadist
groups leaves us astonished, and we energetically
condemn those crimes. We support all measures to
combat them, including in particular the elimination of
the root causes that lead many people to those levels of
fanaticism.
We are also profoundly troubled by the instability
in the Middle East, especially by the prolonged conflict
in Syria, which has already taken an immense toll in
lives and human suffering. We are concerned that in
Central Europe principles enshrined in the Charter
of the United Nations, such as respect for territorial
integrity, are being put to the test. We also remain
concerned about tensions in various countries on the
African continent and on the Korean peninsula.
We believe that the United Nations offers the ideal
venue in which to address those conflicts and tensions,
and we reiterate our hope that dialogue, agreement
and preventive diplomacy will take precedence over
the use of force. In that respect, we pin our hopes on
a negotiated outcome of the long-standing conflict
between Israel and Palestine with the emergence of two
States, living in peace within secure borders.
I end my remarks by repeating what President
Otto Pérez Molina said last year to the Assembly,
when he congratulated the United Nations system for
its ongoing commitment to seek peace and justice
worldwide. Guatemala aligns itself with that statement
and those same goals and can affirm with pride that we
are and will always be a country that is guided by the
principles set out in the Charter of the Organization.
That sentiment is reflected in our commitment to
peacekeeping operations.