Guatemala

I come before this parliament of humankind to present my final report as a Head of State who believes in interdependence and for whom sovereignty is not a closed door separating nations, but rather an open window affording a glimpse into the identity of each one, furthering the respectful interchange of experiences and the quest for understanding and solidarity among peoples. My presence here reflects Guatemala’s commitment to the United Nations, whose presence in my country has been crucial to the implementation of the Peace Agreements concluded in 1996. It also gives me the opportunity to participate in the debate concerning the main subjects that make up the international agenda, while at the same time allowing me once again to express our solidarity with the inhabitants of the great city of New York over the tragic events of two years ago. I wish to reiterate our energetic repudiation of the treacherous attack against United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that took place just a few weeks ago. We especially regret the loss of valuable officials of the Organization, including the esteemed Sergio Vieira de Mello. I also wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Jan Kavan, of the Czech Republic, for his enlightened leadership of the previous session. At the same time, I would like very sincerely to congratulate Mr. Julian Hunte on having assumed the presidency of the General Assembly at this session. We are pleased to see a distinguished representative of our own region occupy such an important post. We have no doubt that, with his proven abilities and his well-known experience, he will be quite successful in conducting our deliberations. Guatemala, just like its brotherly countries in Latin America, has experienced a dramatic period at the close of the twentieth century. That time has been characterized by a complex agenda involving various challenges, including those of entering into the globalization process, building peace with justice and consolidating democracy in a way that includes good governance. 13 In that regard, during the last four years we have sought to make progress in opening up Guatemala to the world and in making it part of globalization’s technological, financial and cultural currents. We promoted the democratization of institutions, mechanisms, practices and values capable of commingling freedom with authority and effectiveness with equality. We have also nurtured the concept of peace based on justice and respect for human rights. Guatemala is a country where several historical tasks remain to be completed or have been permanently postponed. When I assumed the presidency, in January 2000, I resolved to thoroughly address some of those pending issues. We have freed our country from its captivity by powerful economic interests. There are no longer tax exemptions that favour individuals. Trade policy is no longer manipulated to the detriment of the production of small farmers. Economic policy is now seen as an instrument of social development. After a century of captive markets, local monopolies are now exposed to competition. The Peace Agreements bestowed on Guatemala a programme for democratization. With an eye towards the twenty-first century, the Agreements constitute a proposal for a wide-ranging reinvigoration of coexistence between Guatemalans. But the Agreements have also presented us with the challenge of simultaneously completing various tasks pertaining to different historical processes that other societies have carried out in stages. I am pleased to say that we have made progress in various substantive areas. However, I must also admit that we have fallen short, or inadequately addressed, other areas. Against the opposition of powerful interests, we made a determined effort to increase the tax rate. We achieved a historical level in the collection of taxes, but without attaining the goal that had been set. We carried out the most significant financial reform since 1945 in order to modernize the banking system, reduce the risks of speculation and restore to the system its true mediation function. We modernized the labour law, which since 1944 had suffered a series of setbacks. We consistently raised the minimum wage in real terms at an unprecedented pace. On average, workers in the countryside now earn 50 per cent more than they did four years ago. Our illiteracy rate has historically been shameful. We therefore adopted plans that made it possible to reduce that rate by almost half. Special attention has been devoted to young girls. Through scholarships and school feeding programmes, we have removed tens of thousands of children from child labour. We have also reformed curricula to include the philosophy of the Peace Agreements. And we have considerably increased school enrolment. With regard to basic health care, we have confronted structural weaknesses in the critical areas of child and maternal mortality rates and nutrition. However, much more remains to be done. We are in an unfavourable economic environment. The traditional engines of growth and employment have weakened, and the necessary changes in production are taking place slowly. We have therefore undertaken a massive effort to stabilize the economy and have implemented emergency measures, such as providing small farmers with agricultural supplies so that they can sustain their productive capacity. The issue of transforming the production process is so sensitive that it was a contributing factor in the civil war that raged for almost 40 years during the last century. Recognizing the urgency of the issue, I introduced reconciliation mechanisms in which all sectors participate in an effort to define the country’s strategic policies, including in the areas of economic and rural development. Our people have made significant advances in the area of participation in the past three years. We have carried out the country’s most significant reform by decentralizing our institutions, strengthening local development councils and granting greater powers and functions to municipal governments. Indigenous peoples are now recognized as such and are able to participate in defining a new institutional landscape grounded in their own cultures. Women also have an increased public role and are developing innovative ways of organizing. All those efforts are aimed at reweaving our social fabric, which had been torn apart by the war. Reconciliation is an essential task in that regard, and the Government must foster a favourable climate for it to take place. That is why I assumed international 14 commitments to counter violations of human rights. That is also why we have begun a national compensation programme that includes reparations for the families of the more than 200,000 victims of the war, most of whom were indigenous persons. We also trust that the High Commissioner for Human Rights will establish an Office in Guatemala. Nevertheless, impunity continues to be a difficult issue to overcome. Judicial bodies continue to be weak, which is what led me to put forward an unprecedented temporary measure to strengthen local institutional capacity. I asked for the support of the United Nations in immediately establishing a commission to investigate illegal groups and clandestine security mechanisms, as several repressive groups of the past that are now in league with organized crime are threatening and intimidating human rights activists, judges and journalists. Civilian authority must be strengthened if we are to restore all aspects of democracy. Our efforts in that regard have been clear. We have established a civilian national intelligence agency, as well as a civilian body responsible for presidential security. We now have a defence policy in keeping with the principles of democratic security that was the product of an open debate among the members of our society. We have designed laws to provide for free access to information, the declassification of secret State archives and the establishment of civilian controls over security functions, which includes an advisory council on security. Those efforts are well under way and should be fully implemented during the next few years. Promoting a culture of peace has not been easy. The trauma of war continues to hamper trust in our society. Political polarization also exists, as a result of powerful economic and military groups defending their privileges. However, human life is less endangered and the democratization process continues to move forward. I will fulfil two other basic commitments in the remaining 114 days of my presidency. One of them will be to ensure that Guatemalans are able to take part in a free and transparent electoral process that is closely monitored by the international community and in which all political forces participate without exception. Such an event will be taking place for only the second time in our history during the past century. The second commitment involves carrying out an orderly transition of power that safeguards the reforms begun in the context of the Peace Agreements. To that end, I have worked with my Government team to come up with a basic transition agenda that includes providing for continuity in programmes and policies and the strengthening of institutions involved in the peace process. I would now like to turn briefly to some of the issues we will be dealing with during this session. In particular, I would like to respond to the challenge that the Secretary-General put before us this morning, namely, how to rethink the United Nations in these times of fundamental changes. As I have already said, we fully support the United Nations as the highest proponent of multilateralism. We also firmly support the stewardship of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. We concur with his view that it is imperative that we adapt the Organization to the exigencies of globalization. We will also support efforts aimed at improving the managerial capacities of the Secretariat and at promoting the reform of intergovernmental bodies. We therefore believe that we should not delay our efforts to make the Security Council more representative, and its procedures more transparent. Moreover, we think that it is necessary to strengthen the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council in order that the three principal organs of our Organization mutually support one another. We reiterate our opposition to all forms of terrorism and we support the collective efforts of the international community to combat that scourge. We believe that the United Nations should continue to give priority to the essential issue of development. Along with multilateral financial organizations, our Organization should dedicate itself to the task of ensuring that the benefits of globalization are widely shared among all the inhabitants of the world. We also stress the singular importance of the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan of Action. We express our disappointment at the lack of progress made at the recent meeting of trade ministers held in Cancún. As part of the G-21, we commit ourselves to working constructively to bring together the positions of all parties to produce a more open and 15 transparent international trade regime that provides more opportunities for developing countries. We also underscore the need to give greater importance in the international agenda to the situation of immigrants and migrant workers while focusing on undocumented immigrants, who constitute a vulnerable group vis-à-vis the need to protect human rights. I would especially like to refer to the subject of children and to the obligation of States to guarantee their rights and protection. A case in point is the effort that is taking place in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to re-establish links between three Guatemalan children and their mother, Gabriela Arias. We support all efforts to put an end to the tragic spiral of violence afflicting the Middle East and to achieve a just and lasting peace in that long-suffering region. We associate ourselves with efforts aimed at restoring peace, security and the rule of law in Iraq, as well as to reinstate that country’s sovereignty. We share the view that the United Nations should play a significant role in that undertaking. We support the heartfelt aspiration of the 23 million citizens of the Republic of China on Taiwan to be represented in international organizations such as the United Nations. Guatemala, like all of Central America, believes those aspirations to be a positive force for peace and democracy in the world. We are making our best effort to strengthen the bonds of friendship and neighbourliness with Belize, without prejudice to the search for ways to peacefully, honourably, equitably and permanently resolve our territorial dispute. We express our complete willingness to continue to seek a negotiated solution to that dispute within the framework of the Organization of American States. We reiterate our devotion to, and support for, Central American integration, as well as our solidarity with, and commitment to, all of Latin America and the Caribbean. We live in exceptional times that affect each and every one of our countries, as well as the United Nations as a whole. Such critical moments create opportunities for re-evaluation and change. I hope that God will grant us the wisdom to take advantage of those opportunities, thereby making it possible for us to overcome the obstacles that have served to distract humankind from a future of solidarity and common welfare.