On
behalf of the nation of Paraguay, I wish to express to
you, Mr. President, my most sincere congratulations on
your election to preside over the General Assembly at
its sixty-third session. I wish you every success.
This is a place where every year the Powers of
the world write history that should transcend mere
lofty political prose and be a tool for verse — the
poetry of eliminating hunger, embracing equity among
nations and building a better world for all. I believe
that, one day, these enormous buildings — which were
built with the aim of preventing war — will be
increasingly dedicated to providing bread, eradicating
hunger and malnutrition throughout the world and
saving millions of lives from disease and violence of
all kinds.
After 61 years of single-party Government and
for the first time in my country’s political history, a
party has come to power via the ballot — the
appropriate means under the democratic code.
Paraguay is soaring on the winds of democratic change
that are blowing through the region. The new
Government that I represent is an unequivocal response
to the many needs that have arisen and opportunities
that have been lost in recent decades. This year,
citizens voted for greater social justice, to halt the
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massive destruction of the environment, and to combat
the corruption, shady dealings and favouritism of a
weakened and opportunistic State that delayed the
implementation of a sustainable and inclusive
development strategy for years.
The new administration represents the end of our
19-year transition to democracy and has embarked on
reform of the State and the economy. It has encouraged
citizens to participate in the political decision-making
process. We understand that political and economic
stability is not more important than social stability.
That is why we are committed to applying social
policies to combat extreme poverty. We cannot hope
for sustainable development when the market and the
State deny opportunities to the weakest, nor is it
possible to sustain democracy when the vast majority
are excluded from enjoying economic benefits. We
therefore believe in economic growth with social
equity and in environmental responsibility as the very
heart of our public policies.
Paraguay has opened a door of opportunity to the
world. Two weeks ago, before we had come to the end
of our first month in power, my Government launched
a major assault on illicit Government management. The
mafias that enjoyed shameful and excessive wealth
through their influence on public power are enduring
the worst moment of their history in Paraguay. We do
not rule out the possibility of stripping the ill-gotten
gains from those whom scandalous wealth made
millionaires overnight and are now digging in their
heels and even hatching specific plots to foment
political and economic instability. The political
holdovers in Paraguay still cling to a fascistic style of
patronage, to which my Government has responded
firmly but calmly. We will show zero tolerance for any
anti-democratic activity and close our doors to all
blackmail and any attempt to revive outdated models of
access to power.
The new Government, which came to power on
15 August, has been proactive in a historic show of
solidarity with the democratic peoples of Latin
America and in its rapid response in defence of
democratically elected Governments, such as in the
sister Republic of Bolivia, in the context of the Union
of South American Nations. We also thank those
brotherly countries that stood with us in the face of
potential instability and have expressed their concern
for and solidarity with the Paraguayan process.
The only way to build economic relations has
been through a market mechanism which sold Latin
America on the financial speculation of the 1980s that
sunk our continent in debt, sidelined the role of the
State and widened the gap between rich and poor. That
mechanism, which was forced upon us, has proven to
be wrong-headed and very costly for our peoples on
the social level.
Today, we are seeing a financial crisis in
developed economies as a result of immoral
speculation that also affects the well-being of peoples.
The sole motive behind such speculation is the desire
for greater wealth that privatizes benefits and
socializes the costs of unregulated market economies.
Paraguay is in favour of strengthening the
General Assembly and restoring its mandated attributes
and functions under the United Nations Charter. As the
most representative body of the Organization, the
Assembly must become a true world parliament in
which the major issues affecting humankind can be
discussed and are not relegated to other bodies whose
decision-making process is confined to a small number
of countries that often fail to take the opinion of the
majority of the membership into account.
Paraguay believes that the problems that have led
to climate change call for short- and long-term world
responses in line with the most recent scientific
advances and applied in a fashion that is compatible
with the economic and social development of each
country affected. Countries with economies in
development suffer in particular from vulnerability and
isolation as they attempt to enter the globalized market.
Ironically, it is the poorest — those who are the
least responsible for climate change — who suffer
most from its consequences. When it comes to major
responsibility, we often note the irony of conservation
measures imposed on areas of the world that are
already suffering from poverty and exclusion. At the
same time, we note the sustained indifference and
limited capacities for self-criticism in the political
realms that manage the fate of the world. That is
precisely where the principal industrial and
consumption phenomena arise, creating societies that,
due to the irresponsibility of their leaders, persist in
depleting their own resources, their own lands, their
own dreams and their own lives.
Paraguay therefore calls on countries to recognize
their shared but differentiated responsibilities. We
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stress the need for all members of the international
community to act on their pledges. The same is true in
determining political and economic responsibility for
the deterioration of the world — the irreplaceable
home of humankind.
At the same high level as our concern for the
structural and immediate causes of poverty is our
concern for the situation of indigenous peoples. Not
only are they poor and excluded, but in many regions
of the continent they have not reached a level of civic
inclusion that permits them to be involved in decision-
making processes. In many cases, those who uphold a
discourse of inclusion are intolerant when our
indigenous brothers take on political leadership roles.
The indigenous nations of Latin America are not
the ancient creation of our continent, but the most vital
potential for political action, which we must respect,
promote and include. If we did not, that would be an
intolerable attack against our own civilization. America
must wake up in the face of all of that.
We need to account for the old debt, which began
to accrue in the filthy bowels of the slave ships and
continued to grow with every gesture of disdain
towards any indigenous attempt to have their say, their
vote, their dreams and their plans for the land that at
one time was theirs alone. Recognizing indigenous
peoples as participants in the political and participatory
processes of the State is still a pending issue, and it is a
sad expression of intolerance in many regions.
In Paraguay, we have begun a process of
transparency that has no precedents. The media are
playing a fundamental role in this process. They were
very proactive in combating corruption in Paraguay,
and today, because of their questioning of our
management, they are working at a high standard to
generate ongoing self-criticism. As we guarantee the
most unconditional support for enlightened
management in journalism, self-expression and the
right to access information, we seek to open up better
horizons for the communications and education media,
which had always been persecuted or dismissed as of
no importance in our country.
We must work to build a more just world through
social engineering. It is time to go beyond statements
that are incapable of showing clear signs of progress in
the fight against poverty and exclusion. The world’s
forums for debate and reflection cause strain and risk
losing credibility if they do not lead to actions that can
draw a smile on the faces of unemployed youths who
have no future. It is sad to see migrants who wander in
an incessant exodus of biblical proportions, or to see
women who are relegated to a secondary position by a
culture and a civilization unable to recover the original
dignity that belongs to them, who give life, affection,
creativity and courage to change the world.
We need to highlight food security by ensuring
not only space and opportunities for self-managed
production, but also its cultural, sovereign and national
identity dimensions. We are calling for greater, better
and more timely international assistance for
agricultural and fishing production in order to ensure
increasing food production without destroying the
environment and avoiding the current rise in food
prices. Those costs end up punishing primarily the
most vulnerable groups. On the global scale, we call
upon nations that are heading huge agricultural projects
to recognize the tribulations of small local producers,
who often are crushed by new models that are
arrogantly imposed on them.
The question of landlocked developing countries
is a fundamental issue in Paraguay’s foreign policy.
The disadvantages and asymmetries that that
geographic situation has generated and continues to
generate can be remedied only through international
recognition and the granting of special, differentiated
treatment in the country’s insertion into a globalized
world.
Paraguay believes that the upcoming midterm
review meeting of the Almaty Programme of Action is
extremely important. It is an opportunity to consolidate
achievements made so far and to ensure greater
commitment from international bodies and from more
developed countries. Working together in a coordinated
matter will help landlocked developing countries
overcome their limitations.
In Paraguay, large corporations — the Itaipu with
Brazil and the Yasyreta with Argentina — offer
abundant and available electric energy. Our
Government is committed to prioritizing and using
these renewable resources for economic and social
development of the country in such a manner as to
complement our efforts to create better sources of
work, more production and a reduction of poverty. We
are operating in a framework of increasingly fluid
dialogue with our brotherly countries, with which we
share those power stations, so that the benefits can
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repair the social debts deserving our attention and
become true factors for economic growth.
Taking into account the upcoming review of the
financing for development process, which will take
place in Doha at the end of the year, Paraguay calls for
the international community to mobilize its external
resources to provide decisive support for the
development of small economies. That is a priority
both for both international financial bodies and
developed economies. We would like the call for just
international trade to become a true impetus for
development.
Many of our countries have communities in
various places in the world. Just like Europeans who in
the past century came to America, today many friends
and families from our regions seek better prospects in
the countries of Europe and in North America. We call
upon the humanitarian, brotherly, hospitable sense —
the same that our continent showed in the past in
sharing its scarce resources — in nations that today
take in our migrants, who are dreaming of having a job
and the right to a dignified life, far from their
countries. The human dimension of that drama calls for
a frank dialogue with receiving countries to find a
solution to this new drama of globalization.
The Republic of Paraguay believes that, although
progress has been made towards the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), we cannot deny the
existence of the inequalities that persist in the
developed world. Millions of people continue to live in
extreme poverty, a situation that is worsened by the
sudden increase in the cost of food and fuel and the
consequences of climate change.
In order to achieve the MDGs by 2015, we are
calling for strengthening the combined efforts of
Governments, civil society organizations and the
private sector in the context of a global alliance for
stronger and more effective development, increasing
official development assistance for the most vulnerable
economies in particular.
We must not forget the thousands of millions of
human beings worldwide who live below the poverty
line. In our Latin American subcontinent, poverty has
risen to 44 per cent of the population. In Paraguay,
35.6 per cent of our citizens suffer from this scourge,
and of those almost 20 per cent live below the line of
extreme poverty. Malnutrition now affects four out of
every 100 Paraguayan children. This situation is
unacceptable and demands a radical change in the
approach taken to combat this state of affairs. The most
disadvantaged, those who remain in the sidelines of
development are the ones we must listen to, and
alleviating their suffering must be our priority.
Today more than ever, Paraguay requires
international cooperation in achieving its socio-
economic priorities, in developing and strengthening
its institutions and in providing preferential attention to
the most vulnerable sectors. We hope that the opening
of developing countries will favour the most
disadvantaged and that the same restrictions demanded
in the development of more developed economies will
not be applied.
We believe that this will be a vital tool for
strengthening developing countries. That is why
Paraguay signed the constitution of the Bank of the
South and will continue to support the strengthening of
that institution so that it can meet its objectives of
financing the balanced and stable economic and social
development of its member States, promoting
macroeconomic stability and strengthening integration
in order to set the foundation for regional and financial
autonomy. However, that does not mean that we no
longer require the support, resources and cooperation
of the most developed countries for the two modes of
cooperation are complementary for development.
Paraguay believes that the international
community should ensure that the mobilization of
external resources becomes a priority for international
financial bodies and the developed economies. To that
end, we must regain the level of expansion of official
development assistance, which in recent years has been
shrinking in a disturbing fashion.
Terrorism must be eradicated from the face of the
Earth. There is nothing more dangerous to the unity of
civilization than terrorism as a fact of daily life: the
terrorism that kills children through hunger; the
terrorism of weapons anywhere; the terrorism that
affects children in my country who die because of toxic
produce; the terrorism that killed our brothers in the
Twin Towers, which will continue to kill as long as war
remains a business for a few and fanaticism continues
to cloud our hearts.
I know that love is a word not frequently used in
political discourse, but there is no other way to rebuild
a world so disfigured by hate. We must not forget
individuals who, for various physical and mental
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reasons, have special capacities. Those are our dearest
brothers and sisters in a world that often excludes those
who cannot compete in terms of physical strength or
thought. We must create conditions to enable them to
share in our everyday lives without suffering the
burden of exclusion or indifference. Our efforts to
support that sector of the population need not be
extraordinary but should be carried out in daily actions,
rich in sharing and informed by an awareness of
brotherhood and nature.
In this globalized world where things happen so
quickly and communication is immediate, we see
clearly its greatest technological advancements, its
powerful financial architecture and its scientific plans
to colonize the universe, but, we have to ask ourselves,
where has the human being been left in all of this?
Men and women must always remain at the centre
of that scenario. The only thing that will save us from
post-modern savagery is if they recover their place
from which no one should ever have been exiled.
Humanity is the only value shared, without a single
difference, by a child dying of hunger in a developing
country and a child who eats breakfast every day in a
developed country.
Paraguay is a small country in the world, but it
believes in friendship. That is why we have set 30 July
as the Day of Friendship. We hope that this initiative
will resonate in various regions of the world and that
friendship, with its values and its principles, sooner
rather than later will replace the hostility which is so
present in our times.