I am Juan Orlando Hernández. I was born in
a humble village called Rio Grande, in the department
of Lempira, a region with very high rates of inequality
and poverty, although that is now changing, as is my
whole country. I am here in my capacity as President
of Honduras, a country located in the heart of the
Americas. It is a country small in size, but with a great
desire to achieve development based on its own identity,
and with a people who struggle daily to advance and
progress, and who aspire to better living conditions.
In 2009, our country suffered one of the worst
political crises in its history. It led to several hundred
million dollars in losses, and most unfortunately, to
thousands of divided families and more poverty. That
crisis caused more damage than any hurricane or
natural disaster. However, today we can say that we
have overcome the political crisis.
Honduras is a country where full democracy is
practised and there is complete freedom to choose its
leaders. In addition to representative democracy, we
practice participatory democracy. Proof of that is the
dialogue that will lead to a compact for Honduras that
will be the result of listening to the views of different
sectors of society on central issues for our people. Our
Everyone for a Better Life Plan includes four basic
pillars: restoring peace, generating investment and
large-scale employment opportunities, supporting
families living in extreme poverty, and combatting
corruption and promoting greater transparency in the
culture of the Honduran people.
Since taking office eight months ago, I have been
completely devoted to recovering and maintaining
peace and tranquillity, creating opportunities with fairer
conditions for everybody. We need more investment to
come to our country in order to create jobs that will
translate into greater income for our families. To that
end, Honduras has amended its Constitution to create
one of the best platforms in the world for investment and
employment. It is a very innovative. I am referring to
the Zone for Employment and Economic Development,
which is better known by its acronym ZEDE.
The Honduras ZEDE model is not just another free
trade zone, similar to the 3,500 that already exist in the
world. Ours is different because it is comprehensive. It
is a jurisdiction with four dimensions: legal, economic,
administrative and political. The Honduran ZEDE
is a L.E.A.P. zone, which in English means “to jump
forward”. In Honduras, the ZEDE will help us take a
competitive leap forward towards greater well-being.
Rather than joining the race to the bottom, Honduras
has decided to compete upwards, welcoming global
investment through a special jurisdiction of the highest
level to employ the most productive and profitable
workforce in a highly favourable location at the centre
of the Americas, bringing the Pacific and the Atlantic
together.
In the legal dimension, ZEDE offers a common law
system, with compulsory arbitration and international
judges. Economically speaking, we are competitive in
an open market, with a series of agile simple regulations,
with highly attractive and sustainable incentives for the
creation of good jobs under decent conditions. In the
administrative dimension, ZEDE provides a technical,
non-political structure without bureaucratic obstacles
that is effective for companies that must operate at the
speed of the markets and technology in the twenty-
first century, and with full guarantees of transparency
and security within the rule of law. Finally, to attract
long-term investment and ensure good jobs, we
guarantee political stability and transparency based
on international treaties and agreements, with the
support of an international commission of 21 trustees to
ensure compliance with best practices for workers and
the investors. I invite everyone to discover the great
opportunity Honduras offers the world.
We have also created a participatory model
of Government enterprises and the private sector,
with mixed capital — in other words public-private
partnerships. We are building an interoceanic logistical
corridor linking the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean,
allowing us to move cargo between both Oceans in less
than six hours — I repeat, less than six hours. Our hope
is to capture at least 5 per cent of the demand to move
goods from one ocean to another.
We have made progress, but we also recognize that
much remains to be done. For example, there has been a
rise in the number of Hondurans going abroad, including
an unusual migration of children and vulnerable youth
to North America, many unaccompanied by an adult.
This migration is the result of the violence created by
the movement of drugs through our territory, poverty
and the lack of opportunities. Special attention must be
dedicated to this phenomenon, especially in countries
that are responsible for the problem either because
they produce the drugs or because they are the market
where the drug is consumed. We believe that this is a
shared responsibility. Faced with the scant interest in
solving the problem shown but those who created it, we
Hondurans must stress this issue in every forum that
we possibly can, because we must speak clearly and
forcefully about that issue.
Honduran territory is today one of the main
battlefields of a war that is not our own. We did not start
this war. Its strategies are decided outside Honduras,
and it involves drug-consuming countries in the North
and drug producing countries in the South. It is a real
monster — a multinational, criminal octopus without
nationalities, borders or scruples, which is dedicated
to the trafficking, trade and consumption of drugs and
to encouraging demand, especially in the wealthiest
societies.
The drugs transiting through Honduras and
Central America destroy the lives and peace of our
people, our youth, our children and our women. From
those who orchestrate and organize the transnational
activity within our territory to ordinary citizens and the
children involved as pawns in drug dealing and addicts,
all are affected. They are all embarking on the path of
no return, which will tear apart our society, destroy
families, corrupt officials and destroy institutions. I
invite members to ask themselves: Who are the real
culprits in this cycle of death, misfortune, mourning,
struggle, blood and pain? It is not Hondurans, I can
assure the Assembly of that.
In forums such as this, we need to agree on the
basic contours of the issue and the facts. We cannot,
in the midst of crisis and without coming to useful or
concrete conclusions, put forward proposals based on
legalizing production and consumption, on the one
hand, and on waging a merciless war on trafficking and
illegal drug use, on all fronts and regardless of cost,
on the other. I ask myself, and I invite members to ask
themselves: Who are the true victims of this tragedy?
All those who cannot live in peace in modern society
are victims, as are those who cannot live in society
without using drugs. Society itself is a victim, as it is
unable to organize its efforts and manage its resources
in a rational manner so as to create new opportunities.
Honduras produces and consumes practically no
drugs. We are a transit country. Unfortunately, we
provide only the battlefield and the dead. We provide
the resources to combat drugs’ transit through our
territory, and those are resources that we are prevented
from investing in meeting our development problems
and challenges. I repeat: we are not responsible for the
war.
I think it is time to do what we have to do: respect
human rights; follow what experts and our common
sense are telling us; attack the problem at its root,
once and for all; and do it together and throughout the
affected region. We must create a multinational force
capable of dealing successfully with a phenomenon
that is transnational in terms of its organization, its
market, its projections and its financing. This morning,
President Obama called for such unity in fighting radical
fundamentalists. I would ask: What is the difference
between the effects of terrorist acts perpetrated by
radical fundamentalists and the effects of the terrorist
acts perpetrated by those who traffic in drugs? What is
the difference?
Today the international community is discussing
what happens in other regions of the world when
children, young people and families are displaced by
war, violence and radical extremists. Those are all
situations that we as a nation also condemn. Of course
we do. However, little is being said and about the
thousands of families living in the northern triangle
of Central America. I do not want to believe that this
issue will simply be forgotten. As human beings, we
cannot allow that to happen. I would once again ask
the Assembly: What is the difference between those
displaced by violence in other regions and those
displaced by the violence committed by drug traffickers
and transnational criminals? What is the difference?
One difference is that those displaced — those
thousands of families and individual children — come
knocking on the doors of the United States of America.
As a region, we cannot continue to ignore this human
drama, which affects thousands of Central Americans,
especially unaccompanied migrant minors who, on
their way to the United States, have been the victims of
violence, transnational crime, rape, human trafficking
and the organ trade. Many have died or disappeared
in the desert. We cannot forget that. Those children
deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. They
are innocent victims. We are talking about innocent
children just like our children and grandchildren. They
are vulnerable human beings.
I would like to inform the Assembly that yesterday,
the Secretary-General kindly agreed to have me, along
with the ministers of Guatemala and El Salvador,
present to him the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in
the Northern Triangle, which maps out an initiative to
support and create opportunities so that our countrymen
are able to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity
with everyone in our region — and I repeat, everyone,
because this cause is our common responsibility.
An important part of the solution to the child
migration problem is to create job opportunities for
their parents there, in Central America, and to improve
security for young people there, in Central America.
Both issues are closely linked to the trade policies
of the United States. We are not asking for financial
assistance or charity. What we are asking for is just and
equitable trade treatment, as is already given to other
countries in the world. What we want is to jobs, to create
those opportunities. Honduras supports efforts to unite
the world in peace and prosperity through just trade
and better access to major world markets. Within that
vision, and in the context of the current negotiations,
we demand that Honduras and Central America receive
the same commercial treatment as Asian countries do,
in order to enable us to compete.
To be frank, the United States giving preferential
tariffs and rules of origin to other countries and leaving
Honduras and Central America out of that would lead
to thousands of jobs being lost in our region and would
lead more children to illegally cross the border. I say to
President Obama, Congress, the North American people
and the people of the world: Honduras is committed to
solving the child migration issue and to fighting drug
trafficking. Many of them know this, clearly, given our
determination. But if there is not a reasonable degree of
coherence in our countries’ trade policies, as partners,
what is the real message to our people in Central
America? What should Honduran children and their
parents expect, in Central America?
Given the many problems we face as Hondurans,
we have learned to see every crisis as an opportunity,
and my Government follows the Christian principles of
solidarity and the common good. We are promoting a
very ambitious programme called A Better Life, through
which we are making small changes and solving big
problems. I am pleased to note that, now, some of those
with the biggest fortunes are also promoting solidarity.
I invite us all to ask: How much money is enough for a
human being to feel fulfilled?
(spoke in English)
How much money is good enough?
(spoke in Spanish)
A few days ago we read about the humanitarian
action being undertaken by one of the world’s richest
men, Mr. Bill Gates, who, through his foundation, is
seeking A Better Life in terms of health for thousands of
poor families by promoting scientific research into new
designs for basic sanitation systems. I think Mr. Bill
Gates found the answer to the question.
(spoke in English)
How much money is good enough?
(spoke in Spanish)
As we are working on the same issue, I take this
opportunity, with the Assembly’s permission, to invite
Mr. Bill Gates, a citizen of the world, to my country to
work on this common endeavour.
It is very encouraging that some of the wealthiest
people in the world are not seeking the secret of eternal
youth, or trying to send expeditions to other planets
while our brothers are dying on this one. On the
contrary, they are aware of the problems of their poorer
brethren. This is going on in many countries, including
Honduras, where many good businesspeople have
signed on to work with our A Better Life programme
and are demonstrating social responsibility by creating
jobs. And that is what this is all about — solidarity
and social responsibility, but not romantic social
responsibility. In that regard, I would like to quote Pope
Francis, a citizen of the world, whose words I hope will
ring in our ears.
“I have never seen a moving van following a funeral
procession, but there is a treasure we can take with
us, a treasure that no one can take away — not
those things we have kept for ourselves, but what
we have given to others”.
We should think about that and consider those
words. Honduras is a country where 43 per cent of the
population lives on less than a dollar a day, which is not
enough to pay for a person’s basic nutritional needs.
That is why we are making a major effort to respond to
these people’s needs through the Better Life programme,
thus enabling them to live with dignity. The Better
Life programme is designed to respond to the needs of
835,000 families, who are getting help in improving
their homes, including providing access to drinking
water and basic sanitation, decent roofs overhead and
floors underfoot, family gardens and monetary support
to ensure that children attend school, have improved
health care and change their living conditions so as to
achieve a better life.
Our housing improvements include the use of
clean stoves, reducing wood consumption and smoke,
which is harmful to women and children’s health and
which, according to the World Health Organization,
kills 500,000 women around the world every year. In
Central America alone, about 35,000 people die from
the wood smoke emitted from dirty cooking stoves
every year. With every eco or clean stove installed, we
make a contribution to the rest of humankind by saving
15 medium-sized trees every year, thus helping to
protect the environment. In that regard, I would like to
highlight the work of former United States Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton for her Global Alliance for Clean
Cookstoves initiative, whose goal is to put clean stoves
in 100 million households by 2020. On this subject we
share Mrs. Clinton’s vision and are working hard to
achieve it.
When presidents come to the General Assembly of
the United Nations, they often prepare speeches they
deem most appropriate and specific to the lofty heights
of this great forum, but beyond the words themselves,
the message I want to convey is that the most important
thing is for all of us to be accepted as citizens of the
world, with the same duty to fight and defend our
territory, our families and our planet, with the same
right to aspire to a better life, and that what is vital is
the support of those who have the most to those who
have the least. If my message today can reach and move
a few to act, I think it will have been worth coming. I
would like to remind the Assembly that if we are part of
the largest forum in the world, it is because we consider
ourselves to be citizens of the world, human beings
with the same dignity, and therefore all of us, everyone
of us, equal. Honduras is making progress; Honduras is
changing; Honduras sends its greetings to all.