Nicaragua

We are proud to have our African brother, Sam Kutesa, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Uganda — a member country of the African Union — presiding over the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. We are fully confident that during his tenure he will advocate for and advance the most pressing issues of our peoples. He can count on Nicaragua’s support. We would also like to congratulate the President of the General Assembly at the previous session, a brother from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, and his entire team for their dedicated leadership and unstinting effort to realize an agenda for the benefit of our peoples. We live in a world of many interconnected and related crises that reveal the unjust and inequitable development policies prevailing among various peoples and nations. The existing unjust economic order, resulting from imperialism and its contemporary model — global capitalism — has failed to respond to the growing and increasingly frequent crises. The numbers of the world’s poor increase daily in both the South and the North, in flagrant violation of the most basic human rights. We must work together to overcome and eradicate poverty, hunger, malnutrition, disease, war and conflict, regime change politics and coups, violence against women and children, the arms race, the negative impacts of climate change, and emerging social and slavery plagues, including drug trafficking, organized crime and human trafficking, among others, as soon as possible. Social justice, solidarity, unity, complementarity among peoples, and brotherhood and respect among nations must prevail. The eradication of poverty remains the greatest challenge facing the world. We will begin negotiations on the post-2015 agenda with the central concern of not having achieved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in all developing countries. It is urgent to redouble efforts and create an international environment conducive to facilitating developing countries’ implementation of the MDGs, including appropriate financing. The post-2015 agenda will provide a new opportunity to strive for a just world order. It should promote sustained economic growth, inclusive and participatory social development, environmental protection and human dignity, with sufficient flexibility to respond to the needs, priorities and specificities of each country and region, conscious of the fact that no single model or recipe for development exists. The agenda should involve an intergovernmental, open and transparent process, based on the results of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Developing countries suffer the most from the adverse effects of climate change, whose extreme meteorological phenomena are ever more frequent and intense. Despite our economic limitations and prioritized focus on poverty and sustainable development and with no obligation under the Convention, we are assuming the costs of the adaptation and mitigation efforts. We must urgently achieve a binding agreement in 2015, containing strong, ambitious and balanced commitments on all its provisions and based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its principles and provisions, particularly equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, in order to address the climate crisis and protect the ecosystems that sustain life on our Mother Earth. No country that is part of the international community can claim the right to use or threaten the use of force in its international relations. Such exceptionalist policies not only do not resolve conflicts; rather, they stir things up, as has been seen in recent years. Dialogue and negotiation are the only means to resolve conflict. Based on its Charter, the United Nations must assume its role as the main organ responsible for ensuring world peace and must reject war-mongering policies, war and confrontation. Given the challenges we are dealing with, thorough reform of the United Nations is becoming increasingly imperative, and particularly reform of the Security Council, which should recognize contemporary realities by including the voices and votes of developing countries in the categories of both permanent and non-permanent members. We consider it vital that we have a nuclear- weapon-free world with total and complete disarmament. We welcome the designation last year of 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, initiated by the Non-Aligned Movement at Cuba’s suggestion. In the face of the growing Ebola epidemic, Cuba, our sister in solidarity, has once again made its human and scientific resources available to work alongside our African brothers who are fighting the deadly virus. Meanwhile, that same sister nation of Cuba continues to resist the criminal economic and financial embargo imposed on it by the United States. Nicaragua emphasizes its unconditional solidarity with Cuba and demands an end to a blockade that violates international law and the human rights of the people of Cuba. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of the five anti-terrorist Cuban patriots. And we condemn the role that the United States arrogates to itself in putting countries on its unilateral and arbitrary list of State sponsors of international terrorism, and demand that Cuba be removed from the list. We condemn such anachronistic United States policies, as well as the intensification of the blockade and its extra-territorial nature. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution continue to suffer from harassment, interference and external aggression. Nicaragua offers its unconditional support to Venezuela’s people and Government, led by our comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros, in their defence of their revolutionary liberation process. We must bring to an immediate end Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and prevent Israel from continuing its aggression and brutal attacks on the men, women and children of Palestine. The Security Council should once and for all live up to its obligations and demand that Israel end such practices and policies in order to clear the way for a sovereign and independent State of Palestine, based on its pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with two States, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace. Nicaragua reiterates its absolute and unconditional solidarity with the State of Palestine in its fight for freedom and its inalienable rights. We also stress our total solidarity with the Government and the people of Syria in their fight against international terrorism and in defence of their sovereignty and territorial integrity. We emphasize the importance of achieving a negotiated political solution among Syrians and ending foreign intervention, including the financing and supplying of weapons to terrorist groups. When confronted by such conflicts, rather than opting for dialogue and negotiation to settle them, the NATO countries take unilateral decisions, measures and action outside the United Nations framework and in violation of international law, including aerial bombardment in territories of sovereign countries. Nicaragua has frequently expressed its rejection and condemnation of actions aimed at regime change, which rupture constitutional order, lead to widespread violence, encourage the use of force and open the door to coups d’état that can overthrow legitimate Governments elected by the will of the people. That is the kind of policy that we have witnessed in Ukraine; it has led to loss of life and the displacement of populations, and created a humanitarian crisis with unpredictable consequences. Because we want peace and believe in the prevention and resolution of conflicts by peaceful and inclusive means, we reject such policies, as well as the imposition of unilateral measures and economic sanctions that violate international law. Nicaragua recognizes the cooperation of China on Taiwan with developing countries, particularly in the area of food and social inclusion programmes, and we reiterate our support for the legitimate aspirations of China on Taiwan for greater participation in the United Nations specialized agencies, one that accords with the requirements and needs of its population of 23 million. We reiterate our full support for the legitimate rights of the Republic of Argentina in the dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, the South Sandwich Islands and the adjacent islands. The United Kingdom should comply immediately with the relevant United Nations resolutions and initiate direct negotiations with Argentina. Similarly, we support and consider ourselves part of Argentina’s fight against vulture funds. Puerto Rico continues to labour under the colonial yoke and now more than ever needs our solidarity and active support in its struggle for independence and self-determination. The United States should free the world’s longest-imprisoned political captive, the Puerto Rican patriot Oscar López Rivera. We also commend and remain in solidarity with the struggle of the people of Western Sahara under the leadership of the Frente Polisario. Nicaragua, a small country whose policies are based on Christian values, socialist principles and the practice of solidarity, works proactively in our complex global environment, through various international and regional forums, to promote policies of peace, unity and understanding among nations, political and negotiated solutions to conflicts and the right of our peoples to achieve sustainable development and well-being. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, of which Nicaragua is a member, has been a factor in improving unity, complementarity and economic integration in our region. In turn, it promotes other forums such as Petrocaribe, which groups together 20 countries of our region and has had an immediate and concrete positive impact on the well-being of our peoples as one way of overcoming poverty, hunger and inequality. On 14 December, we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its founding, resulting from the unifying vision of the Latin American and Caribbean leaders Hugo Chávez Frias and Fidel Castro Ruz. These steps towards regional integration have borne fruit with the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, through which we continue to deepen our process of political, economic, social and cultural integration, respecting diversity and building unity. We have declared our region a zone of peace. Within the framework of the Central American Integration System, we are strengthening integration in all fields and working together to fight the scourges of drug trafficking and organized crime and to turn the Gulf of Fonseca into a zone of peace and development. Our Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, under the visionary leadership of our President, Commander Daniel Ortega Saavedra, continues to work to restore the political, economic, social and cultural rights of all Nicaraguans. Nicaragua has become the leading country in the region in terms of public safety. Our fight against drug trafficking, organized crime and human trafficking has been recognized as the most vigorous and effective in the region. Our economic growth is consistent and rising and is among the highest of our region. We are reducing poverty and extreme poverty, attaining the Millennium Development Goals and empowering women through political and economic participation. Indeed, we rank very highly in the world in terms of female ministers, parliamentarians and mayors. We combat violence against women and girls head on, with strict laws and social programmes targeting both groups, and with police stations for women in all municipalities of the country. Education and health care are prioritized and are provided free for all Nicaraguans, and early childhood care programmes and maternity homes can be found throughout the country. In our Caribbean autonomous regions, in addition to the restitution of the rights of indigenous peoples and people of African descent, the autonomy process is growing in strength every day, with the recent completion of the land ownership process in the indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. All these efforts of our people and Government, together with our policies of inclusion and social justice, won immediate recognition and support from our people, who have taken ownership of them, and they have been held up as examples of good practice by all the agencies, projects and programmes of the United Nations system. In conclusion, we note that the work of the General Assembly at the present session and in the coming years will be crucial for developing countries and the rest of the world. Let us unite from this very moment to achieve the urgent and necessary changes needed to attain a better world and better lives for our peoples.