Guatemala

Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your well-deserved election to preside over the General Assembly at its fifty-first regular session. I also wish to convey our appreciation to Ambassador Diogo Freitas do Amaral for the skill and efficiency with which he conducted the work of the General Assembly in the course of its last regular session. We are very close to the achievement of peace in my country. This can already be felt in the silence of the guns and the newly flourishing spirit of unity among brothers. Intolerance is giving way to awareness of the common challenges we face. We now realize that, for example, if we are to combat corruption and impunity, we need to share values and principles, though not necessarily ideologies. United in diversity, we must discover our own means for building our future. Our country is healing its deep wounds and revealing its true face, as a generous land that is the home to age-old cultures. Guatemala is coming to terms with itself and, in so doing, is reconciling itself with the world. We are once again speaking as a friendly nation among friendly nations. The peace process has enabled us to evolve our own agenda, which responds to the needs of our country without our having had to accept an agenda imposed by anyone else. To that end we have received the constant support of the international community, and in particular of the United Nations system. Today, at a time when the reform of the system is the subject of such intense discussion, our national experience may perhaps be useful, as it is an example of cooperation that is at once respectful and dynamic, based fundamentally on internal efforts with appropriate external help. For us this approach is indispensable since, to a large extent, it has been possible to build peace, thanks to the valuable and diverse forms of support received from agencies of the United Nations system. But this has not been effected through the mechanical application of preconceived formulas, or of automatic institutional moulds. On the contrary, what we have here is a challenging and complex empirical laboratory where all of us are learning step by step. It is, in fact, a constant exercise in discovery with living social tissues, an exercise in which we have all had to pool our best efforts. The creativity of individuals, Governments, and various organizations — private and public, local and national, regional and multilateral — has come together to produce a constant quest for the solutions we need. It has been an exercise in international solidarity that, complementing internal endeavours, has made it possible for us to forge ahead along the right path to recovery. But the test tube is the life of our people, and for that reason there is little margin for error. Errors increase the suffering of my people. And Guatemala has suffered greatly from authoritarian intervention and the imposition of alien patterns that once impaired a political and social maturation process that sought to infuse its own life- giving fluids with contemporary ideas of equity and democracy. Domestic injustices and imbalances were aggravated by the tensions of the cold war that exploded within my country. 3 Now is the time for reconciliation. Now is the time once again to take development in hand. Now is the time to search for effective formulas to link our villages with the World Trade Organization; to link the poverty afflicting the families of our neighbourhoods with international financial institutions; and to link decisions independently taken at the level of our domestic communities with the large development agencies. We are on the threshold of signing the peace. We look forward to this historic transition with hope and jubilation, and we foresee the complex stage of strengthening the fabric of society and production. From that stage we can look hopefully to the future. Peace will come to Guatemala because we Guatemalans have striven for it and because the international community has helped us along the way. As is well known, last week in Mexico City the parties signed the agreement on the last substantive item of the agenda agreed upon in the peace talks, the one concerning the strengthening of civilian power and the role of the army in a democratic society. We now have to deal with the operational issues: demobilization, reinsertion into civil society, the cease-fire and the timetable for the implementation of the agreements. In the course of this year we shall initial, God willing, the final agreement for a firm and lasting peace, which will put an end to an armed conflict that has lasted 36 years. It is worth emphasizing then, that for the last five months there has been no armed confrontation, which has allowed the peace talks to progress without subjecting our negotiators to the anguish and pressure of knowing that as they are working Guatemalan blood is being shed. That is over. Far from deadening or delaying the dialogue, this state of affairs has stimulated it, given the prospect of a definitive cessation of hostilities. This has also stimulated us to see clearly where we are going and to gain a more profound understanding of what has happened. As many of the representatives in this Assembly know, the internal conflict caused great misfortune and suffering for our people. I am referring primarily to the irreparable loss of thousands of lives. I also have in mind the traumatic aftermath of the conflict, which is evident in the faces of every cripple, orphan and widow, and in every surviving family, a number of which were eye-witnesses to the tragedies. I am also referring to the economic losses, in the form of damage to infrastructure and lost opportunities for productive development. I also wish to call to mind the set-backs caused by the conflict. Let us recall the words of the singer- songwriter who asked, “Who will return to us the fatherland that could have been?” While more difficult to pinpoint, and perhaps impossible to measure, these too are irreparable losses: all that we could have done, but did not do; all the growth that could have occurred, but did not occur; all we could have built, but did not build. While others were progressing, we were stagnating, locked in a cruel domestic struggle that included elements imported from the cold war, which arbitrarily kept in check for 40 years our political, social and economic evolution. While technological, commercial and political changes were taking place in the rest of the world, and nations were discovering new opportunities in their relations, we were plunged deeper into the violence of a domestic conflict that took the lives of thousands and thousands of young people, who were unable to provide their country with the fruits of their talents and endeavours. While new international options for well- being were blossoming elsewhere, we continued to be consumed internally by a dirty war that crushed entire villages and compelled many people to flee. There is a part of our country that never came into being, because Guatemalans were bogged down in fratricidal domestic struggle that we were not able to stop in time — an internal conflict that — it is true — was fuelled by our own injustice, but — it must be acknowledged — was also fanned from abroad. But such is history: hope springs up amid tragedy, and lessons are drawn from mistakes. Our people has an extraordinary capacity for recovery and learning. We are nearing the end of this stage, and another has already begun: one in which all of us — absolutely all — are responsible and committed. One of the consequences of this deeply traumatic and protracted conflict is that never before have we found ourselves in a situation so propitious for dialogue and reconciliation. Never before have we shared such a profound and keen awareness of our immense multi-ethnic, multilingual and multicultural wealth, or of our environment, which is extraordinarily varied. Never before have we been so keenly aware of our need for internal integration and for the development of our own potential. 4 We have within our grasp a unique opportunity, one that will never recur, to transform this moment into a moment for the future and for renovation. This is perhaps not the appropriate occasion for detailing all the progress made in recent months. Such details may be found in the various reports of United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights and of Compliance with the Commitments of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights in Guatemala (MINUGUA) and other agencies of the United Nations system. But it is worthwhile to stress the enormous effort that has gone into fulfilling the agreements already signed, even before most of them have come into force. In particular, we have had remarkable successes in the field of human rights, as has been recognized by various commissions and subcommissions dealing with the issue. At this singular moment at the end of the century, when we are celebrating the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, it is fitting to point out that Guatemala has recently ratified and deposited International Labour Organization Convention 169, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, which strengthens the rule of law in Guatemala by conferring benefits and guarantees on the Mayan population with regard to property, conditions of employment, training for professions, crafts and rural industries, health, social security, education, the administration of justice, the environment and the proper and rational use of natural resources. We are very close to the signature of an Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace. We now face the hardest part of our task, but also the most challenging part, replete with possibilities: that of creating peace, of building peace. We would do well, therefore, to recall two fundamental points: first, the peace that we are striving to build has a specific orientation; and, secondly, peace is not made only by those who sign the agreements. We seek a peace that is well oriented. We should not be content with a precarious peace, or with political accommodations made for the occasion, with no sense of direction or permanence. The accords signed so far, and those that are to follow, express basic agreements that, taken as a whole, constitute a specific agenda aimed at deepening democracy and furthering development. Furthermore, peace is not made only by those who sign the agreements. Peace is made on a day-to-day basis, by the entire population, which takes seriously the need for reconciliation and realizes optimistically that it is possible to have fair opportunities to work, educate oneself, be productive and improve one’s situation. Peace is built by men and women of flesh and blood, with their differences, passions, interests and enmities. Peace is built day by day, in villages, hamlets, neighbourhoods and communities. Peace is built through ordinary coexistence, with all Guatemalans, male or female, striving daily to make a living and to help their families get ahead, seeking out better opportunities while enduring hardships in a country with so many limitations and so much distrust. That is where reconciliation must take place and where we must identify the true enemies of peace: poverty, discrimination, exclusion and intolerance. We live in a spirit of solidarity within a fragile shared space. Our mission is to care for it and improve it as a legacy for coming generations. That space, that possibility, does not belong to us; it is but a legacy of what former generations did or failed to do. Solidarity is not limited to those who stand before us; there is a kind of solidarity that embraces even those who have not yet been born. What can we do to ensure that this solidarity accepts life as a primary, elementary and basic value, when we have lived for so long immersed in violence? We will attain development when we become capable of providing comprehensive security for all Guatemalans. The assurance that our children will not die because of negligence or lack of medical attention, the security of a stable job, plans and facilities for the acquisition of housing, security of access to a competitive educational system allowing us to learn and to teach our children, the security of ample nutrition, security for our possessions and for our lives, access to and equal treatment under impartial and timely systems of justice — these are the key aspects of comprehensive security. In this regard, Central America has taken important decisions to renew its agendas under the Alliance for Sustainable Development, which it is taking decisive steps to implement, including through the Treaty on Democratic Security signed by the Presidents of the isthmus at San Pedro Sula in December 1995. That broad set of commitments prepares Central Americans to wage a comprehensive fight against trafficking in drugs and in human beings. There can be no stable democracy over the long term if there are extreme inequalities in the distribution of wealth and of social opportunities. Democratic citizenship 5 poses the question of how we are to incorporate those who are unlikely to have access to public institutions; those who, because of poverty or discrimination, cannot invoke their rights or have them recognized. No democracy is possible when a significant percentage of the population is living in extreme poverty. Our democracy must generate economic conditions that permit the satisfaction of the basic needs of the population. The greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity for Guatemala resides in organized, realistic and coherent implementation of the commitments derived from the agreements undertaken. That is why we must understand them as a starting point that opens up a new page of challenges and efforts for all the population. For its part, the Government has taken on some very daring and far-reaching commitments that encompass almost all its institutions. They imply major legal reforms and major budgetary efforts. These commitments have made it possible to reach the agreements, and stability and the strengthening of peace and stability depend upon their fulfilment. But to do all of this, we also need the understanding and firm support of the international community. We need a real opening of markets and fair prices for our products, as well as foreign investment to add to the internal savings achieved through the generation of jobs and the stable improvement of our productive capacity. We also need the complement of technical and financial cooperation, above all during the stage immediately following the signing of the peace. For all of these reasons, Guatemala appreciates the support and recognition of the international community. For those same reasons, Guatemala also aspires to contribute, to the extent of its modest possibilities, to strengthening the multilateral system and respectful understanding among nations. Guatemala attaches great importance to the principle of universality that must characterize the United Nations, and this leads us to express our conviction that the Republic of China on Taiwan must also be fully represented in our Organization and must actively participate in the search for solutions in this new global, interdependent world. In our opinion, and taking into account earlier positive experiences, this in no way contradicts any effort at reunification. It is often said that we are living in a time of change. But it is much more than that: this is a change of times. We are living just on the bridge between two different eras of world history, where we cannot yet make out the difference between what is ending and what is beginning. There is an order that has gone into crisis, but there is a new order that cannot yet be clearly perceived. All institutions are being put to the test. We view with appreciation and hope the fact that this interaction between Guatemala’s experience and the respectful participation of Governments and multilateral institutions is yielding modest but valid solutions, enabling us to envisage a simple, competent and less bureaucratic form of institutional structures, and a kind of cooperation that does not undermine the precarious living conditions of the poor majorities in our countries and that contributes ideas and technical skills with due respect for our population. Guatemala is becoming a laboratory for cooperation with respect, of partnership rather than imposition. It is also becoming a broad and open horizon for discovery, an opportunity to search for ways to encompass the aspirations, proposals and initiatives of so many people from inside and from abroad, and above all, to go on creating spaces for self-expression by the people and the communities of my country, which, with such courage, endurance, valour and desire, have not succumbed to adversity. I wish to attest to the gratitude of my people and my Government to the Secretary-General and to all the officials who in various capacities have contributed to advancing the peace negotiations in my country, as well as to making a reality of the various complex efforts at development that we are undertaking. We wish especially to thank the Moderator appointed by the Secretary- General for the negotiations between the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), the small but efficient Guatemala Unit of the Secretariat and all the members of the United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights and of Compliance with the Commitments of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights in Guatemala (MINUGUA), as well as the other Secretariat officials who, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, have contributed to the success of the peace process. Our deep gratitude goes also to the six countries that constitute the Group of Friends of the peace process, 6 which have worked so doggedly for that long-sought goal — Colombia, Mexico, Norway, Spain, the United States of America and Venezuela. We wish also to express our appreciation to other Governments that, without being a formal part of this Group, have substantially contributed to the advancement of our reconciliation and development. Many thanks to all those persons of good will, committed to peace in my country.