Mr. President, you represent a country whose cultural traditions, desire for peace and political maturity we all admire. The task of conducting the debates of this world forum has thus fallen to expert, impartial and steady hands. I congratulate you, Mr. Boland, on the signal honour bestowed upon you by the Assembly, and I congratulate the Assembly on its wisdom in electing you to the Chair.
214. World opinion, which has always followed the progress of the Assembly’s work with interest, is understandably devoting the closest possible attention to the events that are taking place how in this hall which so many distinguished leaders are honouring with their presence.
215. Obviously, my country cannot share many of the views which have been expressed here and which have imparted an unnecessarily acrimonious note to the general debate. This does not, however, prevent me from greeting all those who come here as genuine representatives of their peoples with the same respect as I shall show when I am forced to dissent from many of their opinions.
216. I believe that I am not mistaken when I single out as the greatest advantage of the United Nations the permanent opportunity which it affords to all countries to make their views heard from this rostrum whose echoes are undeniably world-wide. The way in which the great Powers and the small nations follow each other as their turn comes to speak is a noble and encouraging example of democracy. It is also, of course, a valuable experience for countries to witness the simplicity with which the voice of reason usually speaks. There can be no doubt that the debates of this Assembly have an active and effective educational impact on world opinion. For my own part, I may say that I am now more than ever wary of all oratorical excess.
217. Mankind is entitled to trust in the sense of responsibility of those who can, if they will, guide the world along paths of peace and social well-being. It is well-nigh inconceivable that this Assembly, which is attended by the Heads of Government of the greatest Powers as well as other eminent statesmen and distinguished international leaders, should not decide to convey to all the peoples of the world a message of confidence in the present and faith in the future. It would be unfair to increase still further the world's burden of anxiety and to undermine its hope in the success of this meeting, which could hardly be at a higher level. May I be allowed to say that this is a real summit meeting, and that an agreement can be reached here on the healing formulae which we had all hoped would emerge from the Paris Summit Conference of May 1960.
218. We are convinced of the infinite danger which lies in the failure of the great Powers to agree on the question of disarmament. There can be no doubt that this is the key point on which many very vexatious problems to a great extent depend. The world's yearning for peace would be satisfied in large measure if, through a joint effort by all peoples of good will, the great Powers could succeed in agreeing to resume negotiations on disarmament. To this end, my country makes a sincere appeal to the principal actors in the world drama to put forward formulae for agreement which will make it possible for mankind to live, as President Roosevelt proclaimed, in freedom from fear.
219. The armaments race has been consuming the energies of the Powers with the greatest technical and economic potentialities. In this respect, science has turned away from its worthiest goals in order to place itself at the service of tremendous experiments that can exert a destructive power capable of thrusting mankind back into the first darkness of creation. What was once regarded as the fantasy of a few dreamers is today indisputable reality. At the present moment, man possesses instruments of war which can increase his power of destruction still further, and, for peace of mind, and above all for survival, mankind must be assured that these diabolical weapons will remain unused.
220. Although the very power of nuclear weapons to destroy would seem to remove the likelihood of atomic war, it is by no means out of the question that man, whose rashness has been attested to in history by many examples, may, in a moment of pride or despair —the results of which would in this case be the same— light the fatal bonfire that will consume the world. We still have time to press the vital urgency of a resumption of negotiations on disarmament by the great Powers. My country does not, of course, claim to possess any magic formula that could ensure a happy solution of this complicated problem. Our attitude is not prompted by brash self-conceit but by a legitimate aspiration that mankind should be preserved and live on.
221. If progress is made towards disarmament, there will be, no war, for unarmed peoples do not usually engage in armed conflict. On the day when nations have no power of intimidation, their disputes will be settled by peaceful means, and mankind will attain undreamed-of heights of progress. Similarly, disarmament will enable nations to live together in peace, and peaceful co-existence will emerge spontaneously and set the international tone. My country realizes that the world is living through one of the crucial moments in history and that here in this memorable Assembly the peoples have an opportunity of rebuilding the hopes that were frustrated by untoward events. I know full well that in an objective analysis of the world situation it is of no great importance when a country like mine, with only fifteen million inhabitants, proclaims its desire for concord and its decided preference for the methods of persuasion and understanding. Colombia can state with pride that it has never constituted a threat to its neighbours and that within its own limited possibilities it has never been a cause of international tension. My country, which like most Latin American countries has already celebrated 150 years of independence, has a long tradition of pacificism and a firm democratic discipline. We repudiate an armaments mentality in all its forms. We are a country ruled by law. We have confidence in our lawful authorities, and we have no need to arm our people in order to surround them with safeguards and serve their interests.
222. I have listened with particular interest to the speeches that have been made here and, despite the fiery tone of some of them, I must confess that my country continues to have faith in the possibility that the United States and the Soviet Union may find a reasonable common ground for the settlement of their differences. The speech of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Mr. N. S, Khrushchev, obviously contained much propaganda material, but despite its polemical tone it did finally recognize the need for an understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union. All of us, perhaps without exception, regard such an understanding as the primary requirement for strengthening world peace.
223. In the circumstances, everything calls upon us to be discreet and reminds us that our role is not to intensify disagreements but to encourage closer understanding among nations. That is why the voice of my country is raised in this hall not to deliver insults but rather to staunch wounds. We wish at all times to keep our feet on the firm ground of reality and to work sensibly and dispassionately. Because of our restricted possibilities of action in the field of international conflict, we feel free of responsibility for submitting plans to this critical audience on the control of outer space and the use of nuclear energy. We are sure that the Assembly will forgive and understand our moderation and our determination not to play the part of a great Power when we are not one. We believe in our own simplicity, and our conduct in national and international matters is appropriate to our recognized limitations. It requires as much maturity to manage weakness as it does to know how to be strong.
224. We proclaim our democratic status with pride; We uphold all those values which ennoble and dignify existence, and we continue to regard freedom as the supreme good of all people. Our solidarity with the nations of the free world is well known, as is our zeal not to jeopardize that unify which we regard as essential for the defence of the democratic system, under whose banner we have always fought to achieve our goals of well-being and dignity.
225. It is obvious that mere political freedom cannot become the sole objective of nations, but it is no less certain that we can never renounce it on the pretext of safeguarding material welfare. The concepts of security and freedom must be combined so as to produce a constructive plan in which the development of nations can proceed within the framework of liberty.
226. There are, to be sure, two systems for achieving material progress, and both have given positive results. Both East and West have made admirable technological progress, and both sides can quote convincing statistics. The spokesmen of the East in this Assembly have told us, for example, how many kilowatts of power are produced per caput, but they have not told us, and I fear that they will never be able to tell us, the amount of freedom enjoyed per caput under their system.
227. Peace will necessarily be threatened as long as government does not serve the general interest and does not ensure the same respect for its own views and those of other systems. We believe in spiritual values and in intellectual controversy, and that is why we do not hesitate to disapprove and system which prohibits opposing views and regiments thought. Rebellion of the spirit is better measured by refusal to accept any type of imposition than by slavish obedience in putting into effect the slogans of foreign revolution.
228. Freedom, however, cannot be an end in itself; it must be a means for developing the creative energies of man and encouraging the people's constant dreams of improvement. A free people is not one which blindly follows the will of a single man but one whose conduct is governed by law, and, above all, one that finds in free elections the means and the opportunity of establishing a government in keeping with its desires and needs. A people is also free when it surrounds with safeguards the supreme dignity of the human person and respects the rights of the citizen,
229. At the Fifth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American States, held at Santiago de Chile in August, 1959, and the Seventh Meeting, held at San José, Costa Rica in August, 1960, the characteristics of American democracy were clearly and unmistakably defined. I had the signal honour, at both meetings, of presiding over the General Committee, as the representative of Colombia, and I am thus particularly well acquainted with what took place.
230. In August 1959, the Foreign Ministers of the twenty-one American States met together in the Chilean capital and, after a detailed study of the causes of international tension in the Americas, concluded unanimously, or in other words without a single dissenting vote, that it was essential to stress that the conduct of the Governments of the hemisphere must conform strictly to the provisions of the Charter of Bogota of 1948, which is the basic instrument of our regional organization. Thus it was that, in furtherance of the basic principles of the inter-American system, we adopted the Declaration of Santiago de Chile in which the political aspirations of our peoples are enumerated and summed up. In this Declaration we restated the democratic concept of the separation of powers and reaffirmed our conviction that the Governments of this continent should be the result of free elections. We condemned perpetuation in power. We proclaimed freedom of information and the unrestricted exercise of freedom of the Press, radio and television. We asked for respect for human rights and stressed the urgency of effectively combating economic underdevelopment in order to strengthen democratic institutions.
231. In August 1960, the American Foreign Ministers met again at San José, Costa Rica, where we had occasion to study the problems posed for the unity and solidarity of the hemisphere by Mr. Khrushchev's proposals to use his guided missiles to intervene in the dispute between two American States, and the acceptance in various forms, each more compromising than the last, which the Cuban Government gave to that offer.
232. America possesses a regional system that is older even than the United Nations and offers abundant resources for the peaceful settlement of any dispute. We have outlawed aggressive war in our hemisphere and have laid down that conquest confers no rights. An armed attack by any American State against any other American State shall be considered as an attack against all the other countries of the continent. In this way we have been able to cheek the arms race that was consuming a large part of the economic resources of the Latin American countries.
233. In the field of continental solidarity, we are bound by existing treaties which are surely a model of what a regional organization can do when it is established for defensive and not for aggressive purposes. We Latin American countries believe in the effectiveness of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance of Rio de Janeiro of 1947, which grants us specific rights and imposes upon us necessary responsibilities. That Treaty, which we regard as the highest achievement of inter-American co-operation, specifies that any extracontinental armed attack against an American State is to be regarded as an armed attack against the whole continent. It is, of course, this Treaty — and not the Monroe doctrine, which we regard as definitely superseded — that enables us to mobilize the energies of all the American States to ensure the defence and solidarity of the hemisphere.
234. United States Secretary of State Herter was emphatic in declaring at San José, Costa Rica, that the United States has no intention of committing aggression against Cuba, and he confirmed the declarations previously made by Ambassador Cabot Lodge in the Security Council. All of us representing the other countries of America affirmed in clear and categorical terms that Cuba does not need the protection of the Soviet Union or of any other extra-continental Power, since its freedom of action is guaranteed by the principle of non-intervention which is the backbone of the inter-American system.
235. To the very best of our information and knowledge there does not exist any threat of aggression against Cuba on the part of the Government of the United States or of any other American State. We therefore consider all attempts by the Soviet Union at political and military intervention in American affairs to be unjustifiable and inadmissible.
236. America not only believes in the necessity of peaceful coexistence but also desires that mankind should be able not only to coexist but to live together in a civilized manner and to co-operate in planning for the benefit of all. Peaceful coexistence is not, however, helped, but is rather undermined, when countries violate or encourage the violation of the principle of non-intervention. The position which we American Foreign Ministers adopted at San Jose consisted in rejecting and condemning every such attempt at extracontinental intervention in the problems of America.
237. Within the framework of peaceful coexistence, peoples of the most varied political, philosophies and the most incompatible systems of government can have diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations. Some nations of this continent have relations with the Socialist countries and even with the Soviet Union itself. We must, nevertheless, emphasize that under the guise or pretext of such relations, we American peoples are not prepared to accept any act of extracontinental intervention in our continent, even should such an attempt be accompanied by the threatened use of guided missiles.
238. At San José, Costa Rica, we reaffirmed the principle of non-intervention by any American State in the internal or external affairs of the other American States,, and we reiterated that each State has the right to develop its cultural, political and economic life freely and naturally, respecting the rights of the individual and the principles of universal morality.
239. This example demonstrates that in rejecting extracontinental intervention, America is not applying to outside Powers a procedure different from that which it has applied to itself. We have the moral authority and the political authority to act in harmony with the proposals and the spirit of independence that were made evident at the Seventh Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held at San José, Costa. Rica.
240. We declared at San José, and we reaffirm today in the United Nations Assembly, that any attempt to intervene in the affairs of another State for the purpose of imposing upon it one's own ideologies or one's own political, economic or social principles is unlawful. We have no desire to be either the importers or exporters of revolutions. We wish to bring about the evolution of our peoples within an American framework, using methods and procedures which are in keeping with our civilization and our customs. We are not prepared to renounce our autonomy in order to prove that we are revolutionaries. We frankly cannot accept as a criterion the anarchic policy of renouncing the principle of non-intervention. In the sense of continuing to uphold the international rule of fair play, I am afraid I would not be wrong in affirming that all States are very conservative. Some States, however, tend to be more categorical in defending their own rights than in recognizing those of others.
241. Allow me to dwell further on the position adopted by the American Foreign Ministers at San José, Costa Rica, in order to underline the positive attitude which we followed there. We declared at that time, and we now affirm it once more, that Cuba, as well as every other American State, can be assured that its independence, integrity and sovereignty are fully guaranteed and protected by the safeguards which our regional organization provides. The heroic people of Cuba need not rely on the Soviet Union for protection which can never be more effective or more fitting than that which we, her American sisters, have offered her not once but many times.
242. Latin America need have no fear of advanced ideas or of social justice. We who today hold the reins of government in America are fully alive to our obligations to pursue vigorously the economic development of our nations. The era has gone in which it was possible to restrain the longing for social renewal which is to be found today in every land of the earth. Our rural masses need their own land and adequate tools, and we must therefore introduce just agrarian and technical reforms without delay. Our people require decent dwellings, and we must provide them with the means for building such dwellings. They also need schools and hospitals, and we cannot refuse them these. The time has come for the great social evolution which, as the English statesman said, will give to the people by peaceful processes all that it longs for and does not always attain through bloody revolution.
243. For many years we have been stressing the need for reinforcing all the means that can be used in the vital work of technical and economic assistance which the great Powers, in a free spirit of co-operation, must offer the under-developed nations. Where the United Nations has failed in its work of rehabilitation has undoubtedly been in the insufficiency of the economic aid which it has been meting out in tiny drops to the most needy countries.
244. Within the American system, we have long been calling for a more active participation by international institutions and by the Government of the United States. In this sphere we can say today that important advances have been made. Last year we founded the Inter-American Development Bank, which has already begun its activities and is destined to become the most effective of all instruments for continental assistance. At the beginning of this month, the representatives of twenty American States met at Bogota to study, in the framework of "Operation Pan America”, the problems connected with the economic and social development of our peoples. I would be unjust not to state that that gathering constituted the most decisive step forward yet taken in the field of inter-American co-operatiom
245. The economic Act of Bogota, of 1960 clearly reflects the determination of the nineteen signatory Governments to fight against under-development until victory is won. We committed ourselves to an ambitious programme of social measures which we considered of the most vital importance. Land reform, housing, education, health and small industry will now receive the benefit of external credits which were formerly reserved only for programmes certain to be profitable.
246. It would be a wrong interpretation of the Act of Bogota, to suppose that the needs of economic development were overlooked. On the contrary, we reaffirmed our conviction that the prime need of our peoples is the reinforcement of economic programmes. Yet it would be hardly fair to tell our people that until we have constructed all the hydroelectric plants and all the irrigation canals and all the railways and roads that are included in the Latin American development programmes, they have no right to own their land, or to live in decent dwellings, or to have adequate education or medical services. The programmes of economic and social development are complementary, and both constitute the natural basis for peace and well-being.
247. It is obvious that in the struggle against underdevelopment, the peoples who live and produce under conditions of poverty must contribute the main effort themselves. We accept it as our task to devote to the work of recovery an indomitable will to act and an ordered planning of public expenditure. Since, however, the question at issue is the defence of democratic values, it is clear that peoples professing the same principles and having the same systems as we do ought to come to our aid, the cause of freedom being indivisible. These are the circumstances in which we. have gratefully accepted the economic cooperation offered us by the United States, which many countries in other continents have long been receiving in abundance and which only now is beginning to reach Latin America in a systematic and sustained form.
248. In the Act of Bogota we pointed out that the European countries which have now overcome their post-war economic difficulties would be well advised to co-operate more fully with the countries of America, which have given them so many proofs of their solidarity. Not only could they intensify their technical assistance and make larger investments in our continent, but they could also consume a greater volume of our products and eliminate many of the obstacles in the form of tariffs and taxes which today impede the access of our products to European markets. We feel sure that the countries of Western Europe will not be backward in making the contribution which they could today offer Latin America in every sphere. Just as for several years we declared the urgent Necessity for a radical change of attitude towards our peoples on the part of the United States Government, we today make the same appeal to the European countries and express in anticipation the gratitude which we would all feel in Latin America for a change in their position with respect to the nations of this hemisphere.
249. The United States has no need for any country to come to its defence, but in the name of justice I must express Colombia's appreciation for the way in which the United States representatives conducted themselves at the Bogota economic conference. They gave ample proof there of their familiarity with Latin American problems and of their willingness to cooperate. We feel convinced that this is not a passing attitude but a permanent policy which the United States will not abandon until we have finally won the battle against poverty.
250. The United Nations was instituted in order to keep alive contacts between the representatives of Member States and thus to ensure that peoples would not adopt unilateral positions which might easily lead them into war. The effectiveness of this world Organization has been put to the most gruelling tests and has fortunately triumphed over them. The balance-sheet which the United Nations can present to the world is fully satisfactory and justifies the efforts of its founders and the trust placed in it by mankind.
251. The signatories to the San Francisco Charter were careful to endow the Organization with sufficient powers to act speedily and effectively in every situation in which peace might be endangered. My country considers that the world Organization can better fulfil its vital task when all Member States back up its authority and support its decisions. Colombia identifies itself wholly with the purposes of the United Nations and the Organization of American States and believes that the interests of peace would suffer great harm if, to the prejudice of all, the authority of these two bodies should decline. Any weakening of the world Organization would mean the destruction of the one barrier which has been effective in holding back war.
252. I would be most loath to conclude this speech without stressing the feeling of solidarity of our continent with the nations of Africa. Africa and America have many problems in common. Malay of our experiences may be useful to them, and we are anxious to co-operate with them since, to a certain extent, their cause is one with ours. We might well meet frequently with the African representatives to agree on plans for mutual assistance and for defending the prices of our common products on the international market.
253. I am sure that I am speaking on behalf of all my colleagues from Latin America when I express to the peoples of Africa, through their illustrious representatives at this Assembly, our sentiments of esteem and solidarity. We are their allies in the fight against economic under-development and in the endeavour to ensure peace on foundations of liberty and well-being.
254. May I be allowed to emphasize the necessity of taking full advantage of the presence here of such authorized spokesmen of the great Powers as we have among us, to beg of them earnestly to agree at least on the bases of procedure for the resumption of disarmament negotiations. May I also once more remind Cuba that within the American system it will find all the peaceful processes necessary for resolving its differences with the United States of America, and the due protection of its integrity, independence and sovereignty. Let me also reiterate that harmony and good relations between States can only be achieved if the principle of non-intervention is rigorously observed and respected.
255. Let me likewise reaffirm our growing faith in the Organization of American States and in the United Nations.
256. I wish to thank the Assembly for the indulgent attention which it has given to my remarks. They reflect the views of a country which loves peace, extols the benefits of social justice, proclaims the values of liberty and respects the rule of law.