Ecuador

When I assumed the presidency of my country less than two months ago, I recalled that in the tradition of the Aymara, an indigenous people of the Republic of Bolivia, a human being and a country — and, may I say, the United Nations — do their work if they manage to find harmony in seven fundamental fields. For the Aymaras there is a type of harmony that rises from the head, and that is the harmony we need to maintain with our beliefs and principles. There is a second type of harmony which goes from the feet down. That is the harmony we must maintain with nature, the Earth and the environment. There is a third harmony that goes from the body out to the right side. That is the harmony we must have with our families, with those closest to us. A fourth type of harmony moves towards the left. That is the harmony we must have with our neighbours, our colleagues at work and those others who, without being very close to us, surround us. There is a fifth type of harmony which moves forward from us, and for the Aymara people that is harmony with the past. They believe that human beings face the past and not the future, because we can see what is in front of us, and the past is the only thing we can really see. A sixth type of harmony is behind us. That is our harmony with the future, because although we do not see the future we have an intuition about it and a sense of it. Often, although it has not yet come, we can already feel its weight on our shoulders. The seventh and final type of harmony is self- harmony, an inner harmony. If we achieve harmony in those seven areas, we will have a harmonious body, a harmonious country and a harmonious world. It is with that vision that we have begun to govern in Ecuador; and I believe it is with that vision that the United Nations is doing its work. We can discuss many issues here. I want to focus on two, both related to left-sided harmony — harmony with our neighbours, international harmony — and their implications for the development of our peoples. In Latin America, as in many parts of the world, we face one of the gravest crises in our history. We have been considering the advantages of globalization. Now we are also suffering the problems of globalization. When we speak of a global system, we speak of a real network, which, like a large cobweb, encompasses us all. The problem with such a network is that wherever we touch or apply pressure to the web we produce a vibration and an impact throughout the web. The great majority of the countries of Latin America have made enormous efforts to overcome the problems of previous decades. They have worked to reduce their fiscal deficits to a minimum, to open up to the global economy, to participate in trade and to share the principles of open, fair and transparent trade, free of discrimination. They have understood that integration is the tool for progress in the future. They have established regional markets, and now they seek a continental market. After so much effort, which at times has been costly in internal terms, we have found that that effort can be wasted, that it may not be a way out of our problems, because of an international crisis, which did not originate in our countries; it came from outside, but because of globalization, and the network connecting us, we are all affected. We understand the mechanics of the system. We understand how something that affects markets in Asia has an impact on Latin America. Yet, while we understand the mechanics of the system, we cannot see its fairness. If while working together we encounter problems that do not originate in our region, we must ask the industrialized countries in particular to take decisions that will ensure that not all the countries of the world suffer to the extent that we are suffering now. There is talk of risk of a global recession as severe as, or even more severe, than that of the 1930s. We see the stock markets of the largest countries of our region affected daily. We see a crisis that is already striking the industrialized countries. I think this is the appropriate forum for us to consider the need to work together. We small countries like Ecuador can do little in a crisis of this magnitude but call for reflection and true fraternity among our nations so that a problem affecting the whole world can be overcome. Otherwise, a crisis as big as this leaves many of us with no option but to wait and see how we can protect ourselves against these troubles. The countries of Latin America see ourselves as a region, and we believe we must behave as a region. Every country has its own characteristics and has to do what is necessary individually, but it is the region as a whole that is being affected by all these changes. The countries of Latin America have not come here simply to ask for money and loans, as they have done at other times of crisis. The countries of the region have not appeared here one by one to try to overcome their difficulties on an individual basis, as on other occasions. This time we have made joint proposals — just, global proposals. We hope these proposals will yield results. All analysts maintain that unless interest rates are lowered, in particular in the industrialized countries, this global trend is undoubtedly not going to change. The 0.25 per cent drop in interest rates was widely considered important but insufficient in view of the magnitude of the current crisis. It is therefore crucial that we deal with this matter here in the Assembly. Along with this international crisis, Ecuador is confronting an issue that is fundamental to its development: its relations with Peru, and the search for a definitive peace with Peru. We have a problem that has been dragged out over many decades. In its most recent stage, for the last 56 years, we have had a protocol of peace, friendship and boundaries, which should now enter a definitive phase. Peace is our objective; we see it as an ethical, moral and economic good. Nothing is more advantageous to the budgets of our countries than peace. We can do great things for the benefit of our economies. In this case, peace is accompanied by a set of incentives, specifically, the possibility of $3 billion in loans from multilateral entities for border development projects, irrigation, roads, agricultural systems, schools and health centres, to give a few examples. This $3 billion — a very large sum for both countries — can be put into action if we achieve peace. Over the past three years, we have been holding talks. Commissions have reached agreements on border integration, trade, navigation in the extraordinarily important basin of the Amazon river and measures of security and confidence-building for the future. But the 2 most delicate and difficult issue has yet to be resolved: the establishment of the borderline between the two countries. We have held talks at a number of levels — among our Foreign Ministers, in the negotiating commissions, among the countries that are guarantors of the protocol — and these conversations have also risen to the level of the presidencies of Peru and Ecuador. We have had three meetings in less than two months in order to seek that final agreement. Last night, I spoke with President Fujimori; he is planning to travel to the United States, and we agreed that tomorrow we will see each other here in New York for a fourth meeting to try to continue seeking the definitive formula that will resolve the question of our border in a way that is fitting, acceptable to the two countries and appropriate for our peoples. The principles are clear. As countries, we cannot enter the twenty-first century dragging with us problems that date back to the nineteenth. We must embark on the twenty-first century with a clear and positive vision that is directed towards the future. We share all the tenets of the United Nations on issues related to this one. We are completely in agreement with the Ottawa Convention on the question of landmines. Our country signed that Convention, and at the end of last week in Brasilia, the Presidents of Peru and Ecuador submitted to President Cardoso of Brazil a joint communiqué requesting that plans be drawn up for the removal of all the landmines that have been placed in the border area over the years. This is a positive and very real step; it means that the Convention will not simply be signed and ratified but will also be applied in practical terms in the field. We are also completely in agreement with the proposals of the United Nations on the reduction of military budgets and expenditures. We believe that money should be invested in poverty reduction and in the social programmes and projects our peoples need so much. We are completely in agreement with the conventional disarmament programmes. We believe that trust must replace distrust, and we believe that this task, accomplished jointly, can allow us to leave behind long decades of mutual suspicion and the great scepticism that sometimes pervades our countries. We are in agreement as regards general and complete disarmament. We agree with the prohibition of nuclear weapons. We welcome the decision of the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) to make all the countries of that region into a nuclear-weapon-free zone. We believe in peace, and we are working to achieve it. It will be hard to find, in the future, two Presidents of neighbouring countries with a history of problems who are so firmly committed to peace, so deeply convinced that they must achieve peace, and so zealously at work to reach a speedy, just and honourable peace. We hope our efforts will soon meet their reward. We completely support the initiatives of the United Nations on the subject of the protection of human rights. Ecuador has adopted its own national human rights plan into law. We are the second country in Latin America, and one of the first in the world, to adopt such a plan. It is not a plan of the Ecuadorian Government, but a plan made by Ecuadorian society, coordinated by the Ministry with the participation of representatives of various sectors of the society. We believe in human rights, and we defend them in their entirety and without reservation. Our Minister for Foreign Affairs was the first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights before joining our Ministry for Foreign Relations, so our support in this field is complete. In addition, we are concerned about the issue of sustainable development, and we will vigorously promote environmental issues. For the first time in history, a woman from a country that is not in the northern hemisphere has become chairperson of the world’s largest intergovernmental organization on the environment. That woman’s name is Yolanda Kakabadse, and she is the present Minister of the Environment in Ecuador. We seek to indicate several things by this, which are easily understandable in what I have just said. These are the central issues in the link between the United Nations and my country: peace, the international crisis and the search for a just global accord, the environment and human rights. Other issues could be taken up, but I prefer to focus on this message. I believe that there is no better way to pay tribute to the United Nations and to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights than for two countries with democratically elected Governments to seek peace and endeavour to sign a peace agreement — perhaps sign one this year — so that the development of our peoples can proceed and their quality of life can improve. In this way we can sum up the most important human rights. Democracy, freedom, development, life, the right to work, gender-related issues, the problems of minorities and the most disadvantaged groups and the protection of children are encompassed in these words that are so simple and so important: peace, development and international cooperation. We want to emphasize these ideas here, in this Organization which has done so much to bring them about throughout the world. I wish the Assembly every success in its work for the benefit of all of humanity.