109. May I begin my speech, Mr. President, by conveying to you on behalf of the delegation of the Dominican Republic our heartiest congratulations on your election to preside over the deliberations of this twenty-first session of the General Assembly.
110. These sentiments also express our conviction that you will guide our labours so wisely yet so firmly that we can even now anticipate the chorus of praise and recognition from the delegations here present at the success of your noble efforts, in the high position you occupy by the vote of this Assembly, to achieve peace and the solution of the problems facing us.
111. It is not with empty words of vainglory or boasting, but backed by the exact not to say strict expression of historical truth, that I state that never in the history of the United Nations has there appeared before a meeting of the General Assembly a delegation of the Dominican Republic possessing credentials of such remarkable political value as those displayed by the delegation which I have the honour to lead.
112. Born out of elections in which the Dominican people gave vigorous and unequivocal support to the programme of the victorious party in a contest whose legality and fairness were vouched for by impartial observers representing various trends of contemporary political and social thought, the Government of Mr. Joaquin Balaguer, which I have the honour to represent at this rostrum, embodies in the most positive manner the people's aspirations for justice and progress and guarantees my country's complete identification with the United Nation" profession of faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person.
113. As a fortunate result of representations made by the Dominican Republic in the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Peace Force, stationed in my country as a sequel to the painful events which filled the Republic with grief and ruin, was withdrawn. My Government then approached the Secretary-General of the United Nations in order that the mandate of 14 May 1965 for the despatch of a representative to the Dominican Republic might be duly revoked, since the free elections have fulfilled the basic aims of the Tenth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Organization of American States held in Washington on 1 May 1965, to solve within the American national ambit the grave political crisis then disturbing the Dominican Republic.
114. The fundamental prerequisite for the existence of a state of law in a country has been satisfactorily fulfilled in the Dominican Republic. I can add categorically that this state of law is being progressively consolidated, even in the midst of the tensions which are only to be expected in the light of the tragic process of moral decline and decay of the State's authority which has characterized the Dominican Republic's recent struggle for existence.
115. It is not enough to asset that a state of law exists in the Dominican Republic; we must also stress the feeling of real democratic coexistence which the present Administration is striving to imprint upon Dominican public life. Despite the impressive margin of votes obtained in the elections of June of this year, the new Dominican Government has not arrogated to itself, so to speak, a monopoly of the victor's spoils. In accordance with its policy of political enlightenment, which it felt duty bound to put into effect on assuming a mandate which it had undertaken to exercise not on behalf of a political party but on behalf of the community, the present Dominican Administration is today joined in the enterprise of government with all men and women capable of contributing to the rehabilitation of Dominican public life regardless of their individual political affiliation.
116. My Government believes that it is an essential requirement for domestic peace to accept the fact that we are a heterogeneous political society, the various sectors of which, far from being excluded, must on the contrary participate in the joint effort needed for the salvation of the country. Naturally, this recognition that all must share in the common task involves not only rights but also, and above all, duties and responsibilities. The delegation with which I share the proud duties entrusted to me is a clear reflection on this courageous and strict understanding of the exigencies of our national policy. Its representative character is guaranteed by the presence within it of a distinguished member of the Opposition in the National Congress and of important leaders and authorized spokesmen of other authentically democratic party forces.
117. Nevertheless, the consolidation of the state of law is not the only fundamental preoccupation of the present Dominican Administration. We have also embarked with equal determination on the creation of a state of economic and social security, as is shown by the clear social trend of the new Government's development plans; we are also improving public morality with the help of the disciplined sense of honesty and austerity which the new Dominican Administration has infused into the task of government.
118. Important considerations affecting the maintenance of peace and security in the American continent will make it clear that the present Dominican experiment in democracy, because of the quality and intensity of the effort devoted to it, merits the sympathetic interest of the United Nations and in particular of those Powers which, within and outside the American continent, are making a genuine effort to create the conditions which are needed, in the words of the Charter, to promote throughout the world social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
119. The alternative is fraught with the most catastrophic possibilities. If this experiment designed to initiate the Dominican Republic into the practice of civilized political coexistence were to be destroyed by the violent reaction of those who do not agree with this type of community, it would not be hard to prophesy that the legal vacuum thus created would be filled by foreign intervention or by a dictatorship which would crush public freedom and delay social progress. Thus we should suffer a permanent set back in our promising career as a nation endowed with resources enough to ensure it a prosperous and happy life.
120. My Government greatly appreciates the spirit of international co-operation in which our efforts are being encouraged, and it has instructed me to convey from this rostrum our gratitude for the moral and economic aid which we are receiving from friendly nations. I should like in particular to refer to the decision of the United States Government to grant the Dominican Republic an increase in its sugar quota on the North American market, in all, an addition of about 141,783 tons, which has had a most stimulating effect on the Dominican economy.
121. The policy of financing the economic and social development plans of the developing countries will certainly be supported in the Dominican Republic by the strictest and most far-reaching controls. Otherwise, the provision of international assistance for development purposes would be like trying to fill the bottomless cask of the Danaides.
122. This means that we refuse, because we think it economically frustrating and morally humiliating, to go on stagnating as we were up to a short time ago, in conditions very like those of the colony of t«in Domingo in the days of its decline, when the lives of Dominicans were spent sadly awaiting the arrival of the galleons bearing the colonial subsidy.
123. As President Ralaguer stated categorically when taking the oath of office on 1 July 1906, "economic assistance used mainly to repair budgetary errors and correct omissions in the implementation of the Public Expenditure Act resulting from the administrative disorder in which we have been living is more of a disservice than an effective contribution to our programme to improve national institutions". In the face of this practice, the Dominican Republic has reversed its stand completely. We prefer aid which will help us to cease to be an economic parasite dependent on foreign aid. In short, the people of the Dominican Republic share the desire common to all worthy peoples and all honourable men, to earn a living by the sweat of their brow.
124. The increase in the Dominican sugar quota on the United States market heralds a new era in the economic relations between the two countries. For the first time, these relations are being considered in a completely realistic light. Heartening prospects will open up, if this step, which is only the first along the right path, is consolidated and followed by other agreements of even greater potential for the prosperity of the Dominican Republic within its geographical area.
125. From the Rio Grande to the Straits of Magellan, through the immense crescent of Central America and the Caribbean, we see profound changes taking place among a group of nations which have reached another crucial moment in their destiny. We see the awakening of human multitudes who were until a little time ago simply the pawns of history, but who now understand that they are in the front rank of those abstract conceptions known as States, which until recently were considered as being the principle subjects of law, geography and history. It can no longer be denied that the men and women of these lands — indeed, human beings everywhere — with their achievements, their miseries, their rebellions and their hopes, are the real concern of economics, law, education and politics.
126. Evidence of the presence of the masses in the life of contemporary societies is copious and pressing. Latin America is no stranger to these anxieties and to the social problems of immense human communities ravaged by poverty. Sociological geography tells us that just as there is a "geography of hunger" there is also a "geography of disease", a "geography of ignorance", a geography, in short, of man’s inhumanity to man. It also tells us that there are, both at the national and at the international level in our continent, two Americas, which may be distinguished by names different from those on the map; one is known as the "affluent society", the other the "society of the dispossessed", and between them there is a failure of communication, a lack of interchange, that is reflected in a constant rise in the living standards of the former and a steady decline in those of the latter.
127. In this situation, the peoples of America are faced with two alternatives; they can choose the brutal, leveling process of revolution, which is supposed to solve their social problems but at the expense of freedom; or they can find in the system of hemispheric co-operation the political and moral values, the procedures and standards, which, once brought up to date, will enable them to achieve by working together in the economic and social fields the objectives of the confederation of Bolivar, that sacred source of all our relationships.
128. There can be no doubt that responsible opinion in the Americas has decided to opt for the second of these alternatives which responds to the imperatives of the history of the American people and to the concepts of their institutional life.
129. The minds and wills of those who govern the Americas are inspired by a great ideal: the new plans for hemispheric economic integration offer the American peoples a future of unprecedented prosperity.
130. The Dominican Republic shares in the legitimate interest awakened by these projects, the effective realization of which will be the start of a new epoch in American relations. At the same time it believes it necessary to make a number of comments on hemispheric economic integration in so far as it affects the situation of the Dominican Republic as a geographical and economic unit of the Caribbean region.
131. The Dominican Government believes that, in view of the time already spent in considering the advantages of the rapid economic integration of the democratic areas of the Caribbean and in view of Dominican economic potentialities in relation to the neighbouring island of Puerto Rico, the time has now come to take decisive steps to that end. As President Balaguer said on taking the oath of office, "Conditions are excellent for both countries to establish a kind of common market, and to organize their respective economies in a spirit of mutual co-operation. Santo Domingo could provide Puerto Rico with an infinite number of agricultural products which are not produced in large enough quantities by the latter, and both peoples could join together in many fields of economic development so that their combined capital could promote industrial development in the field of private investment."
132. Twenty-five years ago, the distinguished Puerto Rican economist, Carlos Chardon, put forward in his book "Viajes y Naturaleza" some highly stimulating ideas which the passage of time has only made more cogent and compelling. In this work, it is argued that of all the groups of islands which exist in the world, only the Archipelago of the Antilles has been unable to achieve a so-called "archipelago economy "because in this group of islands there are seven sovereign Governments as far apart economically as they are geographically.
133. Chardon says that the island region of the Caribbean may be defined economically as a typical food deficit zone apparently, a state of affairs which is growing worse because of the constantly rising population. This distinguished Puerto Rican scholar observes, however, that in this situation the Dominican Republic offers the characteristics of a country which, because of the diversity of its crops and its great potential for agricultural development, constitutes the natural supplier of food products to this geographical region.
134. A study entitled "Data which suggest the economic integration of part of the Caribbean area", prepared by Mr. Chardon for the Development Bank of Puerto Rico, was published in November 1962. This admirable analysis substantiated the fundamental considerations that since 1941 have justified the plan, conceived in the terms I have briefly outlined. In this study, the author, after a detailed analysis of Dominican economic potential as compared with that of Puerto Rico, reaches the conclusion that of eight economic bench-marks seven are positive and one temporarily negative for the Dominican Republic, while for the island of Puerto Rico, two of these same bench-marks are positive and six negative. He therefore feels that the economies of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are complementary and that the two islands can achieve what he calls "an unprecedented form of social symbiosis". According to the study in question, Dominican agricultural potential is twelve times greater than that of Puerto Rico. We may imagine what levels of production the Dominican Republic would obtain if its economy received the extraordinary additional incentive of integration within the triangle of freer trade relations with the United States of America and Puerto Rico.
135. Recently, significant talks were held in Santo Domingo with representatives of Puerto Rican trade and industry, which constitute a beginning in the process of bringing the economic interests of the two islands together. It is obvious, however, that these talks must be supplemented by negotiations at the governmental level between the appropriate authorities, with a view to the conclusion of wide-ranging agreements covering all the matters involved in an economic merger equivalent to a common market,
136. Although the increase in the Dominican sugar quota on the North American market is undoubtedly highly satisfactory, this step should not be looked upon as temporary assistance to the Dominican Republic during what might be called its period of convalescence from the recent national crisis. The Dominican Republic hopes to find in the United States the necessary will to collaborate, in order to stabilize and develop its economic relations in the geographical area which it occupies jointly with the United States, bearing in mind the potentialities of its natural resources.
137. The Dominican Republic has no desire to remain indefinitely in a state of complete dependence on external credit, no matter how generous the terms on which it is offered. Even in the midst of our present problems, the Dominican Government is determined to carry out its plans for economic rehabilitation and development by embarking on the difficult course of valiant effort and arduous sacrifice. Our aim is to achieve once more a healthy economy buttressed by the respectability of our democratic institutions which constitute its animating spirit. We are working not only for our own benefit but also in order to contribute as much as we can to the assistance of other peoples and to all the causes of social and humanitarian interest sponsored by the United Nations.
138. The Dominican delegation has noted with interest that the agenda of this session of the General Assembly contains the item relating to the draft covenants on human rights. The preparation of these instruments is a most notable attempt to reconcile the contradiction between the vital interests of States and the universalist vocation of an international organization such as ours. In contemporary” international society, these instruments assume an extraordinary importance. They establish a higher tribunal, designed to humanize the function of government and ensure the international protection of human rights. This protective function is thus removed from subjective considerations of national policy which tend to distort it.
139. We cannot but feel ourselves fully identified with the juridical technique adopted by the United Nations to secure the international protection of human rights. In ordinary situations, apart from those cases of grave and systematic violations of human rights which must remain within the direct competence of the General Assembly, the Dominican Government believes that the protection of human rights, whether jurisdictional or quasi-jurisdictional, should be entrusted to special bodies set up by virtue of treaties and conventions. Nevertheless, my Government’s attitude as regards the immediate effectiveness of these agreements is one of caution. We are aware that the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 and its additional Protocol of 1952, which must be approved and ratified by the national parliaments of the contracting parties, are still not fully effective in all their provisions and for all the Contracting States, although these instruments apply to a homogeneous political civilization. It can easily be foreseen, then that the United Nations Covenants on civil and political rights and on humanitarian and social rights will need still more time for complete and effective implementation.
140. The Dominican Government has also noted with particular interest, among the social items on this Assembly’s agenda, that relating to a draft declaration on the elimination of discrimination against women. The presence of women in Dominican political and civil life on a footing of complete equality with men and their influence as a sane and conciliating factor in the political struggle has been so effective in the recent elections that women have gained positions in the governments of the twenty-six provinces into which the territory of the Dominican Republic is politically divided.
141. My Government also wishes to state that if there is any one violation of human rights which cries out in the sight of God and which must inevitably evoke in the conscience of the world the most overwhelming repugnance, it is that which perpetuates discriminatory practices on racial grounds. The Dominican delegation will strongly support the repeated condemnation of these practices by the General Assembly, practices that dishonour the nations which are responsible for them and which, far from making sincere efforts to eradicate them once and for all, stubbornly persist in enshrining them, as it were, in their political constitution.
142. The Dominican delegation will also support any votes to censure adopted by this Assembly against manifestations of national and religious intolerance and will vote in favour of the speedy completion of the draft convention on the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance.
143. On behalf of the Government and delegation of the Dominican Republic, I extend hearty greetings to the new State of Guyana, on the occasion of its entry into the United Nations. I am sure that it will contribute to the realization of our Organization's fundamental goals, and to that end we assure it of the Dominican Government's desire to co-operate.
144. As in previous years, the question of peacekeeping throughout the world is the most important general subject of our session.
145. The Charter of the United Nations requires Member States to practise tolerance and to live in peace as good neighbours, as a means of attaining the noble aims of our Organization. To live and let live would undoubtedly be the most reasonable Corollary of that basic provision of the Charter, Naturally we would not go so far as to affirm with Menendez Pelayo, the author of "La Historia de los Heterodoxos Espanoles” that intolerance is a state of health, but it is undoubtedly true that the world is witnessing a struggle between new orthodoxies and heresies which unfortunately we still have not only to live with but also to confront with needed definitions. Our real task is to re-establish certain values which cannot be regarded as the transitory concerns of a particular epoch, but are part and parcel of all that is most noble and essential in human nature. In these circumstances, peace cannot be regarded as a kind of Nirvana where the most virile and generous impulses of mankind dwindle into nothingness, for otherwise we would be admitting that all those provisions of the Charter which promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms would be no more than meaningless sounds or empty legal phrases.
146. When so-called dialectical reasoning with its essentially relativist criterion of values and its cataclysmic interpretation of history maintains that irreconcilable conflict, the synthesis of opposing ideas through systematic violence, the occurrence of historical changes on the universal plane, are the only valid premises of international relations, it is clear that situations must arise outside the United Nations which cannot be reconciled with the principles upheld by our Organization.
147. One aspect of peace-keeping in which the Dominican Government has a lively interest is that relating to the defence of democratic institutions, in so far as this concept involves not only economic and social values but also political and moral values which cannot be renounced. It is in the light of this conviction that we regard the struggle in which the heroic people of South Viet-Nam are involved in defence of their freedom and security. As far as the Dominican Government is concerned, the support which the Government of the United States of America and other Governments in that area which are vitally interested in the preservation of democracy in South Viet-Nam are giving to that nation has our confidence and merits our respect.
148. Faithful to the inter-American peace-loving tradition, to the creation of which it has made a distinguished contribution through its resolute and persevering support of compulsory arbitration and the peaceful settlement of international disputes in general, the Dominican Republic is aware of the well-founded anxiety aroused by the situation in South East Asia, which moves all countries to deep feelings of pity.
149. For all these reasons, it was with great satisfaction that we listened to the peace proposals submitted to this Assembly by Mr. Goldberg on behalf of the Government of the United States of America. In our opinion, they should be given careful consideration by those interested in peace with justice and dignity in Viet-Nam.
150. We appreciate and firmly support, as a duty not only of conscience but of religion, the enlightened efforts which His Holiness Pope Paul VI has been exerting for some time now to bring about an end to this war, the prolongation of which, in the view of many, may lead to unrestrained action which might aggravate the present international situation.
151. We also want to add our good wishes to those which Secretary-General U Thant has already received from our Assembly in recognition of his noble and untiring work for peace. His decision to continue at the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations gives my country particular pleasure.
152. As a member of the American family of nations we cannot but reaffirm our attitude towards the decisive questions which are at stake in the Viet-Namese war for the basic causes of that terrible conflict are the same as those which may one day arise in America. They will have similar implications if we do nothing in the face of the systematic campaign to subvert American democratic institution. This campaign is encouraged and supported with every kind of material and psychological resource by a State which, having deserted the international community that nurtured the ideals and the forces to which it owes its very existence, now dedicates itself to the task of sowing the seeds of its madness through the length and breath of the Americas.
153. The economic doctrine of laissez-faire, which led to the iron law of wages and which has been radically revised by modern economic thinking, must fail also as a political dogma. Instead of a United Nations resigned to the fatality of historical processes, we wish to see a United Nations valiantly determined to reaffirm the eternal values of human dignity and the self-determination of peoples, provided that the latter is not invoked to justify yet another adventure of tyranny and aggression. The systematic recurrence of certain items on the agenda of our General Assembly, such as those relating to the defence of peace against aggression, the struggle against racial discrimination and the last vestiges of colonialism, and the protection of human rights, demonstrate the unswerving will of our Organization to watch over these serious matters. This is the spirit which keeps alive the interest of mankind in this Organization whose profession of faith in these troubled times might perhaps be summed up in this motto of the founder of one of the smallest but most honoured constitutional monarchies of Europe: "We need no hope to start the battle, nor victory to persevere".