45. Mr. President, the Bolivian delegation is very pleased that you, whose intellectual and moral qualities are acclaimed in international circles, have been given the responsibility of presiding over the twenty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly. In congratulating you, Mr. Pazhwak, I am honoured to wish you every success in carrying out your important duties and to express my certainty that you will be a worthy successor to Mr. Amintore Fanfani, who presided over the twentieth session to the satisfaction of all.
46. I feel in duty bound to express the hope that U Thant will continue at the helm of the Secretariat. His outstanding personality, his untiring efforts to keep the Organization in good working order, his meaningful contribution to peace and understanding among peoples — all demonstrate how desirable it is for the United Nations to continue to benefit from the diplomatic experience and impeccable moral integrity he has shown in fulfilling his duties.
47. My country is highly honoured to have been elected to fill one of the posts of Vice-President of this Assembly. I can assure you that, in keeping with this honour, the Bolivian delegation will actively cooperate with all States seeking to solve international problems and will strive for the success of the Assembly's discussions, just as it did when similarly entrusted with a seat as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
48. I should like to recall that when my country took its seat on the Security Council it had just emerged from a grave political upheaval. Yet despite the fact that Bolivia was still feeling the effects of this serious crisis, its Permanent Representative solemnly announced to the Security Council [1167th meeting] that the Military Junta then in power would shortly make the difficult transition to a constitutional and democratic government. That promise has been kept, and the Government headed by General Rene Barrientos wishes to reaffirm, through me, its unswerving devotion to the ideals and purposes of the United Nations proclaimed in the Charter.
49. I must also mention the humanistic and Christian significance of the Holy Father's presence in this hall in October 1965 [1347th meeting], particularly in view of the timeliness his words have acquired with the recent Encyclical appealing for world peace. It is encouraging to note on the vast world scene, where symptoms of crisis and moral decay coexist with the inspiring achievements of science, that mankind seems willing to accept with submission and reverence guidance from the great centres of spirituality and intelligence. Now we have the above-mentioned Encyclical, with a new call for peace directed particularly at the South-East Asian problem.
50. In this serious matter, Bolivia wishes to express, echoing the leader of Christianity, its most fervent desire that peace will come to Viet-Nam as soon as possible, a peace based on justice and freedom and which will take into account the right of the individual and the community, a lasting and stable peace.
51. My country also wishes to express its pleasure at the admission of the new South American State, Guyana, and the return of Indonesia to the United Nations. When a nation becomes a State and assumes control over its own destiny as Guyana has done; when a nation decides to join us again, as Indonesia has done, the Members of the United Nations have reason to rejoice, for they feel that one of the main functions of the Organization is to support the sacrifice peoples make to realize their full potential, and to welcome all nations that wish to pool their efforts, fulfil the lofty purposes set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and contribute earnestly to the cause of world unity and peace.
52. In tills connexion, I also wish to express my Government's staunch support of the German nation’s legitimate desire for reunification.
53. With regard to progress on the road of cooperation and solidarity among nations, the Bolivian Government also wishes to repeat its firm hope that weapons which threaten to destroy mankind, and whose production alone is a cause of backwardness and poverty in vast population sectors, will be banned and placed under effective control.
54. The arms race and wars are, however, only the most striking and spectacular forms of destruction and death. We must realize that there are other factors in the relations and trade between States which, because they involve unfair compensation for a nation's efforts and the labour of its workers, are decisive causes of sickness and death, hunger and anguish, leading to sullen hatred and also to outright violence.
I am referring, specifically, to the low prices paid for raw materials and, particularly, for strategic reserves.
55. Year after year the developing countries have brought before this august Assembly the problem of the gradual but steady decrease in the prices for their primary commodities, the price paid for the commodities whose export and sale are the very underpinning of their budget, national economy and their peoples' level of living. But, unfortunately, they are only listened to with polite attention, and the problem — which affects dozens of countries and hundreds of thousands of people — remains unsolved and actually grows worse year after year.
56. Let us hope that this time these pleas will not be futile, that they will not fall on deaf ears. We wish to awaken the world's conscience to one of the most serious and crucial problems mankind faces, a problem which it cannot shirk and must solve with the utmost urgency.
57. The deterioration of the terms of trade affects nothing less than the economic and political stability of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. I do not wish to over-dramatize the situation in which three fourths of the world's people live. To stress this point, I need merely point out that the countries that buy our primary commodities are solely responsible for this constant slump in the prices paid for our products and in the remuneration paid for our work-prices and remuneration which determine our stability and our progress. But they are more anxious to protect their own interests than to give our workers fair compensation to help meet our peoples' urgent needs, or to support our Government’s sacrifices and efforts to overcome poverty and stagnation. A former President of Colombia was thus correct in saying that "we are not undeveloped but rather underpaid continents".
58. This applies to coffee, copper, fruit and specifically to Bolivian tin. All the gigantic efforts made by the mining industry to organize its work, all the hopes we have sought to fulfil in a century and a half of upheaval affecting our security, stability, progress and peace are in serious peril.
59. Our peoples still hope, but there are densely populated areas that despair. We can still propose constructive plans as the Bolivian delegation will do during this session for regional development as a major step towards continental integration. But tomorrow it may perhaps be too late, and the patience of seventy-seven nations whose plea for justice and co-operation went unheeded may give out with violent results. This would not be the first case of generalized outbreaks that intelligent and, above all, timely action could and should have forestalled.
60. We must recognize, finally, that the United Nations, in admitting many nations, has given millions of human beings undergoing decolonization a voice in international affairs. We hope that a new process will ensue, in which efforts will be made to ensure equitable compensation for work throughout the world, in which the glaring differences between nations will be eliminated and in which the economic subjugation of some countries to others will be prevented.
61. As it has on all occasions and in all forums, Bolivia feels obliged to draw attention once again to the problem of its situation as a land-locked country. This situation affects relations between nations, particularly between those for which unity and fraternity are most imperative, and makes it excruciatingly difficult for Bolivia to raise its level of living. But there is more to it than that. Bolivia is deprived of an outlet to the sea in a continent where, according to the distinguished President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mr. Felipe Herrera, 90 per cent of inter-American trade is transported by sea since other means of transport are lacking. This not only delays our progress but also throws the collective economic development of the area out of gear and thus hampers efforts to bring about continental economic integration.
62. Economic integration, which is probably the decisive factor in our efforts to establish peace and well-being in the modern world, finds the nations of the world in obvious, and sometimes dramatic disarray: some have the elements that generate progress and carry it forward; others lack even the most rudimentary means with which to develop their human and material potential.
63. Sociologists, economists, men who look to the future and businessmen all agree that these disparities are an almost insurmountable obstacle to the execution of plans for a more just and stable order in the relations between nations and individuals.
64. My country, Bolivia, is now waging a difficult and decisive fight to reach the take-off stage of vigorous internal development which will enable it to make a valuable contribution to the joint efforts of surrounding nations; but our land-locked position is a major obstacle. Thus, the outcome of a war which deprived my country of its seaboard today hampers fulfilment of great plans for the progress of our region and continent. In other words, while the closing in of Bolivia was never an exclusively Bolivian problem, it is even less so today, for the truncation of its territory prevents my country from attaining a level commensurate with its efforts and sacrifice, hampers smooth development, delays regional balance and impedes progress towards continental economic integration.
65. Someone once said that the countries of Latin America would eventually be united or enslaved; but it is an elementary fact that unity can only be attained with understanding, and can be built up only through economic co-operation and harmonious development. If there has never been a sound and lasting international union among States at substantially different levels of power and development, such a union is even less conceivable now that the industry and wealth of one State can stifle progress in another.
66. In this context, reaffirming the justice of Its cause, Bolivia will propose in a plan for co-operation that the problems of economic integration should be studied, placing its faith in the high-mindedness of the rulers and nations around us, so that a fair Latin American solution can be found.
67. In the second part of my address, I wish to bring a regional problem before this world assembly in its historical and geographical aspects. For we feel that a large-scale common economic development policy in this part of the world would not only improve the situation of 200 million inhabitants, but would also enable Latin America — known as the continent of political Instability, scientific and technological backwardness, and as a producer of almost nothing but raw materials — to cease being a hindrance to other centres of greater power, to cease being part of what Myrdal called submerged mankind, so that it can make a greater contribution of its own to the culture and progress of all mankind.
68. After the Latin American people's herculean effort in the Fifteen-Year War for freedom, which at times threatened to annihilate them; after substituting autonomous government for Spanish domination and republics for monarchies; after discarding the theocentric concepts which had prevailed for three centuries under the empire's Unitarian organization in favour of world outlook engendered by the French Revolution; and after making the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times much faster than Europe, our people were exhausted after their terrible ordeal.
69. This sudden and radical change generated such great effort and tension that for a long time its originality, authenticity and creative potential were reduced to such an extent that our nations, though in the prime of youth, seemed to have exhausted their vital reserves. In fact, for a long period of time — its effects continued until the Second World War — the Latin American people went on living under the confining systems established in 1825, the year the last Spanish garrison in South America surrendered.
70. The old unity disintegrated. The provincial version of the "small motherland" of guerilla fighters supplanted the brilliant and far-sighted concept of Bolivar, the Liberator. And from then on we were dislocated. Although we shared a common language, origin, religion and history, we were an invertebrate society, a disjointed society with no inter-communication.
71. We then bent our efforts to the most urgent task of the day, that of giving our nations a formal structure in keeping with the spirit of the times and with the new status of independent republics they had achieved. But this task was undertaken by small oligarchic cliques and degenerated into mere legalistic, external, imitative action, patterned on foreign constitutional models but lacking the sense of social awareness that had been flourishing in Europe since about the middle of the previous century. In the second place, these efforts were confined within each country's borders and were almost completely devoid of a sense of purpose, enterprise, expansion, unity and a spirit of integration.
72. Subsequently, as an expression of belated Latin American reaction to the European ideologies of the past century, a series of convulsions — preceded by isolated and generally ineffective incidents — shook most of the republics of Central and South America towards the end of the Second World War.
73. Although inspired by the obvious and irritating inequality in the distribution of wealth and the frequent incapacity of those in power, these movements generally had no guiding philosophy. They depended on superficial plans and the intuitive powers of some of their leaders, and in the end they thought that by merely ousting the ruling cliques or destroying old institutions — more specifically, by liquidating local oligarchies and two or three monopolistic companies — they could raise the level of living and put an end to the economic dependence of their States.
74. Some of these movements, when they took over power in our countries, succeeded in destroying the old oligarchies and the structures which supported unjust privilege, nationalized the major sources of wealth and broke up large estates. But, in some cases at least, they were unable to replace the ruling cliques or consolidate the changes made, and thus left ruin and a vacuum which nature abhors.
75. These movements often failed to consider man as the ultimate aim of public action. They often lacked a philosophy and a modern outlook; they did not understand scientific and technological advances or the law of economic development; they were not fully aware of the unity of our nations, nor were they firmly determined to integrate their economies. These movements lacked a forward-looking, pioneering spirit; they did not set a new goal for our collective efforts, as each generation in the United States had done, from the first thirteen colonies to the present "New Frontier", nor did each in turn bear a message in keeping with the times.
76. That is why our impetus did not carry us much further than the advances of the Incas or the cities founded by the Spaniards. The Andes formed a mighty physical barrier, and the myopia of our leaders a mighty barrier of incomprehension. Both retarded our civilization and settlement, so that only the loneliness of the jungle remained beyond our narrow horizon. In brief, the legacy of strictly legalistic or merely subversive movements was that of a disjointed community, a purely peripheral civilization, which merely bordered on the coasts of the two oceans surrounding the continent, without conquering the Andes or penetrating the depths of the jungle.
77. In fact, the territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific has not been crossed, as the North Americans conquered what was once the "Far West", Venezuela has not been linked with Argentina, as the British of the past century linked Egypt with South Africa. No link has been established between Lima and Rio, such as the French created when they advanced from West Africa to the Red Sea after the Fachoda incident. From Panama to Buenaventura, from Buenaventura to Guayaquil, from Guayaquil to Callao, from Callao to Antofagasta, there are thousands of kilometres of jungle, desert and mountains, which one can cross without finding a single town of any size on the way, where there is no highway or railway joining them, so that these ports seem like huge depots. Inland, vast expanses of land such as those between Caracas and Santa Cruz de la Sierra or between the Atlantic and the Pacific, are almost totally uninhabited. And towards the heart of the Andes, we find the vast pampa and the surging Amazon.
78. Nevertheless, the most recent movements — true blind forces of nature which have found their most vivid and desperate expression in the terrorism which has flared in some capitals, in the brigandage which has swept through rural areas, in the guerilla activity in some countries, and in the spirit of revolt which underlay some of our attempts at revolution — are beginning to give way to new concepts that are far from clearly defined.
79. A new Latin American trend has begun to make headway during this decade. It takes different forms in different regions, but its essence remains very much the same. Its characteristics are realism, a revolutionary policy, clear thinking, and a serious, responsible constructive attitude. It is attempting to make a clean break with confusion, the superficiality and imitativeness of past programmes, and unreliable and half-hearted efforts.
80. In all our countries, this new generation demands technological research, such as the Economic Commission for Latin America is carrying out; it calls for regional development such as Colombia and Ecuador are undertaking in their frontier regions; for penetration into the interior, following the example of Brasilia and the roads radiating from Brasilia throughout all of Brazil's vast territory; for economic integration, as promoted by the Latin American Free Trade Association or as carried out by the Central American Common Market; for a link between the Paraguayan plains and the Peruvian mountains, between the Ecuadorian and Colombian tropics and the Marginal Jungle Highway. It is no mere coincidence that the architect of this latter project is President BelaQnde of Peru.
81. We are thus breaking up the purely nationalistic pattern which has persisted since 1825, for a century and a half, and which has led to a situation in which inter-American trade accounted for only a low 8 per cent of our total exports during the past decade. The statement that no significant creative ideas have come from this part of the world since the Panama Caned was opened is beginning to lose its validity.
82. This change is not a reflection of economic dilettantism or some technocratic trend, for industrial revolutions that have led to terrible social inequalities are a matter of historical record. It is a "new broom", but the keynote is realism, for experience has shown that social revolutions have caused terrible economic setbacks. The aim is to change specific social institutions, but it is felt that they are often inadequate or inefficient because they are limited to small centres and neither understand nor venture to make far-reaching changes in the process of continental integration.
83. Of the Latin American Republics, Bolivia has perhaps felt its past most deeply and has pursued its destiny with the greatest intuition.
84. What is today Bolivia was once the Inca Empire, which encompassed five of the present nations of our hemisphere. During the colonial era it was part of the Viceroyalties of Peru and Rio de la Plata. During its republican period it made one of the most serious attempts ever undertaken in our hemisphere to create a confederation. An international war subsequently deprived Bolivia of its access to the sea, thus forcing it to seek refuge in its mountains, to isolate itself and to fall back on its own resources.
85. But Bolivia's geography — which places it in the heart of South America, with five frontiers, with vast territory extending towards three of the southern continent’ s four great river basins — could hardly fail to exert a great attraction. As a result of this geographical situation and Bolivia's long-standing tradition and staunch Latin Americanism, the new generation does not view our country as a "buffer" State, but rather as a "land of contact", a crossroads that ties Latin America together.
86. Perhaps without knowing it, by necessity and intuition, Bolivia is the only nation which has gone into the Andes mountains and established roots there — a feat not always acknowledged — and is now starting to leave the Andes behind, to conquer the tropics and go down to the plains. A quarter of a century ago, when continental integration was a vague romantic dream in Latin America and development was not yet even talked about, Bolivia linked its plains to Brazil and Argentina with railways and to the highlands with a highway. It moved people from the mining region to the tropics and devoted all its energies to the development of that area.
87. But the keynote of this new effort is resolute realism. Bolivia paid dearly for its innocent idealism and is today firmly convinced that now that the broad outlines of a policy of continental integration have been drawn, Latin America should build itself up as advocated by Robert Schumann — the man who, with de Gasperi and Adenauer, laid the groundwork for a new Europe — not on purely political declarations, but on common achievements and common efforts.
88. That is why Bolivia proposed regional economic development as a constructive step towards continental integration, and with regard to ourselves, specifically we urge the immediate study of three large-scale and ambitious undertakings: the development of the Amazon Basin, the River Plate Basin and the Pacific Basin, in all their aspects.
89. One writer calls the Amazon Basin the "uninhabited interior". In addition to Brazil, most South American States share this Basin. Until recently there were no roads going through the area; technical and health facilities were not advanced enough for us to try to conquer it; areas adjacent to the cities apparently could supply all the needs of their inhabitants. In short, there was no compelling need for our peoples to attempt its conquest.
90. The situation has changed completely within only a few years. Our peasants need land which our land reform programmes often cannot provide, and our urban populations are growing at a dizzying rate, the fastest in the world.
91. There will be no place for small isolated States in the world of tomorrow, just as the small feudal units of Europe disappeared with the formation of national States, which in turn are heading towards continental integration today. The modern world requires mass production and consumption centres. And there the Amazon Basin lies waiting, with its 7 million square kilometres, the world's largest reserve of natural resources.
92. Once the course of the rivers has been regulated, and once their falls and rapids have been eliminated, we can build dams, control floods, open vast expanses of land for animal husbandry and farming, and develop hydro-electric power throughout the Amazon region.
93. Great civilizations have followed the course of great rivers, such as the Nile. The damming of the Paraguay and Parana rivers in the River Plate Basin and the opening of a Bolivian port on the Paraguay would provide the entire Basin with a system of waterways for the benefit of five countries.
94. Finally, with regard to the Pacific Basin, the transformation of the forbidding and hostile geography of the highlands and the desert seaboard should be considered and studied.
95. The development of these immense resources would change the geography and economy of South America, for it would bring more than half the area of the hemisphere into productive use.
96. In Latin America, regional plans requiring international co-operation have not yet been launched, in contrast to various projects in other parts of the world being carried out under United Nations auspices. We need cite only the development of the Mekong River Basin in South-East Asia, which benefits Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Viet-Nam and Burma. Even war has not held up these projects'. We might also mention the studies which are being carried out under United Nations guidance on the Senegal and Niger Rivers in Africa.
97. Turning to Latin America however, I would stress that what we need is a grand enterprise to unite us, and the creative imagination to choose a goal which we can pursue, which will arouse our enthusiasm and mobilize our youth. Life today in Latin America might be described as sordid in the extreme, a mere and often unsuccessful struggle for one's daily bread. We have moral values and vitality which could do wonders; but proper use cannot be made of these assets amidst the great ignorance and poverty that prevail. Hungry masses easily succumb to demagoguery, resentment and subversion. We are struggling with truly fundamental problems and needs and we cannot create the momentum we need to devise vast projects and plans.
98. Yet despite these drawbacks, great ideas for the future are taking shape. Among other projects, Peru plans to move towns from its plateau to the tropics. The Bolivian road network is continuing to spread from the centre eastwards and northwards, and thousands of people have been moved from the mining regions to these areas, Brazil is completing a magnificent highway which will soon reach its border with Bolivia and Peru, as part of what President Castelo Branco has called "Operation Amazon". The possible mining of iron and manganese in the Bolivia-Brazil border area, the export of Bolivian natural gas for the Sao Paulo industrial complex and for Argentina, and multilateral industrial projects now being developed, are all schemes that are now under way or that will be studied at forthcoming international meetings.
99. It is to be hoped that ideas such as those I have described will continue to make headway, firstly through the organization and financing of preliminary surveys and the assessment of natural resources which can serve as the basis for drawing up specific regional development or continental integration programmes. This appeal is addressed particularly to the Organization of American States, to the more industrialized countries, to technical and banking organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, and particularly to the United States which, through the Alliance for Progress, has begun, although recently, to co-operate in the economic development of Latin America.
100. As to the United Nations, not only is it at present fulfilling its main function of ensuring peace at the legal and political levels, but it is also becoming increasingly involved in the economic, social and cultural development of nations, without which neither domestic nor international peace will be secure.
101. In conclusion, I only wish to add in this context that the ideas I have just outlined — that is, regional development as a constructive and definite step towards continental integration — are intended to contribute to the attainment of the most lofty purposes of the United Nations in our search for a better life for man.