79. I should like, first of all, on behalf of the people and Government of Bolivia, to express our hope for the speedy recovery of President Eisenhower.
80. The tenth session of the United Nations General Assembly is meeting under encouraging auspices. We are leaving behind us the days of bloody conflict and bitter trials. Signs of peace are appearing on the horizon. Our planet is ceasing to be a theatre of rivalries issuing in fratricidal battles. The desire for tranquillity, the longing to live free from fear, which is one of man's strongest aspirations, is triumphing over the tumultuous influences that were demanding the supreme sacrifice of another world tragedy.
81. This scene of harmony, which today gives hope to the world, lends singular importance to the discussions that are taking place in this Assembly of the United Nations. Twenty odd years of war, crisis and catastrophe had sown scepticism in the heart of man. Peace had come to be regarded as a remote prospect, and the failure of past efforts to promote understanding between the great Powers confirmed the sad doubts of the pessimists. For many years almost all sectors of public opinion were permeated by the mournful idea that war was our destiny and that there was no escape from the Dantesque cycle of periodical holocausts and endless suffering.
82. The history of the United Nations has in fact been a long series of incidents, conflicts and quarrels that have kept the spirit of mankind suspended over a terrible abyss. Our Organization was born out of an alliance for war and a longing for peace, but the military victory won through the close co-operation of all democratic peoples held the germ of conflict, and the world entered a period not of that peace which had been sought so desperately in the trenches, but of anguish marked by the armaments race and by constant anxiety. Korea was a danger which carried us to the very brink of world-wide disaster. In Indochina a similar danger threatened the tottering structure of peace. And Formosa saw hours of tension that seemed to be a prelude to the inevitable clash. From all sides came the sounds of war, and the era of harmony promised us by the statesmen who had founded the United Nations was reduced to no more than a fragile hope,
83. Nevertheless, man has always been endowed with moral forces which exert a restraining influence when primitive passions threaten to prevail. In the darkest periods of history, when civilization has appeared to be on the point of foundering, the voice of reason has exercised its restraining effect and restored calm to the minds of men. At the very moment when we were all voicing the most dire predictions, certain ideas were put forward which were able to alter the contemporary political scene. Hope is now beginning to appear in a world where the most utter disillusionment had prevailed. Humanity has not lost its virtues and it will be able to achieve its most ambitious dreams.
84. In 1953, we heard in this hall the words of President Eisenhower, inviting all nations, on behalf of the people of the United States, to utilize for peaceful purposes the diabolic power of the liberated atom [470th meeting]. That attitude on the part of the President of the United States began what we might call the unfreezing of international politics. From die moment that his speech resounded throughout the world, it was clear that calm conversation between the Powers was possible. Slowly, at the rate characteristic of great ideas, the movement towards universal understanding began gaining its first victories, until it has at last penetrated all minds. The division of the world into factions that seemed unable to approach each other save for purposes of controversy began to decline, and over the barriers that separated men, friendly conversation started.
85. The recent Conference of the four great Powers at Geneva is not art isolated event, the result of a sudden whim that came unheralded and will have no geographical or political consequences to the world. The agreement on Indochina, which healed an open wound, the exchange of trade union delegations’ between countries of Eastern and Western Europe, the visits of prominent Western statesmen to the Soviet Union and of Soviet economic experts to the United States of America, together with the presence of Soviet leaders in countries with which they had formerly engaged in unpleasant controversies, had created the necessary atmosphere in which the spokesmen of the great Powers might meet for calm discussion of the problems of the world. Geneva is only a signpost, a promise that only the future can confirm, a trend that may become a permanent achievement.
86. The great increase in military expenditure and the infinite capacity of destruction inherent in atomic weapons have made total warfare an unmistakable threat to the whole world. Behind the hydrogen bomb lies collective suicide. No rivalry, no aspiration to power, no political doctrine can persist against such an enormous danger. Mankind is now faced with the sovereign dilemma: to reach agreement or to perish. All the concepts of our imagination, all the feelings engendered by our afflictions/ all the desires that we have nurtured, are confounded by the spectre of the annihilation of mankind that threatens us if we dare to unleash the forces that have now been discovered in nature.
87. For the small countries, which make up the majority of the world, the prospect of peace is indeed welcome, for the wars have been costly to us in frustration. While armies are fighting, the price of our raw materials remains static or declines, and the interruption of normal trade hinders our progress. With the advent of peace and its promise of a brilliant future; we find that the promised world does not exist, for new dissensions, charged with explosive possibilities, threaten the world that was so recently flowing with blood. For us, progress depends upon peace.
88. Now that there are signs of progress towards disarmament, let us hope that the negotiations now taking place between the great Powers will not only reduce the enormous expenditure for war, but will also do much to develop the peaceful uses of these awesome scientific discoveries 6f recent years. The atom is a diabolical threat, but it is also a promise of life and prosperity if we can link it to the great aspirations of mankind; like life itself, it will reflect man’s proclivities for good or for bad. It is the solemn, inescapable duty of those who have mastered nuclear energy to ensure that it is used to promote peace and to do away with the terrible spectre of war.
89. We must not think, however, that understanding among the great Powers is a kind of magic wand that will dispel all the problems of humanity. To do so would be to indulge in exaggerated optimism. If the disarmament which we are hoping to achieve is to become a reality, it must extend to all the countries of the world. We should have gained very little indeed if disarmament were limited to the more powerful countries. In the small nations, too, the desire for peace must result in a reduction of their armed forces and of their wasteful accumulation of the machinery of war.
90. In recent times, taking advantage of all the talk of war, some of the small States have shown a marked tendency to strengthen their armies and to acquire excessive stocks of armaments. These practices have created a state of affairs that is not conducive to universal peace, owing to the aggressive spirit fostered by the possession of large accumulations of instruments of war; moreover, they are a heavy burden on the peoples who have to bear the cost. Many opportunities to advance the cause of progress and human dignity in underdeveloped countries have been lost because of this wanton mania. The instruments of work have been replaced by instruments of war — a cruel paradox in countries whose peoples have neither food to assuage their constant hunger nor means to illuminate the darkness of their minds. The building up of military power, moreover, tends to foster the class system and anti-democratic practices, especially in regions which, in their struggle against force, are not equipped with the moral resources derived from a broad political education or from deeply-rooted civic tradition.
91. The Bolivian delegation believes that the reduction and limitation of armed forces and armaments should apply to the under-developed countries, and it will in due course present a motion to that effect in the General Assembly. In taking this step we are prompted solely by a sincere desire to contribute to the preservation of international peace and to promote the progress of countries whose tragedies and conflicts have so often endangered the structure of world peace. If, as has been so often stated, peace is indivisible, we must not forget that it must be safeguarded in all parts of the world.
92. Nevertheless, a peace that does not bring with it a transformation of the political scene would be a poor victory for those who regard human progress as a condition for any sincere effort at reconciliation. Recent years have brought, especially in the hitherto underdeveloped countries, a real epidemic of minority regimes which have used military force to destroy even the most rudimentary forms of coexistence between men of the same nation. If we are to move towards peaceful coexistence between the different political systems that exist today, it is reasonable to hope that we may also advance along the path to coexistence between the citizens, groups and classes which make up every nation. A peace without social justice, seasoned with the bitter ingredient of absolutism, would be a deliberate flouting of the desires of so many peoples who, from the depths of their anguish, cry out for human redemption. To live free from fear is the least we can achieve for all those who place their hopes in our deliberations.
93. One of the difficulties in the way of peaceful coexistence is the desire of colonial peoples for freedom. My country struggled 15 years for freedom, and by the time it attained freedom its vital forces were so weakened that its rehabilitation was an arduous process. This occurred over a hundred years ago, at a time when slavery was still permitted in some countries. In this century, however, which has seen the statesmen of the great Powers, in two successive world wars, cite as the justification for their military action the great human ideals which they ultimately inscribed in the United Nations Charter, the time has come for those ideals to become a reality, without bloodshed and without hatred, and without obstructing the progress of countries held back by ignorance.
94. The present situation of the under-developed countries, of which Bolivia is one, should be the subject of the most careful attention on the part of the various agencies of the United Nations. In order to avoid mere generalizations, I shall devote this part of my statement to what is happening today in Latin America,
95. The latest survey of the economic situation of Latin America, prepared by the secretariat of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), includes some very valuable statistical data for an assessment of the economic position of that vast and promising part of the world. The investment coefficient declined from 17 per cent in 1952 to 14.9 per cent in 1954. The terms of trade index of a group of Latin American countries dropped from 110 in 1951 to 92 in 1954. Imports of capital goods, which represented 40 per cent of all our foreign purchases in 1940, now represent only 37.5 per cent. In 1954, $96 million flowed into Latin America in the form of investments, but our remittances abroad in payment of interest, profits and amortization amounted to $630 million. This complex of indices and data is reflected in an increase of 1.5 per cent in the per capita, gross product. If we contrast this figure with that for the United States of America, which was 2 per cent in 1954, we can see quite clearly that, far from narrowing, the gap between industrialized and underdeveloped countries is increasing in a spectacular fashion.
96. The backwardness of the under-developed countries is a dangerous and permanent cause of insecurity for the entire world. The peace which we desire and the first harbingers of which are already to be observed will coincide with a crisis of incalculable proportions if the world economy continues to be unjustly divided into two groups of nations of unequal wealth and power. Prosperity, like peace, is indivisible; if poverty and ignorance persist in the under-developed countries, the economies of the advanced countries will be faced with the explosion that is inevitable in any mechanism that has no safety valve. The urgent necessity of helping the disinherited regions of the world on their path to progress is not merely a problem of human solidarity; to put it bluntly, it is of vital concern to the preservation of international stability. There is but one alternative; either we must foster the development of the large group of nations that still live on the periphery of civilization, or we shall be overwhelmed by an economic disaster which will shake the very foundations of world organization.
97. The representatives of the great Powers have again spoken in this Assembly of the vital need to solve the problem of the unification of Germany, and have even gone so far as to say that disarmament will be an idle dream if the present division of that country continues. Peace, too, the social peace that the peoples of the world are eagerly seeking, will be no more than a Utopian concept if there is a continued separation between some groups that possess every facility for development, and others — the majority — which lack the means to enjoy the full benefits of civilization. To find a suitable means of eliminating this division of the human family is as serious a problem for the under-developed countries as is the unification of Germany for the great Powers.
98. Fortunately there has of late been concrete evidence of a growing understanding of the problem which holds promise for the immediate future. President Eisenhower has expressly stated his desire that the enormous savings achieved by the halt in the armaments race should be used for assistance to the under-developed countries. Mr. Fame, the Prime Minister of France, speaking in more concrete terms, has suggested the establishment of an international fund which would study investment projects in areas whose economic development requires stimulation. The industrialized nations of Europe and North America have abundant and varied resources which, if used in accordance with a sound policy of international solidarity and enlightened self- interest, would help to speed up the task of eliminating backwardness in the world. The International Monetary Fund has stated that the reconstruction of Europe is now completed. If we interpret that announcement correctly, it is now time to proclaim that the highly developed countries, which until recently have focused their attention on restoring the regions laid waste by the recent world war, should now turn their eyes across the seas to assist in the progress of peoples who have not yet been able to enjoy the full benefits of civilization.
99. This line of reasoning is the fruit neither of selfish national aspirations nor of a disgruntled patriotism. Bolivia has received repeated and growing proof of solidarity and the desire to help. In the arduous task of building up a nation, friendly hands have come to our assistance, bringing with them messages of consolation in our trials and of confidence in our ideals. Such action is not enough, however and, noble though we know it to be, it cannot solve all problems. The aid and assistance sporadically rendered to the under-developed countries must become a dynamic creed, part of an international code for our times. What we need are not isolated gestures, however valuable they may be as examples, but a general crusade which will mobilize with sufficient speed the enormous potential in the hands of the mightiest nations of the earth. A proposal that the industrialized Powers should devote the savings from a reduction in armaments expenditure to the development of the rest of humanity would constitute the corner-stone of that society of the future which it should be our concern to create.
100. I have said that Bolivia has been fortunate in that its people, now freed from feudal oppression, has received welcome evidence of international solidarity. But, as part of the new vista opened up to the world by the prospect of peace, this solidarity should be expanded and diversified so that its effects may be commensurate with the demands of the new international situation. Now that we are passing a milestone in the history of peoples, the time has come to take brief stock of the aid received by Bolivia and of the ways in which it could be rendered more effective and its scope enhanced.
101. Bolivia, like all countries which have been shaken by the fertile fever of revolution, is passing through a temporary but disquieting phase of economic disequilibrium. The revolutionary process which destroyed the old social structure coincided with an abrupt fall in the price of minerals on world markets. Two contradictory trends have emerged in the national economy. On the one hand, mass consumption has grown beyond all expectation, since the peasants, now released from serfdom and incorporated into the monetary economy, have been enabled to acquire a variety of manufactured goods and improve their diet and dress. As against this increase in consumption, there has been a slight but significant fall in the rate of investment. The country, deprived of foreign income by the fall in mineral prices, has not been able to meet fully the need for increased capital investment, since to have done so would have been to deal an undeserved blow to the hopes of the population.
102. It is this conflict between consumption, expressing man’s legitimate desires, and investment, hampered by the adverse trend of prices on foreign markets, that has produced the inflationary cycle from which Bolivia is now suffering. The timely aid forthcoming from the United States Government has helped to maintain the levels of consumption in Bolivia which had been abruptly raised by the revolution. The United States Government, by its repeated contributions, has enabled us to obtain those foodstuffs which our foreign exchange resources would never have enabled us to obtain on a scale commensurate with the country’s needs. In 1954, we received food and other goods to a value of $13 million. In 1955, the amount we received rose to $25 million.
103. In the matter of scientific investigation and up-to-date techniques — essential elements in stimulating production — the United States Government has helped us through the collaboration of its various specialized agencies. New plant varieties, unfamiliar means of pest control, and advanced methods of cultivation have been popularized in Bolivia by the agencies implementing the Point Four programme. In the struggle against the diseases which sap our vital forces, United States experts, side by side with my own countrymen, have fought momentous battles which hold out the promise of strength and well-being to so many people racked by disease.
104. In Bolivia, as in so many other countries, the key to development undoubtedly lies in raising the rate of investment. The amount allocated to capital investment during the present year is estimated at barely 12 per cent of our probable national product. To appreciate the inadequacy of this sum, let us remember that the old nations, for centuries in the van of progress, devote more than 15 per cent of their national product to, reproductive investment. Consumption in Bolivia will continue to grow, and must increase with the extremely wide range of needs that characterizes all newcomers to a life of human dignity. Our production cannot keep pace with this phenomenon and our foreign income in the immediate future will continue to be small in the absence of any sign of improvement in mineral prices.
105. Long experience, based on established facts, teaches us that the development of backward countries cannot be undertaken without the assistance of foreign investment. All the countries which have reached the peak of human progress have called in outside capital to speed their growth. Regardless of the political system they may have adopted, they have found foreign technique and resources to be one of their mainstays. In Latin America we need, with all the urgency born of ineluctable facts, an increase in foreign investment. This need, manifest throughout the entire hemisphere, is particularly marked in Bolivia, which lacks the capital required to expand its fields of activity and to give its people, initiated into the civilized way of life, the standard of living which they demand.
106. But future investment in under-developed countries must conform to certain standards compatible with national dignity and with the economic levelling-up dictated by our times. The age of colonialist investment, seeking only easy money regardless of the means employed has gone forever. Nowadays, investments must comply with the principles of equity. Foreign capital, in return for the confidence and security offered it, must help to diversify the economies of the countries in which it finds a home and to raise its peoples to a higher level of human dignity. These principles have already met with such success that the technical services of the United Nations have accepted them unreservedly in some of their more recent documents.
107. Fortunately, investors seem to have understood the spirit of the. new times and are trying to adhere scrupulously to its precepts. A recent example of this in Bolivia is the agreement by our Government with a United States gold-mining firm. Under this agreement, the Bolivian State will receive royalties and other payments amounting to more than 50 per cent of the profits from working the gold. Full and explicit recognition is given therein to the principles of reinvestment of profits, payment of attractive wages to workers and thorough government inspection. Bolivia is a fertile field for investments that conform to these standards. Now that the mining monopoly which kept our country fettered to the will of three absentee magnates has been destroyed, now that the rural masses have been freed from the feudal yoke, the obstacles to capital investment and the diversification of the economy have been swept away.
108. The future will offer the United Nations excellent opportunities for widening the scope of its technical assistance. The greatest organization in the world cannot remain aloof from the movement towards peaceful coexistence and solidarity which is in process of development and in which all peoples must share. An order of priority must be established in the granting of technical assistance so as to give preference to those countries in which the population as a whole can enjoy its share of the national wealth and constitutes the principal factor in public life.
109. Technical assistance cannot be conceived of in the abstract, as something which can be applied to any region of the earth or be effective in any political situation. If the mass of the people are isolated behind a barrier of contempt, or if a gulf of suspicion or open strife divides the Government and public opinion, the help and guidance of experts will be lost in the clash of conflicting interests. Technical assistance should be, indirectly, an instrument of democratic progress. It is inconceivable that so important a venture as the provision of technical assistance to under-developed countries should not, in addition to contributing to their economic development, contribute also to enhancing respect for human dignity and promoting political advancement in those countries.
110. In Bolivia, technical assistance has become particularly effective since the revolution of 9 April 1952, which made it possible to develop and diversify the national economy. Up till then, the ideas and advice of international technical assistance experts had been no more than generous ideals that had been met with incomprehension. Now technical assistance has really become a part of the life of the country, and we can already see some of the positive results.
111. United Nations experts have helped to reorganize the Ministry of Finance and have recommended the adoption of modern methods of preparing the national budget. The taxation system has been simplified. In the field of public administration, the international experts, assisted by some of our best officials, have prepared a civil service law which will give government employees prestige and stability and make the various public services more efficient. The problems involved in industrialization and agrarian reform, and the need for a planned expansion of the rural economy, are also being studied by the technical assistance experts with keen interest. As regards education, technical assistance has tended to take the form of the modernization of primary and secondary education and collaboration with the competent government departments in carrying out educational reform laws.
112. Our particular gratitude is due to those officials who have in turn directed the work of technical assistance in Bolivia. Mr. Goodrich began the first experiments of the United Nations in this field in our country with a tact and skill acknowledged by all. His successor, Mr. Carlsson, brought to the task manifest qualities of training and wisdom. Lastly, Mr. Oropeza Castillo, the present head of the mission, has used his undoubted administrative ability with a flexibility that contributes greatly to furthering the success of technical assistance in our country.
113. Despite the achievements of technical assistance, the development of the receiving countries requires to be stimulated by international bodies in other ways too. Experts are playing an outstanding part in solving many problems, but their efficacy is necessarily limited, since, in addition to qualified personnel, progress requires machinery and tools with which to exploit natural resources. The United Nations, through the medium of the specialized agencies, should see to it that the modern equipment which abounds in the industrialized areas, thanks to their advanced techniques, is made available to the under-developed areas.
114. The proposal for a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development should be regarded in the light of these general considerations. According to the documents on the question, the intention is to set up a body to provide, free of charge, those means which the under-developed countries require to speed up their development. There are some countries in the world — Bolivia among them — which, having only recently achieved social emancipation, lack the means to avail themselves of international credit to the extent that they would wish, since such credit, traditionally, involves some interest and redemption payments, however moderate. One of the characteristic features of our times is that many of the previously oppressed peoples have acceded to the highest forms of political organization. Among all the under-developed areas are in fact undergoing this inspiriting process. Vast multitudes are beginning to enjoy rights and actively to demand an improvement in their standards of living. Generous revolutionary ideals compel Governments, in countries where justice has acquired due recognition, to adopt an encouraging attitude towards the desires of the masses. But the adoption of such a policy leaves scanty resources with which to obtain credit abroad. Hence the special fund offers an exceptional opportunity of solving the problem of economic development without prejudice to the social rights of the peoples.
115. The special fund should come into operation as early as possible. The studies of the experts appointed to consider the various aspects of its activities warrant an attitude of temperate optimism. Some observations must, nevertheless, be made with a view to avoiding from the outset certain obstacles or shortcomings which might detract directly from the efficacy of the fund. The sum of $250 million suggested for the fund appears inadequate in view of the new international outlook and the ideas which are already beginning to assert themselves in the plans for collaboration between nations. The General Assembly resolution inviting Governments ‘•to review their respective positions as regards extending their material support to a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development in accordance with changes in the international situation” [resolution 822 (IX)] is very sound and to the point.
116. However, the fund should commence operations even before all the contributions that may be pledged have come in. In this connexion, the proposal made by the French delegation at one of the recent meetings of the Sub-Committee of the Disarmament Commission [DC/SC 1/27], that the savings resulting from a reduction in armaments expenditure should be transferred to an international fund for mutual assistance and development, such savings being earmarked for use in their countries of origin so that the under-developed nations might acquire capital goods in those countries, could be of decisive assistance in overcoming any difficulties that might arise. This proposal is very wise and based on elementary common sense, for the fund, if partly financed with money saved by reducing armaments expenditure, will ward off the danger of a depression caused by the sudden halting of operations in factories producing for defence.
117. It view of the purposes of the fund, each country should have only one vote on its board of directors, since the fund would be more in the nature of an international co-operative than a financial institution in the accepted sense of the term. The fund should see to it that a healthy balance is maintained between outright grants and the loans which are also envisaged in the plans drawn up by the experts who have studied the establishment of such a fund. In any case, the fund will be the practical instrument which will have to ensure equilibrium in the new phase on which the world is now entering, by making a proper allocation of surplus resources among those areas where economic development is not just a distant aim, but a pressing need.
118. The time is approaching when it will be necessary to give a higher status to certain dependent bodies of the United Nations — the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), for instance, which, in spite of its. brilliant performance in child welfare and care and in the eradication of endemic diseases, has not received adequate funds. Specific formulae should be evolved for establishing a scale of contributions to this body. The campaign against malnutrition, sickness and destitution is quite as important as any ambitious project for economic development.
119. Even if international aid to the under-developed countries from the United Nations or foreign Governments attains a volume and scope adequate to the new situation upon which we are entering, it will still be wasted if the great Powers do not take immediate steps towards re-establishing trade relations between the various parts of the world. Trade undoubtedly contributes towards peace by fostering confidence and opening the way to a mutual understanding dispelling all suspicions.
120. Looking at things from the standpoint of the under-developed countries, we might add that trade in peaceful goods between the great Powers would make progress possible in all parts of the world, many resources being not fully developed at present because there is no way of selling them on markets hedged around by political barriers or by excessive customs or currency regulations. The re-establishment of trade throughout the whole world, by giving a tremendous impetus to economic activity, would tend to supplement and perhaps, in the not so remote future, render unnecessary, or at least reduce, the enormous amount of technical assistance and financial aid at present required by the under-developed countries.
121. Bolivia, despite all the difficulties inherent in any great task, is making great strides towards perfecting its democracy. Our country is making gigantic efforts to face the challenge of the new times with a clear eye and a firm step. We have freed from feudal oppression some 2 million peasants who, since the dark days of colonialism, had been living in hopeless ignorance. Today, those peasants are taking part, without ostentation but also without timidity, in the political and economic life of the country. With a sense of responsibility only acquired by peoples when they have won their rights, they are organizing a system of production thanks to which the fruits of economic progress will soon be added to the achievement of social equality.
122. Over the destinies of Bolivia no longer looms the fateful shadow of the mining empire which for so many years made of us a mere toy at the mercy of caprice. We have ceased to be the defenceless trading post of certain moneyed interests which combined to monopolize some of the most valuable resources of the earth and to shackle the peoples that produced them. For the first time in our history, we are a sovereign people that no longer needs to dangle on the strings of the puppet-master Greed. And to the discomfiture of the many who foretold disaster because we were considered incapable of managing our own affairs, there has arisen a vigorous Bolivia that looks after and develops its own natural resources.
123. Two fundamental measures — land reform and the nationalization of the great mines — have laid the foundations of democracy in Bolivia. We do not believe that democracy can flourish when it is based on the degradation of the people or on the reduction of countries to vassaldom by selfish private interests. If there are to be free citizens, wealth must belong to all and national sovereignty must be more than a mere catch-phrase. Democracy was never compatible with the cunning but cruel forms of slavery, nor with national humiliation.
124. Let it not be believed, however, that we incline towards a purely positivist interpretation of the democratic system. We know that culture, too, is a means of training people to enjoy their prerogatives and to shape their country’s institutions by active participation in its affairs. So that literacy may no longer be the monopoly of the privileged classes and become the birthright of men formerly despised and enchained, we have brought schools to the remotest confines of the country. Two thousand new rural educational institutions have been founded since the triumph of our revolution, and educational reform will quickly give all classes access to higher and technical studies.
125. Our revolutionary movement came to power under the banner of harmony among all Bolivians. We did not sink to the depths of a policy of reprisals or offer the world the barbarous spectacle of those shootings and outrages which have left the stain of spiritual degradation on other revolutions in backward countries. We relegate the memory of the persecutions we suffered to the secret depths of our hearts and minds. In the hour of victory, there bloomed an ideal that bade us construct a democratic order. Our vanquished adversaries, misled by images of the past in which revolt was a chronic source of instability in Bolivia, plunged into the turmoil of conspiracy and, with each new defeat inflicted on them by the people in defence of its revolutionary institutions, adopted more sinister methods, until they reached the final degradation of assassination, which sets the ultimate seal of moral bankruptcy on any political movement.
126. Next year, the whole people of Bolivia, in orderly assembly, will be electing its government. All political groups, including those which have raised the vain standard of disguised violence, will enjoy unrestricted rights and may put forward candidates. We wish this civic occasion, which will demonstrate the sincerity of our democratic Government, to be an opportunity for a display of political tolerance by all sectors of national opinion, for we know that a revolutionary regime, when it really wishes to transform a country, needs healthy criticism within the framework of a democracy free from discrimination.
127. We have an unshakable faith in the creative possibilities of peaceful coexistence, which appears now to be passing from the misty realm of dreams into the field of practical reality. We identify ourselves with that immense majority that longs for the coming of a world in which peace and democracy will make it possible for I man to live and to hope. We believe that, with the establishment of a sincere understanding between all the nations of the earth, there will come an era of historic reparation in which old injustices will be wiped out by the welcome hand of an international law that will not measure its action by the yardstick of force or influence. We wish the international community to accord to Bolivia that minimum right to which a people is entitled, namely, the right to progress. May divine Providence enlighten our deliberations!