I would
like to begin my remarks by welcoming Mr. John Ashe
in his capacity as President of the General Assembly
at its sixty-eighth session. We are pleased that a
representative of our region, Latin America and the
Caribbean, is once again presiding over the main
organ of the United Nations. At the same time, I wish
to express my appreciation to Mr. Vuk Jeremi. for his
outstanding leadership and stewardship of the Assembly
at its previous session, during which he honoured us
with a visit to Guatemala.
The year 2013 has been challenging for Guatemala.
Last year we undertook to reduce our levels of child
malnutrition, which affects 4 of every 10 children in
my country. In addition, we decided that we could
not continue to sit on our hands while hundreds of
those children died of hunger. I am here to inform the
Assembly, with some optimism, that our efforts are
beginning to bear fruit. Since we began the fight against
hunger, we have managed to reduce infant mortality
from malnutrition by 50 per cent. Similarly, we have
created a monitoring system that allows us to measure
the nutritional condition of hundreds of thousands of
children, both to assess their growth and development
and to prevent deaths among children under the age
of 5. The challenge is enormous and we know that our
goals are very ambitious. That is why we are not yet
satisfied with the progress achieved, but we can affirm
without hesitation that little by little we are winning the
fight against hunger and child malnutrition.
The fight against hunger is closely related to
education. We want our boys and girls to study as many
years as they can and wish, and with no less than nine
years of basic education, which is the goal we have set.
But for that to happen, we have to ensure that they have
the nutrition that will enable their brains and bodies
grow healthily. We have to nourish our boys and girls so
that they can study. And we must provide them with the
opportunity of education so that they can be successful
in their adult lives, both in the world of work and in the
civic responsibilities that our democracy needs.
That is clearly linked to our second goal, that of
promoting dignified employment and a competitive
economy. I can again report to the Assembly that we
have achieved a 27 per cent increase in the number of
workers registered with Guatemala’s social security
system between the first quarters of 2012 and 2013.
That means that our economy is creating more formal
employment opportunities at the same time as we are
making progress in establishing our country as a leader
in improving the business climate in order to stimulate
investment.
I am delighted to say that we have developed a
growing dialogue in various fields with the President
of the United Mexican States, Enrique Peña Nieto. We
see the future of Guatemala as clearly related to the
economy of that fraternal neighbouring State, and that
is why we have been seeking to strengthen our relations
in areas including energy, transport and logistics, the
modernization of customs and the improvement of
security at border crossings, as well as our common
battle against hunger and in favour of peace in our
countries. Shared prosperity is our banner, and justice
our emblem.
In the same vein, we have expressed to the
Government of the United States of America our clear
interest in aligning our policies with those that promote
progress and security between the peoples of Mexico
and the United States. Guatemala aspires to a tripartite
alliance of prosperity with Mexico and the United
States that would serve as the foundation for solid links
with the countries of the Central American Integration
System and at the same time become a platform for
progress in the entire Caribbean region.
Again, we know that these are ambitious goals and
that reaching them will require a strong and persistent
effort, so as to achieve the common future of prosperity
that our peoples demand - a demand that we cannot
and should not evade. Today millions of Guatemalans
and Central Americans live and work in the United
States, and more than 50 per cent of our population
depends directly on business transactions with and
family remittances from Mexico and the United States.
That integration is a fact, and we Governments must
strengthening the institutions and policies that make it
possible to make best use of the achievements of our
children, our citizens and our business community.
The quest for prosperity is also related to our goals
of promoting peace and combating impunity. Security
has been a challenge inherited by my Government, and
we have resolved to address it by preventing violence
and by enforcing the law in a clear framework of respect
for human rights. We are far from having achieved our
goals, but the progress made shows that our State has
the capacity to dismantle large criminal networks and
to make them accountable to justice for their actions.
In that regard, I should like to inform the Assembly
that in urban areas of Guatemala City, where homicide,
extortion and insecurity were prevalent, we have
managed gradually to reinstate peace and social
coexistence. At the same time, our justice institutions
report that overall, impunity has been reduced by
almost 25 per cent between 2009 and 2013, with a
particular decrease in impunity for crimes against life,
both homicide and sexual crimes against women and
children.
In connection with the strengthening of the rule of
law, I would like to thank the General Assembly and
the donor community in particular for their support
for the International Commission against Impunity
in Guatemala. Its mandate has been renewed until
September 2015, and we hope that this period will be
used well to continue strengthening the capacity to
prosecute of the Public Prosecutor, the Ministry of
Security, the Ministry of the Interior, the national civil
police and the courts.
Building a country that is prosperous and free of
hunger, a country integrated with its neighbours and
where justice and peace prevail – that is the standard
that will guide us, and those are the goals that will
move us forward. That is why we ask the international
community to support us in moving in that direction.
Since my Government took office last year, we
have clearly affirmed that the war against drugs has
not yielded the desired results and that we cannot
continue doing the same thing and expecting different
results. That is why I associate myself at this time with
other countries that have spoken out in the Assembly,
including Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica, in stating
that in the face of the global drug problem, we must
review internationally agreed policies in the quest for
more effective results in a framework of respect for
human rights and from the perspective of health and
harm reduction. The objective must be the well-being
of society in all its aspects.
Prevention must be given priority in order to reduce
the impact on health and especially to reduce the level of
social violence that is associated with the drug problem.
In the same vein, international cooperation should be
strengthened so as to reduce illegal flows of arms and
the funds that finance those criminal networks.
The new global strategy must emerge from an open
and inclusive debate leading up to the special session of
the General Assembly scheduled for 2016. We welcome
the Declaration of Antigua Guatemala of the General
Assembly of the Organization of American States as a
first step in the right direction towards the 2016 session.
I would like to add to this the specific views of my
Government. I should first like to say that Guatemala
commends the visionary decision of the citizens of the
states of Colorado and Washington, which have led the
way to an approach that addresses the issue of drugs
from the perspective of public health, the prevention
of addiction and violence, and full respect for human
rights. Likewise, I wish to commend President Obama
for his wise decision to respect the voice of the citizens
of Colorado and Washington, allowing those innovative
undertakings to prove themselves over time.
We also respect and support the example set
by President José Mujica of Uruguay in proposing
legislation that regulates the cannabis market instead
of following the failed route of prohibition. I must also
acknowledge the valiant and visionary leadership of
the Secretary-General of the Organization of American
States, José Miguel Insulza, who has firmly promoted
a climate of dialogue and reflection on drug policies
among the Governments of the western hemisphere.
Without digressing from the path of international
cooperation against transnational crime, each country
must experiment with new models to address the
drug problem. My Government has decided to create
a national commission that will help us explore more
effective means of dealing with the consumption,
trafficking and production of drugs.
We hope that the special session of the General
Assembly to be held in 2016 will draw on those
innovative experiences and take a strong stand in favour
of public policy that can be evaluated objectively and is
based on a focus on public health, prevention, damage
control and, of course, respect for human rights. We
also believe it important that the special session be held
here in New York City, because of its significance for
the future of global policies on the drug problem.
We had the privilege of being elected to the Security
Council for the period 2012-2013. Now that we are only
a few months away from the end of our tenure, I would
like to say that we have taken the provisions of Article
24 of the Charter of the United Nations very seriously,
not only in decisions based on our own values and
principles but also taking into account the fact that we
are acting on behalf of the General Assembly. We have
strived to comply with our mandate with objectivity,
a sense of responsibility and professionalism, while
emphasizing security and justice and the protection of
human rights and humanitarian law.
As a non-permanent member of the Security
Council, we have taken a position on the recent crisis
in Syria. We condemned the massacre, with chemical
weapons, of more than 1,000 people and insisted that
a crime of such magnitude could not go unpunished.
We also called for a firm response on the part of the
international community in order to prevent any
repetition of such deplorable acts. Consistent with that
position, we have supported the leadership of President
Obama, who has clearly affirmed that peace in Syria
and the Middle East as a whole must be built within the
framework of a political and diplomatic dialogue, but
without abandoning our international responsibility to
protect the citizens of those countries and of the world
from the threat of nuclear and chemical weapons.
We also believe that the United Nations made a
singular contribution to humankind in 2000 when it
launched the Millennium Development Goals. That is
why we are actively participating in the design of the
content and scope of the post-2015 development agenda
as a catalyst for development. We particularly hope that
the international community will define the reduction
of violence against women and children and universal
access to justice as global priorities. Only in a world that
is free of violence against women and provides justice
for all can a path be cleared towards development based
on full respect for human rights.
I would like to conclude my statement by
congratulating the United Nations system once again on
its ongoing efforts to seek peace and justice worldwide.
Guatemala endorses the same goals, and it is with
pride that I can affirm that we are and always will be a
country guided by the principles of the Charter of the
Organization.