On behalf of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I wish the new
President of this session of the General Assembly the
greatest success during his term.
The Bolivarian revolution plans to contribute to
the structure and agenda of the United Nations, which
currently reflect the unjust power relationships that
exist in the world. As it is today, this forum helps to
perpetuate the unjust relations inherited from the
Second World War, relations that become more
exclusive and authoritarian as neoliberal globalization
advances. The President of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frías, said on 15 September
2005, in his speech during the general debate at the
sixtieth session of the United Nations General
Assembly that “the United Nations has outgrown its
model. It is not just a question of simple reform. The
twenty-first century requires profound changes that
will be possible only if the Organization is truly
recast.” (A/60/PV.6, p.17)
There are two poignant examples that illustrate
this unfair and irrational world power architecture. For
the past 19 years, the overwhelming majority of the
countries of the world have come before the General
Assembly to demand an end to the economic and
commercial blockade imposed on the heroic Cuban
people. But what has the Organization done to ensure
that the United States Government abides by the will of
the General Assembly? The answer is well known:
nothing.
Dozens of resolutions have been adopted by the
Security Council and the General Assembly on the
question of Palestine, but the Israeli military and
political elite refuse to comply. The occupying Power
acts with total impunity and with the complicity of its
main ally. What has the Security Council done to get
the occupying Power to respect the principles of
international law, including international humanitarian
law, and particularly the four Geneva Conventions of
1949? The answer is well known: nothing.
The rebuilding of the United Nations hinges on
strengthening the General Assembly and its handling of
matters relating to international peace and security.
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Venezuela challenges the fact that a small group of
countries impose their conditions in these areas, while
the opinion of the majority is not taken into account. A
strategy aimed at weakening the General Assembly and
excluding it from the most relevant world decisions is
being implemented in the United Nations, while the
Security Council progressively increases its power and
influence over the United Nations agenda and takes
over topics beyond the purview granted to it by the
Charter of the Organization. The Secretary-General,
according to the Charter of the United Nations, is an
administrative officer of the Organization responsible
for answering to the interests of all Member States, and
not the policies of a few Powers that seek to drive the
global agenda.
For almost 20 years we have been discussing the
reform of the Security Council and the strengthening of
the General Assembly, yet so far almost nothing has
been achieved. The call from President Chavez to
recast the United Nations remains fully valid. To that
end, Venezuela proposes to eliminate the right of veto
enjoyed by only five Members of the United Nations.
This remnant of the Second World War is incompatible
with the principle of the sovereign equality of States.
Venezuela also proposes an increase in the Security
Council’s membership in both the permanent and
non-permanent categories. Why are developing
countries deprived of the right to participate in that
forum?
Venezuela therefore urges all States to propose
candidates for the post of Secretary-General, with the
aim of democratizing elections to this senior post. We
believe that resolution 11 (I), adopted on 24 January
1946, regarding the terms of election of the Secretary-
General, in no way restricts the ability of Member
States to discuss and vote in this election. In line with
democratic principles and transparency, Member States
must participate in both the nomination and the
appointment of this senior official. States would
therefore be free to choose among several alternatives.
Rebuilding the United Nations also requires that
the General Assembly fully exercise its responsibilities
in matters of international peace and security, as
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
Climate change negotiations are unfolding in a
complex context that makes it difficult to arrive at
consensus on the majority of topics. Developed
countries reject international commitments that are
fully in force, specifically the Kyoto Protocol. The
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hopes that, at the
next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held
in Cancún at the end of this year, a legally binding
agreement is reached that is ambitious and respects the
Convention and the Kyoto Protocol.
Venezuela is fighting for the creation of a
development model based on a new paradigm that
substitutes the prevailing models of production and
consumption. Developing countries and the most
vulnerable sectors of developed countries suffer the
impact of the economic and financial crises of
capitalism. It is therefore essential and necessary to
consider a transformation of this inhumane model that,
with its new crisis, has generated more hunger, poverty,
unemployment and inequality. The crisis of capitalism
has not ended. Its structural nature reproduces itself ad
infinitum. Privileged groups, the financial economy,
speculators, monopolies and oligopolies and the
Bretton Woods institutions will continue to try to have
the crisis paid for by developing countries and the
world’s poor and most vulnerable. Neoliberal policies,
which are applied as a result of the global crisis of
capitalism, propose the totalitarianism of the financial
markets, deepening the gap between the rich and the
poor within those countries and widening the
inequalities between the North and the South.
It is also important to underscore that the efforts
of the developed countries in the context of official
development assistance (ODA) have not been
sustained, as large donors have repeatedly not fulfilled
their pledges when it comes to the agreed goal of
allocating 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product
to ODA.
Faced with this crisis, developing countries
should strengthen South-South cooperation and create
alternative sovereign mechanisms to avoid the credit
monopoly maintained by the Bretton Woods
institutions. To that end, Venezuela aims to create and
strengthen regional financial institutions such as the
Bank of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America — Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP)
and the Bank of the South. We welcome the initiatives
in that regard that are being undertaken in Africa and
Asia.
South-South cooperation is a top priority for
Venezuela. In Latin America and the Caribbean there
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are already successful experiences such as that of
Petrocaribe, which fosters supportive cooperation in
the energy sector, and that of ALBA-TCP, which is
producing successful results in overcoming poverty
and inequality. These novel forms of solidarity and
supportive cooperation contribute to the development
of our peoples and to the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals.
I take great satisfaction in pointing out that,
despite the problematic international economic and
financial environment, the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela has met almost all of the Millennium
Development Goals, in particular in the areas of
poverty, health, nutrition, education, child mortality
and sanitation, among others. We would like to
underscore that Venezuela assumed the presidency of
the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on
Integration and Development in February 2010. The
third Summit will be held in our country on 5 July
2011, within the framework of the historic bicentennial
anniversary of our signing of our Declaration of
Independence.
Venezuela attaches particular importance to the
process of union and integration in Latin America and
the Caribbean. Progress to that end will lead to the full
operation of the Community of Latin American and
Caribbean States, thereby achieving the dream of our
liberators as reflected in the Constitution of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The union of our
peoples — the peoples of the South fighting for
independence, freedom, sovereignty and self-
determination — is a priority of our Simon Bolivar
national project, as enshrined in our first socialist plan
for the period 2007 to 2013.
In the face of recurrent attempts to erode the
sovereignty of countries and in the face of a savage
capitalist and neoliberal offensive, the Bolivarian
Government calls for the relaunching of the Group of
77 and China and the Non-Aligned Movement so that
developing countries can more forcefully defend the
interests of their peoples.
We wish to avail ourselves of this opportunity at
the rostrum to express our appreciation for the
compliments sent to President Hugo Chávez Frías by
numerous Governments and social and popular
movements from around the world on the occasion of
the victory in the Venezuelan parliamentary elections
last Sunday, 26 September. That victory is a clear
testament to the majority support of the people for the
humanistic policies promoted by the Bolivarian
Government. This electoral victory will also enable our
Bolivarian Government to strengthen its solidarity with
developing countries.
Defenders of peace, justice, freedom and
solidarity in the world can continue to rely on the
support of the Bolivarian revolution.