First of all, Sir, I should like on behalf of the
delegation of Venezuela and on my own behalf to
congratulate you on your well- deserved election
as President for this session of the General
Assembly.
In addition I should like to express our
apprecia¬tion to Mr. Ismat Kittani for the
effective manner in which he carried out his
duties.
I should also like to congratulate Mr. Javier
Perez de Cuellar on his election as the fifth
Secretary- General. His credentials, his personal
qualities and his search for solutions to complex
problems all indicate that his course of action
as head of the Secre¬tariat will be a wise one.
We wish him every success in his major aspiration
to reactivate the political role which it is
within the competence of the Secretary- General
to fulfil.
At the same time it is our duty to transmit to
Mr. Kurt Waldheim our appreciation for the
com¬mendable work he did during the 10 years he
held the post in promoting the United Nations as
an absolutely essential institution which we need
to maintain, develop and strengthen.
The report of the Secretary-General oh the work
of the Organization raises questions of great
importance and dramatic urgency for Member
Staffs. Venezuela wishes to praise the frankness
and direct style reflected in the report and at
the same time to confirm our absolute adherence
6o the Charter and our hope that the political
will of nations will be expressed without
reticence in favour of collective action for
peace and security, as stated in that document.
If, as the Secretary-General states in the
report, we are "perilously near to a new
international anarchy", that is largely due to
the constitutional role of the international
organizations, which has led and leads to
conflicts between national aims and the goals of
the Organization, as is pointed out in the report.
Resort to confrontation, violence and war in the
pursuit of national interests has not
infrequently been encouraged by the historical
practices of powerful States and the growing
scepticism regarding the results of measures
taken by multilateral organizations whose actions
towards peace are halted by the very States which
enjoy privileges within the United Nations.
We believe that the tragic conflict In the South
Atlantic would not have led to such bloodshed if
there had been multilateral action towards peace
and timely attention to the just claims of
peoples which had suffered from the unpunished
aggression of the empires that were all-powerful
in an international order which no longer exists
today.
The States with the greatest relative power in a
world living in conditions of a balance of fear
and the constant risk of a nuclear war can hardly
expect to consolidate their privileges by
considering overall relations among peoples in
terms of their own specific interests. These
privileges in many cases were acquired at the
expense of the dignity and the resources of the
weaker people. As long as justice and respect for
the nations which represent two thirds of all
mankind are not reflected in resolute action by
United Nations organs constant disappointment
will merely foster a phase of absolute cynicism
in international relations,.
The consequences of colonialism and
neo-colonialism have been devastating for peace.
Venezuela maintains that the continent of Latin
America should be a reserve of peace. We share
the feeling of all the fraternal people of our
hemisphere that the elimination of the colonial
strongholds which still exist in our hemisphere
brooks no delay. There is no valid argument for
any European nation to retain territories,
authority or troops in America.
In order "to reinforce the protective and
pre-emptive ring of collective security", as the
Secretary- General urges in his report, we, the
Member States without hegemonistic ambitions,
would like the United Nations machinery to be
respected and imposed upon ail States equally,
for disappointment regarding he effectiveness of
the Organization and the lack of hope of any
future improvement are caused by the belief that
the powerful accept mechanisms and deci¬sions
only when it suits them, and that when it does
not they create obstacles to them or ignore them.
Serious consideration of practical ways for the
United Nations to develop its capabilities and to
be used as a positive institution in the
promotion of the free and peaceful progress of
mankind in our time forms part of the
Secretary-General's plan of action. Venezuela
considers that his report contains coura¬geous
ideas and is prepared to respond constructively
within the possibilities open to it.
My country wishes to point out that the ability
to use properly the means available today to the
Organization to tackle the grave problems which
mankind faces depends decisively on the States
which have the privilege of being permanent
members of the Security Council.
We are convinced that the Assembly will adopt
sensible and just resolutions on the Malvinas,
the Middle East, apart/ten/ and Namibia,
ratifying and strengthening previous resolutions
on those delicate subjects, to mention only some
of the more striking matters referred to in the
Secretary-General's report.
If hope and confidence in the United Nations are
to be restored, ways must be found to make those
resolutions effective, with the full support of
the international community, ways which will make
it possible to overcome the obstacles which
selfishness and injustice are undoubtedly raising
in order to prejudice the harmonious coexistence
of peoples.
The statement made by the President of Venezuela,
Mr. Herrera Campins, at the thirty-sixth session
of the General Assembly had as its motto "Faith
in the United Nations and hope for peace. At
that time he affirmed that "This is an
Organization of peace-loving countries'. In that
spirit it was created, and in that spirit it
should continue. That is the spirit that imbues
Venezuela's foreign policy in all situa¬tions."
Venezuela is attending this most important yearly
exercise of the United Nations at a time when the
Organization's reputation and effectiveness have
been shattered. International crises succeed one
another and continue. One of the problems which
causes most concern is the situation in the
Middle East, which has been exacerbated by recent
events in Lebanon. We are following closely the
tragic events there, realizing that we live in a
world in which important and far- reaching events
cannot be viewed as isolated facts. Violence in
all its forms is rampant in the region. What has
happened in Lebanon has shown the extreme cruelty
to which some will resort
Mass crimes have become a new practice in the
face of which the international community has
found itself unable to act. Today the world is
the victim of an evil game which threatens to
bring it to catastrophe and chaos, in the absence
of effective machinery to enable all States to
live together harmoniously.
Venezuela considers that at this session, more
than any other, because no other session has been
held in the shadow of such painful and complex
circum¬stances, the General Assembly must make an
effective contribution and find a valid solution
which will put an end to war and map out as soon
as possible the road leading to peace. The
escalation of acts of retaliation seems to be
uncontrollable, encouraging and increasing the
use of violence.
As Mr. Herrera Campins said in his speech at the
thirty-sixth session with regard to the Middle
East, "peace cannot be achieved nor kept until
there is a global solution to the conflict
accepted by all the parties involved and until
the legitimate rights of both the Palestinian and
Israeli peoples to live in peace and freedom are
recognized" [%?/<?., para. PR].
In its international conduct, Venezuela has
consistently followed a policy of decolonization.
This attitude is demonstrated by its constant
support for the innumerable resolutions that have
been submitted on the subject. Puerto Rico has
been a special concern of Venezuelans ever since
the beginning of the struggle for the
emancipation of Latin America led by our
Liberator Simon Bolivar. Venezuelans share, with
a deep-rooted feeling, his ideal that Puerto Rico
should be a member of the Latin American family.
We recog¬nize the existence of democratic
freedoms in that sister island, and we expect
that its sovereign future will be an expression
of its people's legitimate right to
self-determination.
The Government of Venezuela recently took a step
of great significance in the Held of
decolonization when it recognized the Democratic
Arab Sahraoui Republic as a sovereign and
independent State, one closely linked to Hispanic
culture.
Venezuela has formally applied for full
member¬ship in the movement of non-aligned
countries. Venezuela shares the fundamental
principles and objectives which brought that
movement into being and recognizes it as a forum
in which the majority of the countries of the
world are represented, thus constituting a force
to promote peaceful coexistence, economic and
social development and the political independence
of its member States.
The twelfth special session of the General
As¬sembly, which was held at United Nations
Head¬quarters this year, ended in virtual failure
because of the Assembly's inability to adopt the
comprehensive programme for disarmament. The
results of the special session should serve as a
lesson for States, particularly nuclear-weapon
States, which bear the greatest responsibility in
this field, and they must redouble their efforts
in the cause of disarmament and see to it that
those efforts are reflected in concrete action in
the Committee concerned.
Venezuela is persevering in its policy of
co¬operation with the countries of Central
America and the Caribbean. Accordingly, the
programmes derived from the San Jose Agreement
remain fully in force. Our commitment to the
institutionalization of freedom and democracy in
the area has been maintained without interruption
and with absolute clarity, as has our rejection
of interference by bloc politics.
We support the effort of the Government of El
Salvador, which bore fruit with the exemplary
civic testimony of the elections held on 28
March. The people of El Salvador went to the
ballot boxes in numbers unprecedented in their
history, bearing witness to their desire for
peace and their repudiation of violence.
Venezuela welcomes the happy out¬come of the
democratic process in Honduras and expresses its
hope that complete normalization will soon become
a reality in Guatemala and in Panama.
We reaffirm our unswerving determination to
co¬operate in the strengthening of peace,
freedom, justice and a pluralist democracy in an
area in turmoil where nothing that happens is
alien to us. In this respect, the President of
Venezuela, the only head of State invited to
attend the celebrations marking the third
anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution,
recalled on that occasion the international
commit¬ment to respect pluralism that the leaders
of that country had entered into.
The efforts of Venezuela and Mexico with regard
to the tension between Honduras and Nicaragua are
being made in the context of a striving for
peace, freedom and democracy within Latin
American channels without recourse to foreign
action.
Venezuela, like many other developing coun¬tries,
views with profound concern the persistent
deterioration and swift decay of the
international economic situation. Nobody is
unaware of the extreme gravity of those
developments and their inevitable social and
political consequences, which are the most
serious threats to stability, progress and peace
in the world. It is noteworthy that the most
recent analyses of the world economy by
international organizations shows such agreement.
From a broader and universal perspective, the
United Nations itself in the 1981¬1982 economic
survey, when referring to the wide¬spread
stand-still in the world economic expansion,
stated that this "slow-down affected all major
regions and groups of countries, independent of
their level of development or economic structure.
The decel¬eration was particularly intense in the
developing countries".'
Taking a similar view, the report by the UNCTAD
secretariat categorically affirms that "the
developing world is facing the gravest economic
crisis since the Great Depression," and that
"this is the product of the malfunctioning of the
economies of developed market-economy countries,
and has been intensified by the growing disarray
in the trade and financing systems".
For their part, organizations and specialized
agencies such as GATT and IMF confirm those
evalua¬tions. The symptoms of this situation can
be summarized by the following indicators: low
growth rates in production, the collapse of
prices for commodities, the contraction of
international trade, the revival of protectionism
and counter trade practices, monetary and
exchange instability, extensive and sudden
fluctua¬tions in the balances of payments,
extraordinarily high levels of indebtedness and
soaring debt- servicing costs, a pull-back in
productive investments and a flare-up of
financial speculation, alarming and rising
unemployment rates, lowering of expenditures for
social purposes, growing military costs and an
acceleration of the arms race by the great Powers.
The situation I have just described is the result
of contradictory and mistaken economic policies,
as well as of the disorganization and
malfunctioning of the world economy in its three
basic aspects, commercial, financial and
monetary. The increasingly blatant absence of
rules and growing arbitrariness make forecasting
impossible and thus sustain widespread unrest.
Thus, we see how the developed countries, instead
of strongly encouraging the development of
exports by the developing countries by just
remunera¬tion for their commodities, which in the
long run would have led to a healthy expansion of
interna¬tional trade for the benefit of all, have
preferred to finance the imports of the third
world on scandalously exorbitant terms. The
effects of those actions are striking: after a
phase of expansion of international trade, which
was artificially and pathologically sustained, in
large measure, by the rising indebtedness of the
third world, the burden of the corresponding
financial charges is now being turned against the
industrialized countries themselves as a result
of the drastic curtailment of the import capacity
of the developing countries, which virtually
eliminates them as factors promoting
international trade.
The total debt of the developing countries will
be far in excess of the incredible amount of$6P0
billion by the end of 1982. This debt imposes
intolerable burdens on the foreign exchange
earnings of the developing countries and makes
them increasingly insolvent. In Latin America
alone the debt will amount to $280 billion by the
end of this year. The amortiza¬tion of this debt
represents the equivalent of 56 per cent of Latin
American exports. This situation, which in the
context of traditional conditions is now to be
reinforced for strategic purposes, could have
grave political and social consequences.
The situation I have described is an
unpre¬cedented challenge to the international
financial system. The developing countries will
have to make constant efforts to revitalize their
economies, increase their productivity and
improve their efficiency in the management of
financial resources. All this will have to be
done in a way that will be socially and
politically bearable.
The developed world must accept its
responsi¬bilities, not only for the sake of the
principle of justice, but also in its own
interest. Financially, it will be necessary to
preserve the capacity of international
organizations which supply funds on preferential
terms. This implies the need to review
contributions to IMF, the World Bank, the
Inter-American Develop¬ment Bank and similar
institutions so that their resources bear some
relation to the size of existing problems. There
is one fact which cannot be ques-tioned: the
economies of the industrialized countries cannot
be sustained without the support of strong
development in the third world.
The time for major decisions is drawing near and
we cannot afford to let slip any opportunity to
have our voice heard. We, the developing
countries, must reaffirm by our presence and
active participation the importance of forums
such as UNCTAD and must be attentive to what
might happen at the next GATT ministerial meeting.
We have been fighting for a complete
restruc¬turing of the international economy, and
we have denounced the policy of making the
developing coun¬tries bear the brunt of that
readjustment. All this has brought the world
economy to the critical situation in which it
finds itself today. It would be senseless to
expect that the steps the situation calls for
will be taken overnight, just as it has been
senseless to postpone the essential dialogue. An
atmosphere of mutual trust must be established to
contribute to the charting of a new course for
the world economy. This is a pre-condition of the
lessening of international tension and the
building of a more rational and more humane
world, in which harmony, justice and peace will
prevail.
The developing countries promoted the idea of
global negotiations and the international
community endorsed it when resolution 34/138 was
adopted by the Assembly in 1979, but so far the
momentum needed to make them a reality has been
lacking. Despite all the efforts made—not only by
the Group of 77 but by practically the entire
international com¬munity—hesitation, mainly on
the part of the United States, has prevented the
launching of global negotia¬tions although these
were approved at Cancun with the agreement of the
head of State of that important country, without
which the negotiations would lose their true
scope and meaning.
In these circumstances, we, the developing
coun¬tries, have been thinking about the need to
be less vulnerable to the dealings of the
countries of the North and, in any case, to
stimulate effective co¬operation among ourselves
as a consequence of our solidarity.
Barely a month ago the Intergovernmental
Follow-up and Co-ordination Committee, a key
organ which was established in 1981 in the
Caracas Pro¬gramme of Action,3 held its first
meeting in Manila. The results of the meetings of
experts were reviewed there, and on that basis
important recommendations were made, to be
submitted shortly to the ministerial meeting of
the Group of 77. Without any doubt, it can be
concluded that the Caracas Programme of Action is
functioning. It is complementary to efforts which
might be made in North-South negotiations and a
contribution to the establishment of the new
international economic order.
In the last quarter century Venezuela has
succeeded in consolidating a genuine democracy
solidly rooted in the conduct and beliefs of the
Venezuelan people, a democracy which endeavours
increasingly to play its part within a philosophy
of social justice and respect for the freedom and
dignity of all citizens. The promotion and
effective defence of and respect for human rights
have been important tenets in the foreign policy
of Venezuela. These form the basis of our support
for people that are struggling to gain, maintain
or recover their right to freedom, as a
contribution to the solution of present conflicts
which affect and bar the progress of mankind in
its quest for peace and well-being for all.
It is of the utmost importance for Venezuela to
seek a peaceful and practical solution to the
terri¬torial controversy with the Co-operative
Republic of Guyana.
Venezuela is a country in which the mixture of
the indigenous peoples of America with the
Spanish conquistadors and African groups has
created a population which rejects all forms of
racial discrimi¬nation and in which political,
social and economic democracy is practised, thus
setting an example of coexistence and pluralism.
It is fitting to recall that Venezuela in its 172
years of independent life has never had a single
war, not even an armed encounter, with any of its
neighbours. This is an assertion which few
countries in the world could make, and it is a
source of satisfac¬tion and pride for
Venezuelans. The land borders of Venezuela with
Colombia and Brazil were established by peaceful
means. The maritime borders with four countries
have already been set by common agreement, and
Venezuela is at all times opento negotiations
with its neighbours to solve all matters of
common interest.
For 16 years now Venezuela has been tirelessly
repeating its invitation to Guyana to negotiate,
to seek mutually acceptable solutions to the
dispute. The cause of the dispute is the
mutilation of our territory by the British
Empire. During the last century, starting from
the Esequibo River, which was the boundary with
the sector of Guyana which they had taken away
from Holland, the British advanced from year to
year, almost day after day, over the territory of
defenceless Venezuela, making a mockery of its
protests, until this culminated in an
unprecedented legal farce, in which a so-called
Arbitration Tribunal, with no Venezuelan judge or
lawyer, imposed a totally arbitrary demarcation
line. It did not even take the trouble to give
any kind of justification, reason or explanation,
however spurious or unprecedented, of what was
from every point of view an unbridled plundering.
The history of this humiliating mutilation cannot
be forgotten by Venezuelans. Our entire tradition
and all our instincts move us to desire to
maintain and develop with the Guyanese people the
closest relations of friendship, co-operation and
solidarity. In truth, like ourselves, they were
the victims of British impe¬rialism and, like
ourselves, they are a people which is trying to
achieve development. For this very reason v":
have insisted tirelessly on holding real and
sincere negotiations, inspired by justice and
equity, which will lead us to overcome this
problem that we have inherited, in a satisfactory
and practical way.
The obligation for Venezuela and Guyana to
negotiate their differences is not only a moral
imper¬ative, not only a duty under international
law, but, in this specific case, a commitment
freely entered into in the Agreement signed at
Geneva on 17 February 1966/ In fact, although the
Venezuelan territorial claim naturally preceded
the independence of Guyana, Venezuela, faithful
to its tradition and to its principles, was most
careful to do nothing which would in any way be
used as a pretext to thwart or delay
decolo¬nization for its neighbouring people.
Shortly before the proclamation of indepen¬dence,
Venezuela and the United Kingdom, with the full
participation of the Government of what was then
British Guiana, negotiated and signed the Geneva
Agreement, designed to seek satisfactory
solutions for the practical settlement of the
dispute. This international instrument is the
legal and political framework for the pursuit of
solutions to the dispute and Venezuela has
adhered to it in all its actions. A is
regrettable that thus far the Government of
Guyana has failed to comply with its obligation
to negotiate seriously and sincerely.
Nevertheless, Venezuela has insisted that, within
the peaceful procedures provided in the Geneva
Agreement, the injustices of the past should be
corrected, and thus lay more solid founda¬tions
for a fruitful and lasting co-operation between
the peoples of Venezuela and of Guyana.
Guyanese spokesmen have for years been carrying
out a systematic campaign to incite feelings of
sympathy, by presenting their country as a small
and poor nation whose territory is the object of
the covetousness of a rich and powerful
neighbour, and trying to create an image of
Venezuela as an aggressor country, indifferent to
the laws, to justice, and to the solidarity that
should exist between countries which are
struggling to develop. This kind of assertion,
repeated relentlessly, tends to produce
prejudices among those who have not had an
opportunity to know and analyse the facts. For
almost two decades international forums have been
hearing Guyanese assertions about an imminent
aggression, and yet it is an obvious fact that
there has been no aggression.
We have explained the conduct of Venezuela from
its birth to independent life and regarding the
dispute that we are dealing with. There is not
the slightest basis for asserting that the
Venezuelan terri¬torial claim is prompted by
coveting of present or potential riches which the
people of Guyana could have used to achieve
prosperity and development. Before the
independence of Guyana, British companies were
exploring for and exploiting oil on a large scale
both in Venezuela and in Trinidad. British
companies went mining gold in Venezuela and
bauxite in Demerara. It will be easily understood
that the British, before liberating their colony,
had thoroughly eval¬uated the potential oil and
valuable minerals of the lands that they
controlled. Although prospecting has continued
since the date of independence, no exploitable
mineral resource has been found on the territory
which Venezuela claims.
The truth is crystal clear: Venezuela's claim is
based neither on territorial ambition nor on
covetous- ness of the wealth of others. Had it
been so based, our claim could never have
received, as it has, the unanimous support of
Venezuelans of the most varied political
tendencies under all democratic Governments,
which, during the last five presidential terms,
within a system of complete freedom of
expression, have defended the rights of our
country. That is because this unanimity of the
Venezuelan people has its origin in a very deep
wound. For this reason, we fail to under¬stand
those who, representing the Guyanese people, take
the stand as heirs to the fruits of British
colonial imperialism and defenders of its
unjustifiable abuses.
After repeated rejections of our formal
invita¬tions to the Government of Guyana to begin
negotia¬tions which will provide a satisfactory
and practical solution, Venezuela will submit to
the Secretary- General 3ts decision to indicate a
means to settle the dispute; thus our conduct
will be in accord with the letter and the spirit
of the international treaty signed between the
parties, known as the Geneva Agreement, with a
view to finding a solution to the dispute by
peaceful means.
Venezuela would like Guyana to participate as the
continent moves towards integration. Venezuela
wishes to have a positive relationship with its
neigh¬bour. We feel certain that the people of
Guyana share that desire. We greet all Guyanese,
convinced as we are that an appropriate solution
to the differ¬ences we have inherited from
colonialism will spur us on our way to
convergence toward progress and development.
Venezuela wishes above all to win the battle for
peace and brotherhood with Guyana, because we are
neighbours and because in large measure we are
born of the same American history.
On 24 July 1983 it will be two centuries since
the birth of the Father of our Venezuelan nation,
Simon Bolivar, one of the great liberators of
America. The United Nations, with appropriate
solemnity, commemorated in 1976 the one hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the convening by the
Liberator Bolivar of the Amphictyonic Congress in
Panama and in 1980 the one hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of his death. My country wishes to
express its gratitude in advance for the tribute
which will be paid to the Liberator in this
political forum of the nations of the world on
the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth.
His prophetic thinking on the need for a
uni¬versal organization in which matters
regarding the peaceful coexistence of nations
could be dealt with has a particular significance
and pertinence today. Bolivar's bicentenary
brings all Latin America together in harmony on
the international scene. It demands that we make
a constructive effort to make the new hemispheric
dialogue a shining success. It leads us to
strengthen our ties with all peoples, especially
those who have faced historical and political
challenges similar to those faced by us.
Venezuela reaffirms its absolute loyalty to the
ideals of Bolivar and commits itself to pursue a
positive policy in all its actions as regards
both our hemisphere and the world as a whole.