This new session of the Assembly of the United
Nations brings us together at what is no doubt an
historic time of great importance, as has been said in
one way or another by the various leaders who have
preceded me at this rostrum. These are certainly critical
times that should lead us to adopt an attitude that goes
beyond addressing the specific questions of the
moment, because this is a moment of change in the
history of humankind. On the economic, social and
geopolitical levels there are many signs indeed that
show us that the world is changing and that the
transition towards something new, even if still
undefined, is already under way and will follow its
course, whether we are able to understand it or not.
That is why our peoples desire political
leadership that is able to respond to this time of
uncertainty. Our societies demand of us that we be
able, first of all, to understand and explain to them
what is really going on. They also demand of us that
we listen to their needs and satisfy those needs and,
above all, that we reach a new international consensus
in order to make that necessary qualitative global leap
in order to achieve a planet of greater justice, stability
and safety.
This is, therefore, an opportunity to reconsider
our policies, to review and change paradigms that seem
to be frozen, to renew the international debate and to
be ambitious in our aspirations as a global society.
Members know that nothing undermines the morale
and spirit of our peoples more than fear, uncertainty
and distrust. It is those evils that are affecting our
planet currently. We are suffering from fear in its
various guises. Millions of demoralized, unemployed
people live in daily uncertainty, not knowing whether
there is a future for them and their children. Entire
countries have seen their economies stumble because
of that lack of confidence. Hundreds of thousands of
families every day face the fear that takes the form of
political instability, natural disasters, the lack of urban
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safety, and poverty. All those people demand that their
leaders give them the inspiration to overcome that fear,
to regain a sense of collective self-esteem and to
believe in a different and better future. That is the great
historical challenge that we must shoulder with
responsibility and courage.
We must forge a new international agreement that
will allow us to overcome such fears and lack of
confidence in order once again to stride forward.
Therefore we must not allow that fear to be translated
into timid or cowardly political and economic
decisions that would deprive us of an opportunity to
undertake the changes that our people are calling for.
We must not betray their historic will for
transformation and development. It would be
unpardonable, unforgivable, if we were to allow
ourselves to be lulled by old political and economic
dogma and continue repeating once again the same
mistakes, while overwhelming majorities in every city,
in every State, on every continent, have clearly
expressed their desire for a new, audacious and creative
policy.
Over the past 30 years, while the economy has
grown exponentially, so has the root cause of many of
our misfortunes, and here I am referring to injustice.
Daily injustice has a most significant effect on our
peoples. It affects their options for health, education
and social development in very tangible ways. That
inequality has disastrous consequences, which has been
tried, tested and understood by some of the wealthiest
entrepreneurs, who are in favour of paying more taxes,
as they are aware that adopting any other position
would sentence us to a harsh future, even for those
living at ease.
The fight against poverty and inequality, as was
recalled at the inaugural meeting of this session of the
General Assembly by the President of Brazil, Dilma
Rousseff, has proven to be the strongest economic
policy in these difficult times. Therefore, it is time that
we no longer see our future in terms of macroeconomic
data but that we start to focus our political debate on
our peoples’ needs and on social justice, which is what
the debate should always have focused on. Any other
debate would be sterile and would only lead us away
from the common objective that should govern all our
policies, namely, the objective of the common good.
The unstable reality that we have experienced
also takes the form of conflicts which, increasingly,
call upon the indistinct arbiter, who goes by the name
of the “international community” and which is
represented here in the General Assembly better than
anywhere else. In that regard I welcome the fact that
one of the central themes of this session is the search
for the peaceful settlement of conflicts and prevention
strategies to cope with situations of instability. This
shows us that the arbiter is growing stronger, as are the
possibilities to prevent injustice and human rights
abuses wherever they occur. The United Nations arose
out of the global desire to avoid a new major conflict,
and that spirit of peace and harmony must continue to
guide us in our actions, even when the conflicts that we
face currently are very different from the conflicts of
the twentieth century. Indeed, we are living in a most
diverse and complex world where there are no magical
formulas or quick fixes but common responsibility,
which is committed to finding new avenues for
peacemaking and justice extending beyond our national
borders.
That resolve must also translate into our quest for
solutions to what is one of the oldest conflicts on this
planet, and I am referring here to the Arab-Israeli
conflict. As members know, my country recently
decided to recognize the Palestinian State. This in no
way seeks to undermine our good diplomatic relations
with Israel. We are of the view that both peoples have
the right and duty to coexist. Recognizing Palestine as
a new State within the United Nations is, in my
opinion, the right way to contribute to resolving the
conflict. With this firm belief we support all diplomatic
efforts that are aimed at achieving a peaceful
settlement of this long-standing conflict. We firmly
believe that dialogue is the only possible solution, and
our actions have always been guided by that principle.
Now I should like to refer to the main enemy, not
only of my country and Central America but of a large
portion of the American continent. I am referring here,
of course, to organized crime and drugs trafficking. As
was rightly stated by President Calderón of Mexico
following the terrible attack that occurred in a casino in
Monterrey, we are facing a veritable phenomenon of
terrorism that threatens the viability of our countries,
has taken more lives than many wars, and which
endangers the present and future of our peoples. Many
Latin American countries represented here have
become, against their will, true corridors for illegal
trafficking, thus becoming nations increasingly
affected by violence, with institutions that are
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susceptible to corruption. Because of their poor
economies of scale, their lack of development and the
weakness of their productive machinery owing to
widespread poverty and high levels of inequality, poor
States are threatened by this new form of terrorism that
has forged a strong economic network. All of the
cartels that are operating in the Mesoamerican
region — Mexico and Central America — possess
more money and influence than our countries do.
It is true to say that we are the true victims of
organized crime. It is our territories and peoples that
suffer from this violence and who weep for their dead.
These are not mere empty statements. Studies have
shown that violence and crime are 100 per cent more
likely in regions that facilitate illegal trafficking than
anywhere else on the planet. Our countries are
suffering as a result of this. El Salvador and all of
Central America are undertaking significant efforts to
deal with this fact but the figures are not on our side.
We are speaking of a drug-trafficking route that moves
$100 billion a year and which leads to the largest
market in the world, as well as the largest consumer of
these substances, the United States. Consider this:
$100 billion across our territories along with a
veritable arsenal of weapons to protect this amount.
That means $100 billion dollars that can corrupt public
and private officials, destroy our social fabric and
leave behind them a daily wake of chaos and death.
How therefore can countries such as El Salvador
with a gross domestic product of about $22 billion, or a
country such as Honduras with roughly $15 billion, or
Guatemala which barely reaches $40 billion, deal with
this enemy? Not even a large country such as Mexico
can successfully wage this battle on its own in dealing
with this terrorist strength. It is not scepticism that
leads me to speak this way but rather a sense of realism
in keeping with the reality experienced by Central
American peoples on a daily basis.
I wish to draw attention to this. The international
community must understand that it is also affected by
this problem. No nation on this planet is spared this
problem. There are drug users in every nation in the
world, who get their drugs from the criminal drug-
trafficking networks. That means that the fight against
organized crime is a common struggle and, in that
regard, I wish to make a special and hopeful call upon
the people and Government of the United States
resolutely to lead us in this the good fight against drug-
trafficking and organized crime. I believe that the
Government of the United States must lead us in the
struggle with great resolve. It must make the
commitment and apply all its economic, human,
technological and political resources in waging the
struggle, which is indeed the harshest war to affect our
continent.
The violence that is fuelled by drugs trafficking
and by its machinery of death has taken more lives in
Mesoamerica than conflicts that occur elsewhere on
this planet. That is why I wish to draw attention to and
invite all Members to focus on this shocking fact. We
require the firm resolve of our great North American
neighbour in order to strike the necessary blows to
weaken and end this criminal phenomenon. Naturally,
that does not mean that our countries will in any way
shirk their share of the responsibility. We shall
continue to strengthen our institutions, to reform our
security forces, to strengthen our presence on the
ground in order to protect our young people from
criminal gangs. At the regional level we are working
together and have undertaken significant steps in a
common undertaking by sharing strategies and tasks
with Mexico, Colombia and the United States.
Of course, these are truly difficult challenges that
lie ahead. Many of these challenges were referred to by
the President of Mexico — the fight against money-
laundering, disarmament, crime prevention, an
effective judiciary — and will require the reform of our
judicial organs. Inevitably, organized crime has
infiltrated the organs of the State, in particular the
judiciary and the police forces. That is why we must
wage a strong fight in order to clean up those
institutions.
But the consumer countries, in this case chiefly
the United States, are morally responsible in this
struggle that must be seen not only as a criminal
problem but also as a matter of public health. While
drugs consumption and narcotics use grow, the
business of drugs trafficking will remain powerful. In
short, we call once again for North American
leadership in this common struggle that we are waging
alongside Mexico, Colombia and all of Central
America.
Struggles such as these, which are being waged
across the American continent, once again show how
important it is to have a strong and united America.
Unity is a necessary prerequisite in order to meet our
common goals. Given this need, I now wish to refer to
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the blockade against the Republic of Cuba. We believe
that this blockade is an anachronism from a past page
of history that we wish to turn once and for all.
Essentially a blockade against Cuba is a step towards
disunity. It is a stumbling block on the road of history
that weakens us as a continent.
At the start of my statement I spoke of the
leadership that our peoples expect from us in these
difficult times, of the courage that we need in order to
face the challenges that extend beyond our borders and
also of this great opportunity before us now. Let us
show that leadership, from the smallest country, such
as my own, to the great Powers. Let us show an
unequivocal will to achieve peace, social justice and
the well-being of the men and women who place their
faith in us, in particular in times such as these when
crisis once again threatens our peoples. Let us not fail
them once more. We should not favour those in power
who triggered the crisis but rather the weakest, who are
affected by it.