Speaking once again before the General Assembly, I
would like to congratulate you on your election,
Mr. President, and to wish you every success.
Colombia continues to fight so that each and
every citizen can trust that he or she will live, work,
undertake projects, study and be happy in his or her
homeland. That trust is sustained by democratic
security, security for socially responsible investment
and the construction of social cohesion.
Crimes against the safety of citizens continue to
decrease, but we are not satisfied. So far this year, the
number of crimes has fallen by 30 per cent in
comparison to the same period last year. We have
prioritized the protection of union leaders, teachers and
journalists. Of the 11,204 homicides committed as of
10 September, 36 were of workers and teachers
affiliated with trade unions or independent teachers. To
date, not a single journalist has been murdered. The
Government grants individual protection to 8,612
citizens, 1,462 of whom belong to trade unions.
Our determination to combat impunity is
ongoing. Between 1991 and 2001, only two
convictions were handed down. Thanks to efforts in
recent years in terms of budgeting, the strengthening of
the judicial system, the security policy and the
tripartite agreement among workers, business leaders
and the Government, sponsored by the International
Labour Organization, 199 persons have been convicted
for the murder of workers and 134 of them are in
prison. Of the 123 sentences handed down, 85 have
occurred in the past three years.
In the past, terrorist organizations penetrated the
labour movement, resulting in the murder of workers.
The dismantling of the paramilitaries has eliminated
that source of suffering, but terrorist guerrillas persist
in committing such crimes, as recently happened in the
south of the country with the murder of a group of
teachers by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC).
Recently, our tranquillity in the absence of
terrorist attacks was shattered by a car bomb set off by
FARC, which destroyed the palace of justice in the city
of Cali and left several people dead and others injured,
as well as many poor families with their small
businesses and homes destroyed.
Of the approximately 60,000 terrorists that
ravaged the country at the start of the Government’s
term of office, 48,000 have abandoned their criminal
organizations and joined the reintegration programme,
which is a great challenge for Colombia. As of
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17 September this year, 2,436 guerrilla members —
2,147 of them from FARC — had been demobilized.
In a democracy of opinion such as ours, the
sustainability of democratic security depends on its
credibility, which in turn is based on effectiveness and
transparency. That transparency is tantamount to the
observance of the fundamental human rights we all
enjoy. From that foundation comes our respect for
liberties in the midst of the fight against terrorism and
for openness, vigilance, criticism and debate at the
national and international levels.
Furthermore, a formative, world-leading effort in
human rights within our armed forces is crucial, as is
the ongoing adjustment of operative protocols through
such measures as that requiring soldiers to wait for the
presence of a judicial delegate before moving the body
of a member of a criminal organization killed in action.
We are also resolved to investigate and assist in the
investigation of any type of accusation and the
modernization of military criminal legislation.
On 10 December, our country will voluntarily
submit our human rights record to the Universal
Periodic Review, a new mechanism created by the
United Nations that is an additional contribution to the
public discussion of our new road map on the matter.
Our work with the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights and with the Organization of
American States on the policy of truth, justice and
redress for victims must, along with our historic
memory, heal wounds and help to extinguish the flames
of violence forever.
There are intangible results of democratic
security. Citizens have greater faith in the State and
turn to it for protection, overcoming the past
indifference of some and the inclination of many to
solve problems by their own means. Additionally, we
have recovered the State monopoly on weapons and on
official justice. Citizens have lost their fear of
denouncing others, testifying and cooperating with the
armed forces and the justice system. Victims are no
longer fearful and today are coming forward to claim
their rights.
One year ago, I looked out at this Assembly in the
frustration of not having been able to rescue Ingrid
Betancourt and those held in captivity with her. Today,
thanks to the heroism, planning and bloodless
effectiveness of our soldiers, Ingrid Betancourt is a
symbol of freedom — the freedom to which we aspire
as we liberate those who remain in captivity and put an
end to such shameful crimes in our homeland.
Social cohesion validates security. Meeting the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015
is an urgent need for us as an essential part of building
social cohesion. We are close to reaching the goal of no
more than 3 per cent of children under the age of five
being malnourished. We are determined to reach zero
and are now beginning to provide early schooling to
those children.
By 2010, we hope to have reached 100 per cent in
basic education coverage. Towards the goal of
averaging 10.6 years of education for the population
between ages 15 and 24, we have already achieved an
average of more than nine years. The number of
students having to repeat a grade has decreased from
6.1 per cent to 3.3 per cent, towards a goal of
2.3 per cent.
Mortality rates for children under five years of
age have fallen from 37 to 20 per 1,000 births, with a
goal of 17. That same indicator for children younger
than one year has decreased from 31 to 15.6, with a
goal of 14. Vaccination coverage is almost at
95 per cent, the percentage defined in the MDGs for
2015. Our great challenge is to reduce the pronounced
disparities between regions.
Despite the economy’s problems, we are still
fully determined to meet the social goals through such
programmes as Families in Action, Bank of
Opportunities and the Together Network, which
focuses social tools on the poorest spheres. That is all
supported by very ambitious goals in the areas of child
nutrition, educational quality and coverage, vocational
training, health insurance, connectivity and good
management of social resources. With regard to the
latter, our administrative reform, which has already
been extended to 411 State entities, seeks to prevent
the State from being discredited, eliminating
bureaucratic wastefulness and achieving social
efficiency.
The mortgage and financial crises are minor
problems compared to the threats to the environment.
Although Colombia produces 0.35 per cent of world
greenhouse gas emissions, we are highly vulnerable to
the ravages of climate change resulting from melting
ice and floods. More than 51 per cent of our territory is
preserved as rainforest and is a major net contributor of
oxygen.
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Some of our most important environmental
programmes include the building of mass
transportation systems in nine cities, with plans under
way for 10 more; a network of 66,000 rural families
working as forest rangers, who are paid by the State to
maintain collective areas free from illicit crops and to
supervise the recovery and conservation of forests
under the oversight of the United Nations; the
conservation of 257 protected natural areas; the
implementation of aqueduct and basic sanitation
projects in the country’s 32 departments and the 1,102
municipalities; and the promotion of alternative energy
sources such as wind power and biofuels.
There are three common objections to biofuels:
the risk of destroying the rainforest, the elimination of
areas for agricultural food production, and the small
amount of energy generated compared to that used to
produce it. Colombia has 578,000 square kilometres of
rainforest and 43 million hectares of savannah. We will
not allow the rainforest to be touched. Protecting it is
our main contribution to combating global warming.
With the available savannah, we can expand our
agricultural production concentrated in 5 million
hectares, increase the number of livestock to 24 million
heads of cattle and, without affecting food production,
develop a large biofuel industry that generates good
quality jobs, increases income and becomes an
alternative to coca, which fuels terrorism. Our
productivity is high, thanks to sources of energy such
as sugar cane and the African oil palm, which also
protects the soil from direct sunlight and prevents
erosion. For every energy unit used, 8 energy units of
ethanol are produced, or 6.5 units in biodiesel.
Illicit drugs are a great enemy of the
environment, and they fuel terrorism. Colombia still
suffers from violence because of illicit drugs. We speak
of shared responsibility not to assign exclusive
responsibilities to consumer countries, for, unfortunately,
our young people also use drugs. We speak of shared
responsibility to spur the world to combat production,
trafficking, consumption, asset laundering and
chemical precursors on an equal basis. Our
Government requests that consumption be punished in
our country and across the international community.
We have extradited more than 800 persons. This year,
we must spray 130,000 hectares of coca crops, while
another 100,000 must be manually eradicated. Over the
past five years, 10,000 properties have been
confiscated. However, there has been no significant
reduction in illicit crop areas and consumption is on
the rise.
Let us consider that situation. It is more difficult
to carry out prevention and rehabilitation efforts
against the backdrop of exponential growth in
consumption resulting from a permissive attitude. The
destruction of the rainforest to plant coca, the erosion
of the soil and the pollution caused by chemical
precursors are enormous affronts on the environmental
balance. Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit drugs
encourages a child to become a distributor and, later, a
feared criminal. Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit
drugs helps to set off a car bomb in Colombia and to
destroy four trees from our Amazon rainforest.
Investors from all over the world are coming to
Colombia every day. Twice as many tourists, from
every corner of the world, are visiting our country as
were five years ago. Many of those who looked on our
country with scepticism and spoke about Colombia as a
failed State can now discern clear signals of
institutional strength and democratic boldness.
Colombia today generates more trust and respect, but
the work goes on. To free us all from the horrors of
drug trafficking, terrorism and poverty, we need more
resolute support from the international community. I
would very much like to thank the United Nations for
its very significant presence in our country.