Madam President of this General Assembly,
Mr. Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Distinguished Presidents, Prime Ministers, and dignitaries representing countries in this august Assembly of the United Nations,
I appear before this forum as the President of Honduras, representing a people who have resisted oppression, exploitation, and structural violence imposed for centuries. Today, I am threatened by the same forces of capital that, fifteen years ago, overthrew the constitutional president Manuel Zelaya in a coup d’état. I denounced this new conspiracy in the streets during massive gatherings of the people on the 14th and 15th of September, our national Independence Day.
I am threatened because I have advanced structural changes to the economic model and have denounced the unjust tax regime that perpetuates inequality, enriches the powerful, and exploits the poor.
Our sovereignty is a fundamental basis and unwavering principle of international relations. However, colonial practices, interference, and economic, media, and political domination continue to be imposed in Honduras. Supranational powers and certain multinational corporations are the product of corrupt public-private elites, whose sole purpose is to increase their capital.
Globalisation has failed in its mission to bring prosperity to the peoples. Its results show a concentration of wealth in the richest countries and among elites, while the working class is relegated and forced to migrate in order to survive.
In this Assembly, the majority of leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have denounced global capitalism as the main destroyer of natural resources and oppressor of human living conditions. The accumulation of economic profits prevails over human interests, and the role of international financial institutions, with their conditional loans and fiscal and financial prescriptions, only worsens the poverty and dependency of our nations.
Privatising neoliberal policies continue to deteriorate people’s access to water and energy services, health, education, social security, and employment.
The free trade agreements imposed upon our peoples undermine sovereignty and eliminate the possibility for our producers to compete on equal terms, causing the cost of living to rise daily.
Peace, justice, liberty, and democracy continue to be foundational values of our nation. We therefore reject their being held hostage by the ten most powerful families in Honduras, who have appropriated our principal economic resources and refuse to accept the changes I am promoting. We must deepen our democratic system through popular consultations and the real, direct, and effective participation of the people.
The transnational Model Cities (ZEDE) project, which sold off our territory piece by piece as spoils for multinational capital, approved by traitors in the previous narco-regime, has been definitively cancelled by my Democratic Socialist government. I acknowledge the historic ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice and the support of the National Congress.
I have denounced the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) as an unjust arbitration mechanism where private interests prevail over the interests of nation-states.
In these two years and eight months, I have approved a structural reform to recover the single treasury account, dismantling a corruption scheme built around the figure of trusts through which state resources were looted. Thanks to dismantling this corrupt scheme, I am serving the boys and girls in all schools in Honduras, who now receive daily school meals, free enrolment, and development projects in communities in extreme poverty.
We have increased the production of staple grains in the first and second planting seasons with more than one and a half million technological vouchers for farmers, who now receive seeds and fertilisers free of charge. Likewise, we are promoting housing credit and agricultural credit at the lowest interest rates in Honduras’s history, as well as the organisation of community rural savings banks.
We are rescuing the National Electric Power Company, the Honduran Institute for Agricultural Marketing (IHMA), and the National Supplier of Basic Products (BANASUPRO), all of which were privatised and abandoned for twelve years under the narco-dictatorship. Today, more than 800,000 families receive free electricity, and we subsidise fuel prices to provide Honduran consumers with the lowest prices in Central America—10 lempiras less per gallon.
Investment in infrastructure is at its highest level in the country’s history. We are reclaiming the public sphere, with the historic approval for the construction of eight hospitals, repair of thousands of schools, three national airports, roads, productive routes, bridges, inter-municipal paving, multi-sports courts across the country, and restoration of the two major National Stadiums. I must highlight the largest and most ambitious project in the history of Honduras: the Interoceanic Railway Plan linking Puerto Castilla on the Atlantic with the Port of Amapala on the Pacific.
In these two years and eight months, we have reduced poverty by twelve percentage points. Through the Crime Solution Plan, implemented by the Secretariat of Security in cooperation with the Armed Forces, there has been a historic reduction of fifteen points in homicides—the greatest decrease in twenty years.
My Zero Deforestation programme for 2030 has achieved historic results in the conservation of protected areas, forests, and rivers of Honduras. The honest and patriotic use of public funds in the State’s single treasury account benefits the people.
Peoples of the world, I wish to raise my voice regarding the murder of Juan López, Honduran social and political leader, who consistently denounced the extractivist model of exploitation. I repudiate and condemn this vile assassination. I have ordered that the full capacity of law enforcement and judicial bodies be used to investigate, identify, apprehend, and prosecute both the intellectual and material perpetrators of this crime. My solidarity goes to his family, friends, and comrades.
I serve as the Pro Tempore President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). We are 33 states. As President of Honduras, my first action was to raise my voice to denounce the genocide against the Palestinian people. More than 40,000 innocent people have already been killed in bombings that some countries have rewarded with silence. From here, I also raise my voice to demand an end to this genocide.
Lebanon must not become another Gaza Strip. We demand an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
The Haitian people require our cooperation and solidarity as an organisation of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Haiti, the first homeland liberated from colonialism, deserves our full attention. In the coming days, I will convene the presidents of CELAC to demonstrate our commitment.
For more than 30 years, this General Assembly has overwhelmingly rejected the inhumane embargo against the Cuban people. This infamous blockade began in 1960, and since 1992, this General Assembly has issued more than thirty resolutions calling on the United States to end this cruel blockade.
I demand an end to the unjust blockade against our brother nations of Nicaragua and Venezuela. We demand the removal of Cuba from the list of terrorist states.
Yesterday, I submitted to Secretary-General António Guterres the agreement that formalises the support of the United Nations in the fight against corruption and impunity. I thank this Assembly for approving our request in favour of creating this mechanism to combat public-private corruption.
As our martyr Berta Cáceres once said—a remarkable woman, defender of our natural resources and indigenous peoples:
“Wake up, humanity, we are still in time.”
Let this be the call of our generation.
Thank you very much.