I
should like at the outset to express my sincerest
congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his
election to preside over the General Assembly at its
sixty-fourth session. I also wish to express the thanks
of the delegation of Paraguay to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, President of the Assembly at its sixty-third
session, for the progress made during his tenure.
I wish to begin by discussing what is most
important: life. I cannot forget that, while the first
paragraph of the preamble of the Charter of the United
Nations states that our peoples, gathered together, are
determined to save succeeding generations from the
scourge of war, the murderous onslaught of warplanes
has continued to kill, mutilate and traumatize children
in many civilian populations; in national coffers,
amounts allocated to the death budget, glibly labelled
“defence expenditures”, continue to swell; and the
military industries of the world’s most powerful
countries continue to reap the most lucrative benefits
without any questions from politicians or any outrage
on the part of the international news networks, in a
game of perverse hypocrisy that is undermining our
future with lies disguised as imposed truths.
We are very rigorous in estimating the high
global costs of containing and providing public health
insurance for pandemics such as H1N1 influenza. But
we forget that our “defence expenditures”, promoted
by the great weapons industries from high, snow-
covered summits of complacency, end up exchanging a
container of vaccine for a rifle or a significant part of
the public health budget for a warplane.
The United Nations was born to promote peace
and to eradicate war. However, the voracious traffic in
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arms continues to pass through our countries with its
convoys of machine guns, missiles and grenades.
Select regions of the world continue to be opportunistic
enclaves for the trade of the merchants of death.
Conflicts that mutilate, destroy and kill neighbours and
condemn them forever to disgrace are at the same time
opportunities for those who profit by, foment, create
and manage the business of war.
Who questions the bloodstained bank notes that
lie untouched in the vaults of the most powerful bank?
We are face to face in this Hall, but truly we, the
Governments of the countries of the world, rich, poor
and very poor, are face to face with history. If we could
just for one minute believe in the great tenets of
equality and the shared rights of the human race, it
would be time enough to ask ourselves the question:
How much longer will the warlords continue to
maximize their future income on the physical
elimination of human beings?
My country, Paraguay, declares before the world
that we are absolutely committed to peace. My
Government is not prepared to spend the cost of a loaf
of bread on weapons or war machinery. Any
investment in defence must be the bare minimum
compared to the social expenditures of the
Government. Paraguay will not pawn its daily bread to
dance the blind waltz of the warlords.
We believe that, in the context of globalization,
there should be a call for the creation of a new world
economic order capable of eliminating the sharp
contrasts of the present and the clearly unequal access
to the benefits of contemporary development. In that
respect, I should like to describe the reality of life in
Paraguay today. Our situation is essentially very
similar to that of other countries that are also at the
mercy of serious socio-economic problems.
A little more than a year ago, a historic transition
occurred in Paraguay that left our economy in
tatters — with backward and obsolete production
mechanisms, weak democratic institutions rife with
corruption, barely credible political parties and a lack
of channels for civic participation in the
decision-making process. Society was riven by serious
contrasts, including about 40 per cent of the population
living in poverty, tens of thousands of unemployed,
high levels of migration, and unscrupulous minorities
who lived well and sought to perpetuate their
illegitimate privileges.
Those traits are shared by the majority of
countries represented here, which, over and above their
individual circumstances, like Paraguay are facing the
threefold challenge of modernizing their economies,
strengthening their participatory democracies, and
eliminating serious and severe social inequities. As in
Paraguay, in all poor countries the causes of the
scourges we have suffered can be traced to the
entrenchment of systems without justice or equality
that ultimately widen the gaps between the rich
countries and the poor.
We have sought in vain to mask the failures of the
policies of recent decades with ostensibly technical
terms that do little to describe the pathetic global
reality. For example, we speak of least developed
countries, middle-income countries and developing
countries when the simple fact is that today we live in
a world where there are countries that benefit until they
can benefit no longer from world growth, while others
are left behind and condemned to poverty.
Since the United Nations was established, our
unavoidable obligation has been to proceed fearlessly
to change that reality. We must give serious thought to
a new world economic order with simple and specific
aims. First, we must promote and strengthen small
economies based on the fair and equitable distribution
of the benefits of the production of wealth. We must
put an end to inequitable trade relationships and
develop effective policies of solidarity with those
countries that endure adverse geographical or climate
conditions.
Secondly, we must promote the healthy political
development of all nations of the world and ensure that
the most powerful countries do not interfere in local
affairs, above all when these interventions seek to
destabilize genuine democratic processes. I would like
to clearly reaffirm my concern over events in the
brotherly Republic of Honduras following the savage
coup d’état that opened a gaping wound in the heart of
our regional democracy.
Thirdly, we must promote peaceful solutions to
international conflicts, firmly resolved to reduce the
alarming levels of militarization and armament.
Fourthly, we must advocate an end to the harmful
criminal attacks on the environment, including global
warming and the natural disasters that occur with
increasing frequency. We the peoples of the South are
paying the growing and unsustainable social,
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environmental and financial costs of climate change. In
the meantime, those States that bear greatest
responsibility for global warming are not shouldering
their obligations or the growing socio-environmental
debt that they generate. They are perpetuating and
aggravating a clearly unjust situation that must be
reversed. As a matter of justice and urgency, we must
heed the calls of the most vulnerable people on the
planet.
Fifthly and finally, we must promote gender
equality and put an end to discrimination of all kinds
based on sexual, political or ideological preferences or
racial, ethnic or religious differences. In sum, it is a
matter of developing a better and more humane world
on the way towards a kinder living environment that is
more supportive and much more in keeping with the
future of humankind.
I am fully aware of the scope of the challenge
that I am suggesting. I am also completely aware of the
difficulties that we will encounter in this epic fight, but
in the twenty-first century we cannot continue to
overlook an in-depth and open debate on realities of
concern.
I do not in any way underestimate the relevant
role that the United Nations has played in its relatively
short existence in promoting world peace and equitable
social development, but we must not ignore the
decades of failure with regard to comprehensive
modernization, much less fail to creatively and
resolutely make use of the greatest world forum of
today.
There is no time to lose. Historical justice and
redress of the rich countries to the poor ones must be a
priority on the agenda of the United Nations. In order
for the United Nations to meet that important goal, we
must support the General Assembly’s adoption of the
necessary reforms, so as to reaffirm its inherent nature
as a representative, democratic and equitable organ. We
must uphold the precedence of its bodies over other
internal organs of the Organization, such as the
Security Council, in order to underscore the processes
that will help build that greatly desired social justice.
The Security Council, as the organ entrusted with
the maintenance of world peace, must also be
reformed, not only so as to give it greater legitimacy
by increasing its representativeness, but also so as to
adopt new working methods to reflect a new
multi-centred world order, founded on relations of
cooperation, solidarity and peace, in which the
community and human dignity are at the centre of
every decision.
It is difficult to say this in such a hallowed Hall
but it is worth recalling that, at this very moment,
thousands of people are dying of hunger in the world
that we shape. The ease with which television news
switches between pictures of pitiful children
overpowered by appalling hunger and figures for the
brutal arms business of the industrialized countries
exposes human indifference.
Once and for all, we must believe in — and
create — a different planet that is able to retrieve its
vast natural wealth, having put an end to the terrible
havoc wrought by petty interests. We must believe in a
fairer and more balanced international economic
system, in which the huge discrepancies are a thing of
the past. I believe in the great solidarity of human
beings. I believe in the dreams of great leaders who
defiantly changed the world. I believe in Jesus Christ,
in Gandhi and in Martin Luther King.
Before ending my comments, I would like to take
this opportunity to set out some clear positions on
pressing matters that affect us.
First, I would like to say that the economic crisis
that began in the major Powers and spread worldwide
has had serious consequences in all countries. It has
brought about a rapid destruction of accumulated
wealth. Unemployment has risen to unprecedented
levels. The number of poor has increased. The crisis
has jeopardized dozens of democratic political
processes.
Secondly, I would like to resolutely state that the
violent rupture in the constitutional process in
Honduras is a tremendous setback for the
re-democratization of Latin America. Those involved
in the coup who dealt a resounding blow to the
honourable face of the continent’s democracy are
responsible for the human sacrifices and the
tremendous social unrest that is taking place. I would
like to state my explicit solidarity and that of my
people with Manuel Zelaya and the people of
Honduras, who are bravely standing up to the effects of
the coup.
Thirdly, I would ask the peoples and the
Governments represented here to vigorously condemn
the trade embargo that the largest economy in the
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world imposes on Cuba — another intolerable chapter
that, while it lasts, undermines the credibility of any
discussion on pluralism, tolerance and humanism in
these forums. We have complete faith in a new vision
that breaks with the past and its uncompromising
divisions. We believe that the hopes of Latin America
and the Caribbean with regard to the humanistic
approach towards Cuba of the new leadership of the
most powerful country on Earth will be met sooner
than later.
Fourthly and lastly, I would like to state open
concern about the sinister currents circling in the world
with the unbridled arms race that can in no way be
justified and can only be welcomed by the industries of
death and barbarity. We must defuse the tensions that
foster that interest in weapons and we must urgently
clarify the elements that obscure the prospect for peace
throughout the world.
I reaffirm the commitment of my small and
humble country to supporting any and all initiatives
that seek to build a better world for future generations.