I
would first of all like to thank Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann of the sister Republic of Nicaragua for his
work during the sixty-third session of the General
Assembly. I would also like to convey our
congratulations to Mr. Ali Treki on his election as
President of the Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, as
well as to wish him every success in his efforts. We
would also like to thank Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his leadership of the United Nations.
A little more than three months ago, by changing
its Government after two decades under the same
political party, El Salvador began a process to expand
and strengthen its democracy. The new Government
has set just a few, but overarching, goals aimed at
beginning a process of change that pulls the country
out of its economic crisis and its social and cultural
backwardness while establishing the foundation for the
full development of its productive potential, including
social integration and fair distribution of its income, as
well as making it possible to achieve peace and
security, which is our greatest challenge. We have set
out the major outlines of my Administration in three
words: unite, grow and include.
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First of all, the Government over which I preside
is not based on a single political party, let alone on a
single faction. It is a Government of national unity
focused on two main goals. The first is to put an end to
the confrontations, hatred and divisions that have
drained a significant amount of vigour from our society
and fuelled a bloody civil war that has left behind
painful scars. The second is to put in place the
foundation for peaceful and secure coexistence.
That means that major national decisions will no
longer be taken behind closed doors or out of sight of
the majority of our people. Every measure, every step
in El Salvador will be discussed and decided at the
table through dialogue. Seated at that table will be
representatives of the production and labour sectors, as
well as of social movements, non-governmental
organizations, political parties, churches and academia.
It is untrue that the demands of administration require
curtailing dialogue as the basic instrument of the
decision-making process.
We were able to set up our economic and social
council in barely 100 days. That body is charged with
proposing and considering social and economic
policies that will allow us to successfully address the
crisis we are experiencing. In the same period, we were
also able to launch an ambitious low-income housing
programme that is unprecedented in El Salvador’s
history. That programme, which was the result of
Government working with the private sector, will
produce 100,000 jobs. Work has already begun in the
first projects.
That undertaking, like others in the area of social
and productive infrastructure, also helps to promote
temporary work for young people at risk and to
improve the housing and community conditions in the
poorest areas. It is also part of the comprehensive
anti-crisis plan that I promised during my campaign,
which we are carrying out through enormous effort.
Also in less than 100 days, we succeeded in
expanding the social safety net and the provision of
assistance for the poorest families in 100 rural
municipalities. Upon my return to the country, we will
launch the first safety net, involving social and
employment services in urban communities
experiencing extreme poverty. We are responding
promptly to the urgent needs of the most excluded,
impoverished and neglected groups in our society. I
should like to reiterate that all this is being done
through an honest and wide-scale dialogue that
includes the entire social spectrum of El Salvador.
We have resolutely addressed the concerns
resulting from changes in power. It was once believed
that changes in Government would lead to instability
and uncertainty. The complete opposite happened. We
have given legal guarantees and clear examples that the
new Government is serious, responsible in managing
finances and trustworthy when it comes to both
domestic and foreign affairs, including as regards
multilateral organizations and friendly countries
extending assistance to El Salvador.
In that connection, allow me to thank the
countries and groups for that assistance. Their
generosity makes us even more determined to follow
the path of responsibility, austerity and anti-corruption
efforts throughout society and Government.
My country has open wounds that have an impact
on our daily lives, including on our family, social and
cultural lives. Those wounds include public safety and
immigration, which has taken about 3 million of our
fellow citizens abroad in search of the work and
opportunities they have not found in our homeland.
I should first like to speak briefly about
insecurity.
As the Assembly is aware, this is not an
exclusively Salvadoran phenomenon. While it is a
global problem, it is certainly more pronounced in our
region. Organized crime, drug trafficking and the
activities of violent criminal youth gangs have
developed in the past decade to become the worst
threat to the stability of our countries. The policies that
have been implemented jointly and within individual
countries have not merely fallen short; they have been
but a succession of failures. That means that we must
increase our joint efforts while using all the means and
intelligence at our disposal to confront those scourges.
We are faced with a structural phenomenon that
hampers the full normal functioning of our societies.
In that regard, I am completely convinced that we
must have strong, long-term, decisive and intelligent
policies within our countries. However, we will fully
defeat crime only if we unite as a single entity that is
genuinely determined to defeat organized crime, which
is a destructive element that undermines institutions
and saps the creative and productive energies of our
peoples.
25 09-52228
I have said to my fellow citizens, and I should
like to reiterate here, that my Government will do
everything the law allows to combat crime with
determination and courage. However, this is not a task
for a single president or Government; it is also one for
society as a whole. I have therefore called for the
widest possible level of participation from all groups
and people of good will in carrying out what is called
“the good fight”, referred to by the Apostle Paul in his
first letter to Timothy — a good fight against
insecurity, fear and hopelessness. That is the great
challenge that brings us together, let us make no
mistake.
I should like to propose the holding of an
international conference to address these problems in
order to consider best practices with which to confront
that battle together. To that end, we would require the
logistical and financial support of both the
Organization of American States and the United
Nations.
The other wound to which I referred is the
ongoing waves of immigration by Salvadoran men and
women that have been taking place for many years. All
those who have left have been in their productive
years, the most skilled, seeking the work, security and
well-being denied them in their own country. With
3 million Salvadorans abroad, remittances equal about
18 per cent of our gross national product. That tearing
apart of families is difficult to overcome. It is also a
constant reminder of the fact that we have not been
able to put in place the necessary conditions to keep
our children home, as well as of the fact that we will
never be able to achieve our potential, individually or
as a society, unless we heal this terrible wound.
I have personally raised the flag of our country’s
full democratization, which means that emigrants
should have access to the vote that has been denied
them to this day. That unjustifiable denial is added to
the pain of separation and the loss of human rights to
which they are subjected as immigrants.
I have called on political parties, intellectuals,
academics and judges to draft the outlines of a national
political accord that advances the necessary reforms to
expand and strengthen democracy, increase
transparency in the workings of political parties,
improve the administration of national elections law
and — as a key element of my appeal — ensure the
right to vote for our brothers and sisters abroad.
We are concerned, moreover, not only by the
unstable situation of migrants living abroad with no
legal status, suffering constant uncertainty and fear of
being deported, but also by the difficult situation they
are currently experiencing as a result of the global
financial and economic crisis. For this reason a policy
for the inclusion and protection of the rights of our
migrant population and their families is a priority for
us. We will be undertaking measures within and with
countries of transit and destination countries to
guarantee migrants’ rights everywhere in the world,
and in particular the rights of our Salvadorian brothers.
We will emphasize an integrated and long-term
approach to addressing migration, considering all its
causes, manifestations and effects. We will bring this
vision to the process initiated at the High-level
Dialogue on International Migration and Development,
and we pledge our participation at the third Global
Forum on Migration and Development, to take place in
Athens.
My Government is carrying out a foreign policy
geared towards strengthening and broadening
relationships of friendship and cooperation with all
countries of the world, both at the bilateral and
multilateral levels, based on solidarity, mutual respect
and compliance with the principles of peaceful
coexistence, such as respect for sovereignty, territorial
integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, the
non-use or threat of use of force, the peaceful
settlement of disputes, respect for the right to
self-determination and respect for international law and
international commitments, in accordance with the
principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.
The foreign policy of El Salvador is free from
ideological or partisan political stances. In good faith it
is guided not only by national interests and priorities
but also by the common goals and interests of the
international community, in particular the quest for and
promotion of peace, political dialogue, cooperation in
solidarity, security and sustainable development. One
example of this is the restoration of diplomatic
relations between El Salvador and Cuba, which
overcame a lingering breach in our country’s
hemispheric relations. I also wish to underscore that a
further key objective of my Government is to
strengthen the ties that we have with our brother
countries in Central America.
In this context, I am certain that there will be no
solution or future for any of our countries if we act in
09-52228 26
isolation from each other. We long ago emerged from
the era of nationalities, and we are now ready to
embark on a new phase, one of greater integration. In
this regard the European Union is perhaps the most
advanced example.
I appeal to my Central American colleagues to
consider this point. There are many pending issues that
we must address. There are common challenges that we
must face shoulder to shoulder. We have everything to
gain and nothing to lose in the full integration of our
region. In these years of the bicentenary we must
regain the free and independent spirit of our ancestors,
which was exemplified in the concept of a Central
American union as a basis for development, well-being
and peace for our peoples. A first step would be to
convene a summit that would focus on a balanced
integration process and an analysis of greater transfer
of competencies to strengthen the mechanisms of
supra-nationality, in order to further the aims and
principles established in the Tegucigalpa Protocol, to
ensure its credibility and viability.
Among the aims, of course, would be to
strengthen regional democratic institutions, helping us
to avoid occurrences such as the Honduran coup d’état,
of which members are all well aware. Working together
we must ensure that it will be impossible to return to
the times of authoritarianism or military or civilian-
military dictatorships. The coup d’état in Honduras
must not be allowed to set a precedent which will
jeopardize the achievements that we have reached in
terms of regional stability and democratic institutions.
The de facto Government in our brother country has
ignored the clamour of voices raised by the
international community, calling for Honduras to return
as quickly as possible to constitutional order through
dialogue and political negotiation in accordance with
human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the
Honduran people.
Until the Constitution is restored in Honduras
through the immediate reinstatement of President
Zelaya and the creation of a government of national
unity in keeping with the San José Agreement, the
electoral process currently being prepared in our
brother country will lack the legitimacy or
transparency necessary to guarantee reliable results
which might help resolve the crisis in our brother
country.
The United Nations has played and will play a
leading role in the maintenance of international peace
and security and in the promotion of democracy and
development. El Salvador is a leading example: the
Organization helped in reaching the Peace Agreements
that succeeded in resolving our internal conflict — a
contribution for which I am deeply grateful, because it
led us from war to peace and from peace to a phase of
transition to democratization and development. In this
regard we will engage in a major review of the
international agenda in order to set priorities and to
ensure compliance with the key guidelines issued by
this global Organization and which benefit the well-
being and dignity of our peoples. We are implementing
policies that are geared towards meeting the
commitments we have entered into at major
international conferences, in particular the Millennium
Development Goals and the promotion and full
protection of human rights. We will also be joining
international agreements aimed at strengthening human
rights and freedoms.
We believe in the role that the United Nations has
played in the field of cooperation and development,
and we reiterate our support for the reform of its
principal organs, programmes and subsidiary bodies,
which will allow the Organization to adapt to the
demands and complexities of new challenges, in
particular through the interrelationship and interaction
that exist among political, economic, social,
environmental and security phenomena.
Thus we commit ourselves to strengthening our
national system for the protection of human rights and
to promoting and guaranteeing a policy of justice, truth
and compensation for serious infringements of human
rights, by implementing a policy of openness, honesty
and transparency in public affairs.
The effects of the international crisis that broke
out last year have been felt by all, but especially by
poor and developing countries whose economies are
dependent on large markets and that suffer from the
consequences of the decline of economic activity,
employment and consumption. Given this situation,
international solidarity and cooperation take on
extreme importance for developing countries, which
have limited natural and financial resources and are
very vulnerable. In this regard we call upon the
industrialized countries and on the donor community to
join every international effort and initiative to
overcome the current challenges, which jeopardize
27 09-52228
achievements made to date and future progress for
humankind.
We recommend taking full advantage of the
experience and expertise within the United Nations
system in fostering international cooperation and
coordinating efforts to achieve common goals. In this
context we appeal particularly to developed countries
to ensure follow-up, support for and implementation of
the recommendations and commitments set out in the
Monterrey Consensus and the Follow-up International
Conference on Financing for Development to Review
the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus that
took place in Doha in 2008, as well as the
recommendations contained in the Outcome of the
Conference on the World Economic and Financial
Crisis and Its Impact on Development (resolution
63/303, annex), in particular the need for donors to
maintain and fulfil their commitments and objectives
with regard to official development assistance. To that
end, there is a need for political resolve to reform the
international financial structure and system in order to
address the current difficulties.
The high-level meeting on climate change
convened by the Secretary-General provided us with an
opportunity to consider that issue, especially with
respect to compliance by States, and in particular the
industrialized countries, with the provisions of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, which was adopted shortly before the Earth
Summit, and with later commitments to eliminate the
danger posed by environmental degradation and
ongoing activities that have exacerbated climate
change. We therefore hope that we will act in earnest,
responsibly and decisively at the Copenhagen
conference to achieve a new agreement in this area so
as to ensure that States do not put their own interests
before the common well-being of humankind. It is time
to adopt measures and mechanisms to rectify the
mistakes and shortcomings of the past, and to launch a
process to bring development into harmony with
environmental protections.
As participants here are aware, in my country we
have done away with ideological prejudices and
stereotypes in our international relations. We believe in
multilateralism and in particular in the systems of our
continental organization, the Organization of American
States, and of the United Nations. We believe in the
rich and valuable contribution that new and emerging
nations can make to the work of those two systems. We
believe that the future of humankind largely depends
on the intelligence, honour and generosity of the larger
nations in ensuring the full and fair development of
emerging countries so as to put an end to the
discrimination and differences that offend human
nature.
I thank the General Assembly for its attention and
its support for my country and the Salvadoran people.