1. Madam President, on behalf of my Government I
warmly welcome your election to preside over the General
Assembly’s deliberations at its twenty-fourth session. By
placing the conduct of our difficult tasks in your wise and
skillful hands, the delegations in this hall, including my
own, have paid a just tribute both to your outstanding
personal qualities and to your position as representative of
your own country in particular and of Africa as a whole.
We offer you our most cordial congratulations.
2. At the same time, we recall with regret your predecessor
in office, Mr. Emilio Arenales, a citizen of Guatemala
by birth and a citizen of the American continent by virtue
of his outstanding ability and his personality, whose
premature death we deeply lament. My delegation wishes to
pay a respectful tribute to his memory.
3. In speaking from this rostrum, the most eminent in the
international community, in view of the session’s heavy
agenda that reflects the scope and complexity of the
problems of today’s world, I do not propose to examine
these problems in detail. The procedures established under
the existing provisions and rules give every delegation the
opportunity to express its views and ideas fully and without
restriction during the discussion of each specific item both
in plenary and in the Main Committees. At the present
stage of our work, however, such an examination would in
a sense be inconsistent with the purposes and character of
the general debate.
4. As the representative of a developing country, that is,
of a State which day by day has to face and attempt to
solve the enormous obstacles to its progressive development
resulting from unjust conditions prevailing in world markets,
my first concern must necessarily be to deal with all
matters connected — to use the words of the Preamble of the
Charter — with the promotion of “social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom”.
5. As the representative of a Member State of this
assembly of nations in a world and at a time marked by the
increasing interdependence of nations, I shall concentrate
on problems relating to the maintenance of international
peace and security in the firm belief that any breach or
threat of breach of the peace, wherever it may occur,
inevitably affects, though to a lesser or greater degree, each
and every member of the international community. From
that standpoint, there are no problems that can be
described as distant or remote. We know full well that no
lasting structure can be established or any real progress
achieved except on the sure foundations of peace with justice.
6. It is deplorable that, in this year in which man has
witnessed the fulfilment of his age-old dream of travelling
on a mission of peace from our planet to the moon and
returning unscathed, the international situation should
present so discouraging a picture. This is one of the great
contrasts of our time. On the one hand, scientific and
technological advances have opened up almost unlimited
prospects for the future, while on the other, man’s slow
legal, political and moral evolution constantly reminds us of
the discrepancy between these two areas of development.
7. In the introduction to his annual report on the work of
the Organization, the Secretary-General who, from the
lofty post he occupies, is exceptionally well-placed to take
an over-all view, tells us among other things that during
“the past 12 months, the deterioration of the international
situation ... has continued” [A/7601/Add.1, para. 1], that
in the field of disarmament “progress is indeed very
limited” [ibid., para. 2], that “it is accordingly most
disquieting to see that the solution of the problem of
preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, both
horizontally and vertically, is still hanging in the balance”
[ibid., para. 26], and that “the product of the awful
alphabet and arithmetic of ABMs (anti-ballistic missiles)
and MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry
vehicles) can only be the acceleration of what has been
described as the ‘mad momentum’ of the nuclear arms
race” [ibid., para. 28]. These quotations are merely
illustrative and are by no means exhaustive, but as a whole they
point to a situation fraught with sombre prospects.
8. But the main source of immediate and collective
concern lies in the wars at present in progress, with the
indescribable hardships they involve for millions of human
beings and with the devastation that accompanies all armed
conflicts.
9. If this gloomy picture is viewed from the standpoint of
the developing countries and peoples which already have
more than their share of deprivation because of the state of
development of their fragile economic infrastructures and
the levels of living prevailing in their societies, it must be
agreed that large reserves of faith and optimism are needed
in order to avoid sinking into the depths of despair.
10. I believe, however, that the States gathered together in
this Assembly and the peoples they represent possess both
individually and collectively the necessary reserves of
optimism and energy to persevere in their efforts to bring
closer the dawn of the better days for which we yearn.
Knowing as we do that it is only in a congenial international
climate that we can hope to achieve our aspirations
for progress and well-being, our first task, our main and
permanent task, is to help to create such a climate, which
may be characterized in very few words: security, peace
and justice for all.
11. Built on the ruins of a world conflagration, the
Organization was established in order to develop friendly
relations among nations based on the principles of equal
rights and self-determination of peoples; to achieve international
co-operation in solving international problems of an
economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character; to
promote and encourage respect for human rights and for
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race,
sex, language or religion; to be a centre for harmonizing the
actions of nations, but first and foremost to maintain
international peace and security. At the same time, the
appropriate bodies were set up and procedures laid down
for the settlement of disputes that result, or threaten to
result, in a breach of international peace.
12. Since 1 January 1968, my country has been a member
of one of these organs. I refer to the organ entrusted by the
Charter with the primary responsibility for the maintenance
of international peace and security, that is to say, the
Security Council. The term of office for which my country
was elected by this Assembly will expire on 31 December
next. The views I propose to set forth are based on the
experience gained during the period in which we have
participated in the Council’s work, a period that can be
described, without exaggeration, as both important and active.
13. We believe that the concepts on which the Security
Council’s structure was based reflect the political ideas of
the post-war world. Even if those ideas were valid at the
time of San Francisco — and there were already then enough
grounds to rule out excessive optimism on this score — today,
a quarter of a century later, they are no longer in
keeping with the outlook characteristic of a different era.
In our opinion, it is this difference that explains a certain
operational weakness, which, in certain situations, restricts
the Council’s possibilities of action, even where such action
is both essential and urgent.
14. I refer in particular to the provisions on the adoption
of decisions on non-procedural matters. These provisions, as
contained in the amended text of Article 27, paragraph 3,
of the Charter, stipulate that decisions shall be made
”...by an affirmative vote of nine members including the
concurring votes of the permanent members”.
15. I must forthwith add that the Council itself has for
some time now established the practice of taking decisions
by votes in which one or more permanent members abstain.
Despite that practice, today’s world is so complex that it is
often difficult if not impossible to achieve unanimity
among the five permanent members and thus to decide on a
given course of action. This, we believe, is the primary
cause of the limitation of the Council’s real powers. I am
not referring to the casting of negative votes by the
permanent members, because, in accordance with the
provisions of the Charter, such negative votes entail the
rejection. of any substantive proposal. I am referring
exclusively to cases where there is a possibility of positive
action.
16. In these circumstances, an ever-increasing burden of
responsibility and a constantly growing role devolve upon
the non-permanent members of the Security Council,
provided that they act in unison. Individual action by those
members is inevitably limited in view of the type of nations
that make up that group, all of them so-called medium or
small countries. Collectively, on the other hand, they wield
a strength that cannot be ignored.
17. To put the matter another way, as a group, the
non-permanent members and particularly those which
represent the dispossessed areas of the world — Africa, Asia
and Latin America — in the present Council, enlarged as a
result of the amendments made to the Charter a few years
ago, constitute a political force whose opinions must
necessarily be taken into account by the permanent
members. We do not believe that the time has yet come
when that force can decisively sway the Council, but in any
event its influence is obviously growing and is undoubtedly
destined to increase still further. It is equally obvious to
anyone participating in the Council’s work that this group
of non-permanent members is the most effective. instrument
for finding formulae for action that reconcile the desirable
with the possible.
18. In that firm belief, my delegation has exerted its best
efforts to strengthen the unity of action of that group of
members. Of course, we realize that such unity of action is
not possible in all cases, because the group represents a
variety of States, each with its own political, ideological
and philosophical views and its own legal tradition. Many of
the decisions taken during the period I am
discussing — 1968-1969 - nevertheless bear out the truth of the
statement I have just made. Those decisions strike a delicate
balance between aspirations and possibilities, limited as the
latter are by the political realities reflected in the structure
of the Council.
19. Apart from that, our position on the specific problems
of peace and security referred to the Council is well known.
The Council’s meetings are public and we have stated and
restated our views, also in public. This fact relieves us of the
need to expound them at length yet again. I am thinking in
particular of the Middle East, one of the most serious and
complex problems of the time. It is our sincere belief that
the best and perhaps the only means of bringing about a
just and stable peace lies in the application of the provisions
and principles contained in the resolution adopted unanimously
on 22 November 1967 [242 (1967)]. I am thinking
of Southern Rhodesia and the Zimbabwe people, oppressed
by a tiny minority which has appointed itself as a political
authority in the form of the illegal racist regime of Ian
Smith, a regime which my country does not recognize and
with which it maintains no relations of any kind. I am
thinking of Namibia, a Territory whose people still remain
subject to a foreign authority which exploits them without
a vestige of a right — a people which is still awaiting the day
of its liberation from the yoke which afflicts them.
20. Incidentally, I should point out that my delegation
had the honour to sponsor, jointly with the other Latin
American members and with the African and Asian representatives,
the draft resolutions on Namibia which the Security
Council adopted as its resolutions 245 (1968), 246 (1968),
264 (1969) and 269 (1969), I am thinking also of Jerusalem,
a city whose legal status was determined by the
resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, a status
whose maintenance has been repeatedly advocated by the
Council. These are not the only problems, and here again
my list is not exhaustive.
21. I make these comments a bare three months from the
expiry of our term of office in the Council and they are
therefore in a sense a review of a period of service that is
virtually completed. I know that it is not customary, in
speaking from this rostrum, to submit the work that has
been done to the judgement of the international community.
This is, however, precisely what I am doing, in the
firm belief that we have placed our concept of justice and
our best and most sincere efforts at the service of that
community.
22. I have only a few words to add on this same point.
When two years ago we announced our wish to become a
member of the Security Council, our purpose was to prove
once again our sincere desire to serve the United Nations by
exercising the special responsibilities of one of the principal
offices existing in the Organization. We believe, and still
believe, that a representative who participates in such an
organ acts in accordance with instructions emanating from
one source and one source only, namely, from his own
Government. Nevertheless, because we share the outlook,
ideology and traditions of the other States of our continent,
we sincerely believe, without vanity or false modesty,
that in exercising the duties of a member of the
Security Council, we have expressed at one and the same
time our own ideas and those of Latin America.
23. So far I have referred to matters that have come
before the Security Council. I have stated, and I repeat,
that those are not the only problems affecting peace and
security, and that other problems also distress and concern
us, even though they are not discussed within the Organization.
I am thinking of the cruel war in Viet-Nam. We hope
that the Paris talks, which have so far been unproductive,
will achieve positive results as soon as possible by bringing
an end to the hostilities that have dragged on there for so
long. I also have in mind the indescribable tragedy
unfolding before our eyes in western Africa. I again wish to
express the hope that, in place of the death, destruction
and desolation that prevails there, it will be possible to
reconstruct peace and restore the rule of justice.
24. I am thinking too of America and of the conflict
between two brother States of the continent. But at least in
this case, with the goodwill of the parties concerned and
the help of the regional organization, means have been
found of halting the military operations. This is a first step
of fundamental importance. We know, however, that a long
and arduous road remains to be travelled before complete
and lasting peace is restored, wounds are healed and
resentments are wiped out. But the goodwill shown by the
Hondurans and the Salvadorians — a goodwill of which we
are absolutely convinced — together with the co-operation of
the other nations of the continent, which has been
extended without any reservations or limitations, encourages
us in our faith and confidence that a reconciliation
based on justice is close at hand.
25. There is another kind of war, a war in which the vast.
majority of States Members of the United Nations are
taking part — a war which is also cruel and is taking its toll in
sacrifices, suffering and tears. I refer to the war being waged
by the developing countries to overcome the problems
caused by an unequal, unjust and immoral division of
wealth and of the fruits of labour, to the battles being
fought to overthrow the artificial barriers dividing the
countries that have too much from those which have too
little, to the struggle of the developing countries to speed
up the process of their development so that their peoples
may enjoy the higher levels of living to which they are
legitimately entitled. So far this war has been fought at the
conference table and at international meetings; but if
present conditions continue, if they are prolonged indefinitely
and if there are no glimmerings of hope of a better
future to brighten this world picture, it may well develop
into a conflict on an unimaginable scale, one from which no
continent or country would be excluded.
26. On the other hand, there are the countries whose
economies depend on agriculture, cattle-breeding and the
production of raw materials, and on the other, the
industrialized countries. Between the two there is a gulf
which has been widening instead of narrowing with the
passage of time, because the relations between the two
groups are governed by a system whereby some reap the
benefit of well-being while hunger and poverty are meted
out to others. “We consider that agriculture, cattle breeding
and industry ought not to be stages in history through
which all nations must of necessity pass in order to reach
their highest level of living.” This statement was made on
an earlier occasion from this same rostrum by Mr. Raul
Sapena, my country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, who
added that instead they ought to be “different occupations
which should exist side by side at the same time, as a result
of the division of labour between nations“.
27. On another occasion, he stated that if the prices of
raw materials continued to decline and the prices of
manufactured goods continued to rise, there would “be a
widening of the gap between the developed and the
under-developed countries; and although political colonialism
is on its last legs, the economic colonialism applied to.
countries with an agricultural economy will remain unless
the present conditions for the production and export of
agricultural commodities are radically changed”.
28. We are almost at the end of the First United Nations
Development Decade and on the eve of the Second. The
meagre results obtained are a guide to the depth of our
disappointment. Even so, we cannot allow ourselves to be
overcome by pessimism. On the contrary, we shall intensify
our efforts to find solutions. Our most fundamental
national interests are bound up with the achievement of
equitable solutions.
29. In this connexion, I should like to draw attention to
the position of solidarity adopted by Latin America, as
embodied in the Consensus of Viña del Mar That Consensus,
although addressed to a specific recipient, contains
ideas, principles and observations that are of universal
significance.
30. At a time when the Assembly is preparing to set the
targets for the Second United Nations Development Decade,
we believe it appropriate to make a renewed appeal to
the common sense of the highly developed countries to
show, if only in their own national interests, a greater
readiness to remedy the notorious shortcomings in the
terms of international trade, shortcomings which operate to
the constant advantage of those countries to the constant
disadvantage of countries like my own.
31. I cannot end these general remarks without referring
to the peoples still suffering under the colonial yoke and
conveying to them an expression of our solidarity in their
struggle to achieve their legitimate right to self-determination
and become masters of their own national destinies.
32. Our contribution to the cause of international peace
and security within the United Nations is limited by the
modest resources at our disposal. This is not, however, our
only contribution; we have also contributed through action
at.the purely national level.
33. Believing that collective efforts by the Members of the
Organization to make it stronger and more effective must
be matched by simultaneous and parallel efforts of a purely
national character, my delegation traditionally presents to
the General Assembly an objective picture of the conditions
obtaining in Paraguay.
34. Under the leadership of a Government that is outstandingly
dynamic and constructive, we are continuing to
make sustained progress. I need hardly say that work on
our economic infrastructure is proceeding without interruption.
The work’ that has been accomplished includes the
building of new highways, those already in existence being
maintained at a high level of efficiency, the construction of
new schools and of new and better hospitals, and the
provision of health services covering the whole population.
The level of nutrition is among the highest in the continent
and the illiteracy rate, which was already low, is being
steadily reduced.
35. Where political affairs are concerned, the party system
has functioned smoothly and the freedoms of association,
of assembly, of the press and of expression have been fully
exercised.
36. In regard to social affairs, the rule of law, the
institution 6f home ownership for all Paraguayan families,
the measures taken to ensure adequate remuneration for all
workers, the extension of social security, a sound agrarian
policy of far-reaching scope — all these are factors which
explain the existence of a fair and just domestic peace that
provides men with a climate propitious to maximum output
and the maximum devotion to the attainment of common
objectives.
37. Economically, the general conditions prevailing in our
country have ensured that progress has been spectacular in
every aspect of Paraguayan life, but it has been achieved
without display. Although we receive external financial aid,
it is none the less true that the results achieved have been
primarily due to the national efforts carried out — I repeat — for
the realization of our aspirations by a statesman who is
animated by a deep-seated patriotism and by an unshakable
devotion to the public weal, and in whom the highest ideals
are allied to a capacity for effective action.
38. We continue to have an unfavourable balance of trade,
since although our exports have increased, our imports have
done so also. Machinery and equipment, particularly tor
agriculture and industry, account for a large part of these
imports which now affect the balance of trade because of
their high cost. They will shortly yield, however, dividends
for the national economy and accelerate the profound
changes taking place in our country, which has been lifted
from its past condition of prostration to its present state of
creative energy. The goals we have set ourselves are still
remote but we are marching towards them with unshakable resolve.