Bolivia, 2000

The Government of Bolivia has given me the task of

conveying its most sincere congratulations to you, Sir,

on your election as President of the General Assembly

at its fifty-fifth session, which is a recognition of your

personal merits and a tribute to your country. At the

same time, I thank Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab for his work

during the fifty-fourth session and for his dedication

during the preparations for the Millennium Summit and

the Millennium Assembly.

Special thanks must also go to Secretary-General

Kofi Annan for his report preparatory to the

Millennium Summit, the content of which has given us

an opportunity to reflect upon and address specific

issues with which the United Nations has been

concerned in its 55 years of existence.

We also welcome the recent admission of Tuvalu

as a new, fully fledged Member of our Organization.

10

The recent Millennium Summit reaffirmed the

recognition by the international community of the

importance and significance of, and the prospects for,

the United Nations Organization. It also highlighted the

urgency of adapting it to, and equipping it for, the new

realities in which we live, which are certainly quite

different from the situation and circumstances that

prevailed when our Organization came into being.

The concerns of peoples and Governments today

are also different. Poverty, underdevelopment and

exacerbated inequalities contribute to new divisions,

which threaten to lead to violence. These realities must

be corrected, because they have the potential of

spawning conflicts that, if allowed to persist, could

seriously jeopardize the world's economic and political

stability, and, it goes without saying, international

peace and security.

Our Organization needs to be strengthened if it is

successfully to channel the expectations and

opportunities of globalization while controlling, and

indeed preventing, the dangers implicit in it, especially

for the more vulnerable economies, which are now

threatened by new forms of exclusion.

The United Nations must be renewed so that it

can continue to be the effective instrument for dialogue

that is required to build a world in which greater

security and solidarity prevail.

We must consequently redefine the

Organization's priorities in such a way as to make it

conducive to clear-sighted and effective action. This

will require substantial reform of the system's

economic and financial bodies, modernization of the

General Assembly's methods of work, and the

adaptation of the Security Council to these new

realities. Other, equally important tasks include

ensuring that the necessary resources are available to

the Organization; obtaining financing for development

and peacekeeping operations; and adjusting the scale of

assessments in accordance with the basic principle of a

country's capacity to pay.

A few short days ago, at the Millennium Summit,

the President of Bolivia, Hugo Bánzer Suárez, referred

to the close relationship between freedom and poverty,

and between poverty and violence. He called for the

fight against poverty to be waged in accordance with

the principle of shared responsibility and with a

genuine commitment to democracy, in order to mitigate

present inequalities, which are threatening to intensify.

It is unfair, in an open economy, for markets to be

closed and for discriminatory measures to be applied

with protectionist intent. It is also vital to favour

countries with small-scale economies through greater

capital inflows and debt relief programmes.

Science and technology must become the heritage

of humankind. Scientific and technological knowledge

must not widen already existing gaps and divisions.

At the historic meeting of South American

Presidents, held recently in Brasilia, the heads of State

of the region stressed the importance of access to the

new information and knowledge age, which will open

the way for our countries to strengthen a system of

continuing education that ensures education at all

levels for the all sectors of society and permits

unrestricted access to knowledge and information.

Democracy, which essentially seeks to organize

life in society, is a vital concept that changes and is

updated in tune with the changing pace of societies

themselves, without in any way detracting from its

fundamental values. Convinced as we are that

democracy must go beyond electoral formalities and

that sovereignty is vested in the people and expressed

through its representatives, we in Bolivia have declared

the principle of political dialogue and consultation to

be the basis of a pluralistic and participatory

democratic system.

In that context, the practice of holding a national

dialogue was instituted during the administration of

President Bánzer. That mechanism is aimed at

establishing a new relationship of joint efforts and

shared responsibility between Government institutions,

the political system and organizations throughout

society. The creation of key State policies grew out of

the first such national dialogue, held in 1997.

This year, a national dialogue has been initiated

once again to lend fresh impetus to institutional

reforms and to put together a national anti-poverty

programme. A new plan, involving over 3,000

inhabitants in townships across Bolivia, is being

elaborated whose objective is to assign rights and

responsibilities that, within the framework of a market

economy, will make it possible for us to combat the

poverty that still afflicts vast sectors of our population,

despite nearly 20 years of life under democracy.

Shortly after taking office, in August 1997,

President Bánzer Suárez vowed that during his

mandate Bolivia would be removed from the drug-

trafficking loop once and for all, through the

implementation of an integrated policy that

encompasses alternative development, the eradication

of illegal coca crops, confiscation, prevention and

rehabilitation.

Despite doubts as to the feasibility of this plan,

we can now affirm that we will be fulfilling our

commitments ahead of time. In 1997, there were

approximately 38,000 hectares of illegal coca

cultivation in Bolivia. Today, more than 80 per cent of

such illegal crops have been eradicated.

Our concern now is essentially whether we can

sustain these achievements. Conditions must be created

which in future will obviate a return to coca-leaf

production as a result of the lack of jobs and income.

Our major efforts now are aimed at alternative

development, to see to it that illegal coca income is

replaced by legal earnings from other productive

activities. If we do not achieve concrete results, we run

the risk of seeing those persons who cannot hope to

find any other means of subsistence fall once again

prey to the temptation of cultivating coca. That would

constitute a surrender to the drug dealers and signify a

defeat not only for Bolivia but for the world

community.

What Bolivia needs, then, is support in two basic

areas: first, in the area of investment, to promote our

economic growth in the sectors that generate the most

job opportunities; and secondly, in the opening of

secure markets for our exports.

At previous sessions of the Assembly, Bolivia has

aired the historical, political and economic arguments

on which it bases its absolute need to regain the

maritime status that gave rise to its existence as an

independent country. To that end, Bolivia has been

encouraging direct dialogue with the Republic of Chile.

As a consequence of prior contacts, the Foreign

Ministers of Bolivia and Chile met in Portugal in

February this year, where an agreement was reached to

prepare a working programme, to be formalized in the

subsequent stages of dialogue, that will incorporate,

without exclusion of any kind, the essential points of a

bilateral relationship and seek to surmount the

differences that have impeded full integration between

Bolivia and Chile, the main obstacle to which has

certainly been Bolivia's unresolved maritime demand.

In a significant advance, on the occasion of the recent

meeting of Presidents of South America, the Presidents

of Bolivia and Chile, Hugo Bánzer and Ricardo Lagos,

reiterated the willingness of their Governments to enter

into dialogue on all topics relating to bilateral relations,

without exception, in order to create a climate of

mutual trust enabling the establishment of closer ties

based on the structure and positions maintained by the

two countries.

The world community, the Americas in particular,

is following with great expectation the course of this

diplomatic process and the progress achieved therein.

The proposal to hold a dialogue on all topics without

exception is a challenge to the creativity of those

involved and puts to the test our political will to correct

once and for all an unjust situation that has prevailed

since 1879. Furthermore, Latin America's capacity to

settle its own disputes in a fair, peaceful and negotiated

way will be strengthened and progress thus made on

the road to regional integration.

In that context, we propose the implementation of

a programme to promote the integrated development of

western Bolivia and northern Chile. We are also

confident that Peru will participate in this programme

in order to mobilize the resources and capabilities of

the three countries of the region. In this way, a

contribution will be made to linking the Atlantic and

Pacific basins. The persistence of Bolivia's landlocked

status at the heart of the continent is, without doubt, an

obstacle to the creation of a major opportunity for

thoroughgoing understanding and dialogue in the South

American region and minimizes the effectiveness of

work to promote integration being carried out in the

area.

This occasion provides a fitting opportunity for

us to thank Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his

interest in relations between Bolivia and Chile, which

has been brought to the attention of the authorities of

both countries. The Secretary-General has expressed

his satisfaction with respect to the conversations held,

according to the terms laid down by the parties, at the

levels of heads of State, Foreign Ministers and other

authorities of Bolivia and Chile.

My country pledges to make every effort to

translate the desire recently expressed by the Presidents

of Bolivia and Chile into action that will enable us,

Bolivians and Chileans alike, to advance towards the

resolution of our differences, with a view to the future

and in a spirit of brotherhood.

12