Colombia, 2010

With reverence and an immense sense of responsibility,

I come to this historic forum for the first time to

reiterate the commitment of my country and more than

45 million Colombians to the fulfilment and success of

the founding principles of the United Nations. As this

Organization proceeds in its reform process, we

support its adoption of the criteria of good governance,

efficiency and transparency in order to realize those

principles and to achieve a more effective international

system of cooperation.

We believe that the United Nations should focus

on achieving concrete results that transform realities

rather than deepen conditions of dependency or

perpetuate assistance programmes that often do more

harm than good in developing countries. It is in this

belief and with faith in the future of the Organization

that I express today before this Assembly my country’s

aspiration to become a member of the Security Council

for the period 2011-2012. We seek that position on the

basis of respect for the principles of the United Nations

Charter and with the commitment to providing our

fullest cooperation to the maintenance of international

peace and security.

Colombia — which, along with other Latin

American nations, commemorates its two-hundredth

year of independence this year — has a long and

successful democratic and institutional tradition. Our

Republic has suffered the attacks of terrorism and the

ravages of international crime, but we have always

faced them within the framework of our Constitution

and laws, following the most rigorous democratic

procedures. We are confident that our long and painful

experience can be very useful to all States Members of

the Organization in matters in which we have

developed a strong technical and operational capacity,

such as security, the struggle against terrorism and

drug trafficking, the fight against the illicit trade in

small arms and light weapons, the progressive

eradication of anti-personnel mines, humanitarian

assistance, the disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration of illegal armed groups, and — of

particular importance — how to do so while always

protecting human rights.

As advocates of peaceful coexistence, we

Colombians are proud to participate in peacekeeping

and peacebuilding operations, such as the United

Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the

Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai, and the

United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in

Sierra Leone. This participation reflects our

commitment to peace anywhere in the world, which we

reaffirm today.

That is why we want to be the voice of Latin

America and the Caribbean in the Security Council at

this very special moment for our region. Latin America

and the Caribbean, a region of some 600 million

inhabitants, is our area of natural interaction. The

region includes countries with multiple political

visions and diverse positions on many specific topics.

But we are united in the interest of overcoming

poverty, improving the living standards of our people,

integrating ourselves successfully into the global

market, and protecting our environment.

Latin American nations are beginning to assume a

global leadership role on economic, environmental,

security and development issues. In my inaugural

speech on 7 August, I said that, given the significant

progress achieved by my country, the time for

Colombia had come. Today, in this global forum, I

wish to go further and state with absolute conviction

that the time has come for Latin America.

We Latin Americans have assumed the

management of our economies with responsibility. As a

result, we were one of the regions least affected by the

global economic crisis. Today, our countries are

growing on the basis of economic, social and

technological pillars that are stronger than ever and

attracting investors from throughout the world. We are

a subcontinent where the majority of the population is

young, with immense talents and ability to work, with

cities and natural wonders that attract tourists and

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investors from all over the world, and with

unparalleled environmental wealth.

In these times, when the world demands food,

water, biofuels and natural lungs for the Earth such as

the tropical forests, Latin America has millions of

hectares ready for cultivation without affecting the

ecological balance, and all the willingness necessary to

become a supplier of all the goods that humanity needs

for its own survival.

More than 925 million people living with hunger

and malnutrition are a challenge that cannot be

postponed. Latin America can and wants to be part of

the solution. Ours is the region richest in biodiversity

on the planet, with the most megadiverse country in the

world, namely Brazil, and the country with the greatest

biodiversity per square kilometre, namely our country,

Colombia. The Amazon region alone holds 20 per cent

of the global supply of fresh water and 50 per cent of

the planet’s biodiversity.

Colombia is not a country with high levels of

polluting emissions, but we want to assume our

responsibility to the planet and its future. We therefore

support the international initiative known as Reducing

Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation,

which seeks to generate and allocate the resources

necessary to reduce tropical forest loss and associated

emissions. We Colombians want to be a model country

for the world in monitoring its forests, carbon

emissions and the state of its biodiversity.

Latin America as a whole must be a key region in

saving the planet. We call for a new agreement to

replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, to

ensure the commitment of all — starting with the big

industrial Powers to emissions reduction. With

appropriate economic compensation, we have an

enormous capacity to reduce deforestation and plant

new forests, changing the history not only of the region

but of the world as a whole.

When the twenty-first century began, Latin

America and the Caribbean were just starting their

march towards integration into the global economy.

Today, 10 years later, in the light of our political and

economic stability and agricultural, energy and

environmental potential, I want to send a message to

the other nations of our region. The world’s eyes are

upon us. Now is the time for us to open our own eyes,

to overcome any persisting differences among us, and

to think big. If we do so, and given everything I have

just said, we can declare with one voice, as I do today

at the dawn of the second decade of the third

millennium: This is Latin America’s decade. It will be

a decade in which we can grow and advance, and first

and foremost in which we can serve our peoples and

the well-being of humankind.

Two days ago, I had the opportunity to present

Colombia’s results in its progress towards the

achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. I

am not now going to repeat our achievements — which

have been many — or our remaining challenges, which

are many more. I simply want to underline that, more

than any other problem, poverty, with all its related

consequences, is the greatest calamity in our world.

I want to call attention in particular to the twofold

tragedy faced by a brother Caribbean country, which,

along with its endemic poverty, is coping with the

effects of a devastating natural disaster. I was in Haiti a

couple of months ago and I must say, before this

Assembly of the nations of the world and with a

saddened heart, that its unbearable reality surpasses the

worst nightmare. The pledged international aid is yet to

arrive in its entirety, or at least it is not visible.

Haitians are still fighting and surviving with dignity

and courage, but without the due attention we must

give to their situation, which can bear no delay. I call

on the Security Council to consider transforming the

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti into a

true development operation that responds to Haiti’s

needs and achieves concrete results.

In these difficult economic times, especially for

industrialized nations, with high unemployment and

stagnation, global solidarity tends to vanish from

among our priorities. That is a mistake. Turning one’s

back on international cooperation and trade helps no

one, and we are convinced that selfishness harms

everyone, and the industrialized world more than any.

Where else are consumers going to come from if not

from the millions of poor who have until now been left

at the margins of progress? Who, other than societies

filled with enthusiastic young people, can contribute to

the dynamism that mature nations need? What

economic space, other than the developing world, is

available to satisfy the needs of humankind in the

coming decades? Collective prosperity has advanced

the most precisely when millions have been involved in

development, and the darkest moments of our planet’s

economy have been those of exclusion and barriers.

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I cannot close without referring to two global

scourges — terrorism and drug trafficking — that feed

off each other, because it is often the money from illicit

drugs that finances terrorists acts and groups. Perhaps

more than any other country, Colombia has been a

victim of these phenomena, but it has also been a

model in the fight against them and a champion of the

need to act together with the international community,

under the principle of shared responsibility.

Our democratic security policy — a policy of

security for all with respect for the law — is also a

human rights policy because we have been able to

dramatically reduce the crimes and behaviours that

most threaten the lives and fundamental rights of our

people, such as homicide, kidnapping and

displacement. We were the first country to

comprehensively apply the principles of truth, justice

and reparation in the demobilization of illegal armed

groups. The Colombian State and society are

committed to defending and promoting human rights.

We do so out of conviction — deep conviction — and

not by imposition.

We have achieved great results in the fight

against drug trafficking. There has been a substantial

reduction in hectares where coca is grown, and we are

committed to pursuing this task until those crops are

completely eradicated. We have hit hard the mafias that

control this business, including guerrilla groups that

have become veritable drug cartels. We will continue to

fight them relentlessly and without quarter. We will

spare no effort. Just yesterday, from this very city, I

announced to the world the news of the death of the

highest-ranking military leader of the Revolutionary

Armed Forces of Colombia in an operation impeccably

conducted by our armed forces. This is the most

important and decisive blow against that terrorist group

in its history, and we hope it will bring us closer to

peace.

We want to achieve peace either by reason or by

force, and we will achieve it so that we can dedicate

and focus all our energies on achieving development

and prosperity for our people. In the fight against drug

trafficking, we have lost many of our best soldiers,

policemen, leaders, judges and journalists. Still, their

blood has not been shed in vain. From a failed State in

which violent actors, financed by drug trafficking, had

distorted our democracy, today we look at the world

from a thriving democracy rising towards democratic

prosperity for all. We defeated the big drug cartels, but

this business has not come to an end yet. That is why

we will keep on fighting it, because for us it is a matter

of national security.

We are concerned and distressed that our relative

success has led to other countries of the region

suffering the growing presence and activities of drug

trafficking in their territories. The world needs to open

its eyes, because to be in denial with respect to this

problem could be fatal. It happened to us at a very high

cost.

We Colombians are more than willing to

cooperate with States that need it, and we are already

doing so with several countries in Central America and

the Caribbean, with Mexico and even in Afghanistan.

But, it is very important that we be consistent on this

issue. I say this as representative of the country with

the highest moral authority to speak of this scourge,

because no other nation has suffered like ours the

disastrous consequences of drug trafficking.

We note with concern the contradictory stance of

some countries that, on the one hand, demand a head-

on fight against drug trafficking and, on the other,

legalize consumption or study the possibility of

legalizing the production and trade of certain illicit

drugs. How can I or anyone tell a peasant in my

country that he or she will be prosecuted and punished

for growing crops for drug production, while in other

countries such activity is being legalized? These

contradictions make it urgent — and on this matter we

join the call by President Leonel Fernández Reyna of

the Dominican Republic — that we agree to review the

global strategy against illicit drugs in order to draft a

single global policy that is more effective and within

which all countries will contribute equally to this

effort.

Thanks to the significant security, economic and

social achievements accomplished in recent years

through the efforts of many Colombians and the

leadership of my predecessor, President Álvaro Uribe,

today Colombia finds itself at the dawn of a new

morning. I came to office with the commitment to fight

poverty and unemployment and to lead my country

towards not only economic but also social prosperity

that reaches everyone, above all the poorest. I have

proposed a Government of national unity in which all

Colombians are united to create jobs and greater

welfare. I foresee with great optimism our future as a

nation.

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Today, I present myself before this global forum

with respect, humility, a sense of history and an

awareness of our own limitations to say that we can do

nothing alone, neither in my country nor in the world.

Only united and only with respect, solidarity and

tolerance will humankind be able to know a better

tomorrow.