Guatemala, 1999

I

wish first of all to express our satisfaction at your election,

which has accorded you the privilege of conducting the

debate at this fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

I wish also to express our conviction that your recognized

diplomatic and political experience will lead to creative

results.

I should also like to pay a tribute to the Foreign

Minister of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, Mr. Didier

Opertti, whose diligence at the helm of the Assembly last

session not only bore witness to his professional abilities,

but also confirmed the commitment of that American

nation to the principles on which the United Nations is

based.

Exactly three years ago, on first taking the floor

here, I began by announcing that we were very close to

achieving peace in my country. Today I return to this

Assembly four months before my term of office expires

to summarize all that has transpired during the past three

years of changes, many of which Guatemalans could not

imagine when we signed the peace accords on 29

December 1996.

The first and most fundamental change that has

taken place has been in the hearts and minds of

Guatemalans, as can be seen in the way that the former

guerrillas have been brought back in from the cold and

are no longer outlaws, and in the return of the refugees.

After over three decades of an internal armed

conflict marked by extreme cruelty, a conflict which was,

among other things, an expression of profound and deep-

rooted political and ideological intolerance, all the

indications were that reintegrating the former guerrillas

was going to be a complicated and dangerous process.

Nevertheless, against all expectations, from the moment

the ceasefire took hold until the former guerrillas took

part in the electoral process, reintegration has taken place

in an atmosphere not only of security but also of

openness and tolerance on the part of all sectors of

society. I should also like to highlight here the attitude of

the Guatemalan army, which involved itself fully in the

negotiating process and made fundamental contributions

to it and then, once the peace accords had been signed,

not only complied fully with their provisions but was also

positive in its attitude towards them. By acting in

accordance with the spirit of the accords and not just the

letter, it encouraged reconciliation and peaceful

coexistence with its former adversaries.

At the local level, both the refugees and the former

guerrillas have returned to their towns and villages and

today, in many of those places, development committees

have been set up composed of returnees, former

guerrillas, former members of the civil patrols and former

members of the armed forces, all of them working

together to improve the lot of their communities by

striking at the roots of their problems.

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Also, at the public policy level, peace has meant social

investment on a scale and of a quality unprecedented in our

country’s history. That investment has been effected in

accordance with the social ethic and the development logic

of the peace accords, and have also met the specific targets

set in those accords.

Thus we have gone farther than anyone has before.

We have gone as far as the most remote villages and

hamlets and brought them education, health services, roads,

electricity and water, though we know that much remains

to be done. What we have achieved so far has already

shown that if we can consolidate the opening to progress

which our country has made, we can quickly remedy the

effects of so very many years of backwardness.

We are also investing in the infrastructure and

facilities needed for production in order to improve the

country’s competitive position in the globalized world of

today. I would say that these two fundamental aspects I

have mentioned, the reintegration of the former guerrilla

forces into society and social investment, contain the

fundamental elements on which a new Guatemala will be

based.

Inherent to the processes through which the former

guerrillas have been reintegrated and the refugees have

been repatriated are reconciliation, tolerance, respect for

diversity and legal or otherwise agreed solutions to

conflicts.

The main thrust of public investment embodies a

social ethic based on the common good and a tangible

effort to improve access to opportunities for the least

regarded sectors. Thus both processes form the foundations

for maintaining and strengthening peaceful coexistence

between Guatemalans, which has been the most significant

qualitative result of the peace accords of December 1996:

on the one hand, a peaceful settlement to the conflicts and,

on the other, increasing efforts to redress the most serious

injustices and opportunities for development for all.

Nevertheless, our internal endeavours have taken place

in an adverse world economic context. As in almost every

other Latin American country, the economy in Guatemala

is experiencing a slowdown and a financial squeeze.

Together with the effects of the crises in various regions

and the persistent financial speculation that is constantly

chipping away at productive, job-creating investment, the

prices of our main export products have plummeted while

the cost of our imports, particularly oil, have gone up

substantially.

The negative impact of this situation particularly

affected the strata of our society who are least capable of

fending for themselves. This trend which is mainly caused

by external factors, has been compounded by the direct

and indirect effects of hurricane Mitch, which struck our

sister countries of Honduras and Nicaragua particularly

hard but also brought serious destruction to our own

country and seriously affected trade within the Central

American region, on which we are highly dependent.

As a result, the State’s efforts to boost development

cannot be as successful as they might otherwise be,

particularly when compared with our people’s

expectations. We have created investment incentives,

beginning with political stability, and going on to

education and training, creation of infrastructure and

provision of basic services. What has been accomplished

in the way of public works and public services has

generated tens of thousands of jobs. The work done on

the roads and highways and on the electrical grid and

telecommunications has significantly expanded the main

bases of our economy. As a result of all these and other

endeavours, the effects in our country of the negative

economic developments taking place abroad have been

less severe than in our sister countries that have stopped

growing or have experienced negative economic growth.

We have created a foundation that will have a

positive impact on the standard of living of the people,

and especially of the neediest. These beneficial results

will continue if we stay the course.

For even if we must continue to swim against the

current of the world economy, which is temporarily

impoverishing us, we have available internal resources

and can count on ongoing processes that are likely to

produce structural change, provided that the efforts made

over the past four years are consolidated, sustained and

continued.

The Peace Agreements are, for Guatemala, the

strategic elements of a profound, comprehensive and all-

embracing effort to change our country. They represent

the basic guidelines for the fundamental transformations

necessary to build a different Guatemala, one that is

profoundly democratic and committed to the integral and

sustainable development of its people.

The peace agenda is equivalent to the

democratization of the country, which is conceived as a

functional and participatory democracy encompassing the

political and cultural domains. A functioning democracy

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involves reform of the State, and its participatory character

is what enables it to become a social democracy, which in

turn strengthens its functionality.

In this respect, I cannot fail to mention the substantial

increase in opportunities for popular participation that has

resulted from the establishment, as mandated in the peace

agreements, of over 15 multi-sectoral commissions, as well

as the measures taken to extend and complement structures

for the elaboration and adoption of public policy.

Also noteworthy are the efforts that have been made

to decentralize the State and strengthen local institutions

with a view to a rapprochement between the Government

and the people and to giving them a greater say in public

affairs.

Another fundamental process consists in the efforts

being made to build a multicultural, plurilingual and multi-

ethnic nation. This involves extremely complex work to roll

back centuries of exclusion, discrimination and racism, and

it presupposes profound cultural changes towards the

tolerance and respect necessary for our cultural diversity to

blossom and make the many contributions it can to our

national development without putting the unity of the

country at risk.

It has also been essential to redefine national security

and defence. This has involved re-examining principles and

rethinking the public security, national defence and

intelligence apparatuses. We have made progress in the

establishment of a new national civil police. This is a

professional body that is trained to focus on the protection

and defence of the individual and collective rights of

citizens and is sensitive to, and respectful of, ethnic,

cultural and linguistic diversities.

We have also further reduced our military forces,

cutting back the budget and dismantling bases and other

important elements of the military infrastructure, as

provided for in the Peace Agreements, with the full

concurrence and participation of the army.

The progress made in various areas is a source of

legitimate pride for all Guatemalans as well as for the

States that, as the Group of Friends, have supported us, and

in particular for the Organization, whose role as our partner

has enabled us to maintain optimism and hope in the

difficult task of building peace and development.

Guatemala has been able to benefit from the essence

of what the Organization does best: make available its good

offices and serve as a facilitator in the various phases of

the management of a conflict, act as an impartial

verifying agency, provide unconditional cooperation and

act as a trusted partner in assisting Member States to

resolve problems.

I wish to stress the paramount importance of the role

that has been played in Guatemala by the United Nations

Verification Mission in Guatemala, with a view to

ensuring progress in the implementation of the Peace

Agreements. The United Nations presence in our country

and the exercise of its advisory and verification functions

with impartiality and wisdom have contributed

significantly to the implementation of the various phases

of the commitments in the Peace Agreements.

Our Government attaches similar importance to other

initiatives that the United Nations has undertaken in

support of Guatemala’s society. Our country is a testing

ground for a new assistance framework that aims, among

other things, to impart greater consistency to the work of

the various agencies of the Organization. Our own

evaluation of the assistance we have received is highly

positive.

The number of activities the Organization is carrying

out in Guatemala is quite high and increasing. It is

therefore only fair to emphasize that the various agencies

have been able to mobilize a considerable amount of

additional resources from external sources.

Another positive contribution of the cooperation in

question is the tangible impact it has had, through both its

direct effects and its catalytic function in respect of public

expenditure and the policies carried out by the

Government.

I therefore wish to convey our deep appreciation to

the States Members of the United Nations, which have at

all times supported the efforts of the various sectors of

Guatemalan society to restore peace. Their political

backing has been fundamental to the success of those

efforts. I also extend my gratitude to the Secretariat, and

in particular to Mr. Kofi Annan, as well as to the

executive organs of the various agencies of the United

Nations system, which have interpreted the mandates of

the Organization and have demonstrated efficiency in

their execution.

Finally, we fully appreciate the value of the work of

other multilateral bodies such as the World Bank, the

International Monetary Fund, the Organization of

American States, and in particular the Inter-American

Development Bank, which has played a dual role as direct

source of financial assistance and organizer of the

Consultative Group for Guatemala.

The success achieved by intergovernmental bodies in

connection with the Guatemalan peace process is our basic

reason for reiterating our conviction that cooperation

between nations is indispensable in order to achieve peace

and development for our peoples. That is why Guatemala

remains firmly committed to the promotion of various kinds

of multicultural and multi-ethnic undertakings, not only in

the framework of the United Nations but also with respect

to various endeavours at the regional and hemispheric

levels.

One of the boldest and most challenging initiatives is

the one being undertaken by Central America to achieve the

economic and political integration of the region. Like the

other States that compose the Central American Integration

System, Guatemala is convinced that this strategic

association strengthens the region in its relations with an

increasingly competitive world, and it reiterates its

commitment to continue promoting actions to enhance the

effectiveness of Central American integration.

For those same reasons, Guatemala wishes to express

its unreserved support for the strengthening of our

Organization. We are firmly convinced that the United

Nations must be the principal forum responsible for

maintaining world peace. That is why we welcome the

Security Council’s prompt response to the crisis in East

Timor. We believe that United Nations involvement in such

situations confirms its functions as the sole organ

competent to decide on the action to be taken in cases

where the principle of non-intervention needs to be

interpreted with due regard to the existence of violations of

international humanitarian law.

In order that such functions be performed adequately,

we need an Organization that is strong and flexible, with

mechanisms and procedures that are capable of responding

to the challenges of new world realities. We must

accordingly reflect more deeply on the ideal design

structure of an Organization that must compensate for the

regional imbalances of power that have arisen in the post-

cold-war world. This also means that we should pursue the

reform of the Secretariat and of the intergovernmental

bodies of the United Nations, including the Security

Council.

We believe also that the United Nations should

continue to deal with the greatest unfinished task of the

twentieth century: wiping out world poverty. Together

with the multilateral financial agencies, our Organization

should play an indispensable role in ensuring that the

benefits of globalization are distributed on a democratic

basis, and that if we must all be exposed to the risks, we

should all be entitled to enjoy the benefits.

Guatemala appreciates the Organization’s

contributions to promoting an international climate

enabling disputes between and within States to be settled

peacefully. As a State Member of the United Nations,

Guatemala has always resolved all its international

disputes in a peaceful manner and in accordance with

international law.

We wish to reiterate to the Assembly our concern

about the situation of the 22 million inhabitants of the

Republic of China in Taiwan whose aspirations for

representation in international organizations have not been

satisfied.

We welcome the new impetus that has been seen in

the Middle East peace negotiations and we trust that they

will lead to a comprehensive resolution of all the

outstanding issues there. After so many years of conflict,

the countries of the region, including a future Palestinian

State, deserve to live in peace, security, harmony and

prosperity.

This is the last statement that I will make to the

General Assembly as the representative of my country,

and I should like to conclude by reiterating my people’s

gratitude for the solidarity shown to us in our efforts

towards peace and development. The support which the

peoples and Governments represented here have bestowed

upon us, together with the strenuous work of the United

Nations and its agencies, make us feel honoured, indebted

and motivated.

The fruit that our peace process has manifestly borne

in such a short time provides clear evidence of the

validity and relevance of the system and of the

fundamental, indispensable and inestimable importance of

the efforts of the Guatemalan people within the country

and of the unquestionable effectiveness of international

friendship in the form of respectful, timely and effective

cooperation in building a more democratic country and a

more equitable and united world.

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