Guatemala, 2013

I would

like to begin my remarks by welcoming Mr. John Ashe

in his capacity as President of the General Assembly

at its sixty-eighth session. We are pleased that a

representative of our region, Latin America and the

Caribbean, is once again presiding over the main

organ of the United Nations. At the same time, I wish

to express my appreciation to Mr. Vuk Jeremi. for his

outstanding leadership and stewardship of the Assembly

at its previous session, during which he honoured us

with a visit to Guatemala.

The year 2013 has been challenging for Guatemala.

Last year we undertook to reduce our levels of child

malnutrition, which affects 4 of every 10 children in

my country. In addition, we decided that we could

not continue to sit on our hands while hundreds of

those children died of hunger. I am here to inform the

Assembly, with some optimism, that our efforts are

beginning to bear fruit. Since we began the fight against

hunger, we have managed to reduce infant mortality

from malnutrition by 50 per cent. Similarly, we have

created a monitoring system that allows us to measure

the nutritional condition of hundreds of thousands of

children, both to assess their growth and development

and to prevent deaths among children under the age

of 5. The challenge is enormous and we know that our

goals are very ambitious. That is why we are not yet

satisfied with the progress achieved, but we can affirm

without hesitation that little by little we are winning the

fight against hunger and child malnutrition.

The fight against hunger is closely related to

education. We want our boys and girls to study as many

years as they can and wish, and with no less than nine

years of basic education, which is the goal we have set.

But for that to happen, we have to ensure that they have

the nutrition that will enable their brains and bodies

grow healthily. We have to nourish our boys and girls so

that they can study. And we must provide them with the

opportunity of education so that they can be successful

in their adult lives, both in the world of work and in the

civic responsibilities that our democracy needs.

That is clearly linked to our second goal, that of

promoting dignified employment and a competitive

economy. I can again report to the Assembly that we

have achieved a 27 per cent increase in the number of

workers registered with Guatemala’s social security

system between the first quarters of 2012 and 2013.

That means that our economy is creating more formal

employment opportunities at the same time as we are

making progress in establishing our country as a leader

in improving the business climate in order to stimulate

investment.

I am delighted to say that we have developed a

growing dialogue in various fields with the President

of the United Mexican States, Enrique Peña Nieto. We

see the future of Guatemala as clearly related to the

economy of that fraternal neighbouring State, and that

is why we have been seeking to strengthen our relations

in areas including energy, transport and logistics, the

modernization of customs and the improvement of

security at border crossings, as well as our common

battle against hunger and in favour of peace in our

countries. Shared prosperity is our banner, and justice

our emblem.

In the same vein, we have expressed to the

Government of the United States of America our clear

interest in aligning our policies with those that promote

progress and security between the peoples of Mexico

and the United States. Guatemala aspires to a tripartite

alliance of prosperity with Mexico and the United

States that would serve as the foundation for solid links

with the countries of the Central American Integration

System and at the same time become a platform for

progress in the entire Caribbean region.

Again, we know that these are ambitious goals and

that reaching them will require a strong and persistent

effort, so as to achieve the common future of prosperity

that our peoples demand - a demand that we cannot

and should not evade. Today millions of Guatemalans

and Central Americans live and work in the United

States, and more than 50 per cent of our population

depends directly on business transactions with and

family remittances from Mexico and the United States.

That integration is a fact, and we Governments must

strengthening the institutions and policies that make it

possible to make best use of the achievements of our

children, our citizens and our business community.

The quest for prosperity is also related to our goals

of promoting peace and combating impunity. Security

has been a challenge inherited by my Government, and

we have resolved to address it by preventing violence

and by enforcing the law in a clear framework of respect

for human rights. We are far from having achieved our

goals, but the progress made shows that our State has

the capacity to dismantle large criminal networks and

to make them accountable to justice for their actions.

In that regard, I should like to inform the Assembly

that in urban areas of Guatemala City, where homicide,

extortion and insecurity were prevalent, we have

managed gradually to reinstate peace and social

coexistence. At the same time, our justice institutions

report that overall, impunity has been reduced by

almost 25 per cent between 2009 and 2013, with a

particular decrease in impunity for crimes against life,

both homicide and sexual crimes against women and

children.

In connection with the strengthening of the rule of

law, I would like to thank the General Assembly and

the donor community in particular for their support

for the International Commission against Impunity

in Guatemala. Its mandate has been renewed until

September 2015, and we hope that this period will be

used well to continue strengthening the capacity to

prosecute of the Public Prosecutor, the Ministry of

Security, the Ministry of the Interior, the national civil

police and the courts.

Building a country that is prosperous and free of

hunger, a country integrated with its neighbours and

where justice and peace prevail – that is the standard

that will guide us, and those are the goals that will

move us forward. That is why we ask the international

community to support us in moving in that direction.

Since my Government took office last year, we

have clearly affirmed that the war against drugs has

not yielded the desired results and that we cannot

continue doing the same thing and expecting different

results. That is why I associate myself at this time with

other countries that have spoken out in the Assembly,

including Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica, in stating

that in the face of the global drug problem, we must

review internationally agreed policies in the quest for

more effective results in a framework of respect for

human rights and from the perspective of health and

harm reduction. The objective must be the well-being

of society in all its aspects.

Prevention must be given priority in order to reduce

the impact on health and especially to reduce the level of

social violence that is associated with the drug problem.

In the same vein, international cooperation should be

strengthened so as to reduce illegal flows of arms and

the funds that finance those criminal networks.

The new global strategy must emerge from an open

and inclusive debate leading up to the special session of

the General Assembly scheduled for 2016. We welcome

the Declaration of Antigua Guatemala of the General

Assembly of the Organization of American States as a

first step in the right direction towards the 2016 session.

I would like to add to this the specific views of my

Government. I should first like to say that Guatemala

commends the visionary decision of the citizens of the

states of Colorado and Washington, which have led the

way to an approach that addresses the issue of drugs

from the perspective of public health, the prevention

of addiction and violence, and full respect for human

rights. Likewise, I wish to commend President Obama

for his wise decision to respect the voice of the citizens

of Colorado and Washington, allowing those innovative

undertakings to prove themselves over time.

We also respect and support the example set

by President José Mujica of Uruguay in proposing

legislation that regulates the cannabis market instead

of following the failed route of prohibition. I must also

acknowledge the valiant and visionary leadership of

the Secretary-General of the Organization of American

States, José Miguel Insulza, who has firmly promoted

a climate of dialogue and reflection on drug policies

among the Governments of the western hemisphere.

Without digressing from the path of international

cooperation against transnational crime, each country

must experiment with new models to address the

drug problem. My Government has decided to create

a national commission that will help us explore more

effective means of dealing with the consumption,

trafficking and production of drugs.

We hope that the special session of the General

Assembly to be held in 2016 will draw on those

innovative experiences and take a strong stand in favour

of public policy that can be evaluated objectively and is

based on a focus on public health, prevention, damage

control and, of course, respect for human rights. We

also believe it important that the special session be held

here in New York City, because of its significance for

the future of global policies on the drug problem.

We had the privilege of being elected to the Security

Council for the period 2012-2013. Now that we are only

a few months away from the end of our tenure, I would

like to say that we have taken the provisions of Article

24 of the Charter of the United Nations very seriously,

not only in decisions based on our own values and

principles but also taking into account the fact that we

are acting on behalf of the General Assembly. We have

strived to comply with our mandate with objectivity,

a sense of responsibility and professionalism, while

emphasizing security and justice and the protection of

human rights and humanitarian law.

As a non-permanent member of the Security

Council, we have taken a position on the recent crisis

in Syria. We condemned the massacre, with chemical

weapons, of more than 1,000 people and insisted that

a crime of such magnitude could not go unpunished.

We also called for a firm response on the part of the

international community in order to prevent any

repetition of such deplorable acts. Consistent with that

position, we have supported the leadership of President

Obama, who has clearly affirmed that peace in Syria

and the Middle East as a whole must be built within the

framework of a political and diplomatic dialogue, but

without abandoning our international responsibility to

protect the citizens of those countries and of the world

from the threat of nuclear and chemical weapons.

We also believe that the United Nations made a

singular contribution to humankind in 2000 when it

launched the Millennium Development Goals. That is

why we are actively participating in the design of the

content and scope of the post-2015 development agenda

as a catalyst for development. We particularly hope that

the international community will define the reduction

of violence against women and children and universal

access to justice as global priorities. Only in a world that

is free of violence against women and provides justice

for all can a path be cleared towards development based

on full respect for human rights.

I would like to conclude my statement by

congratulating the United Nations system once again on

its ongoing efforts to seek peace and justice worldwide.

Guatemala endorses the same goals, and it is with

pride that I can affirm that we are and always will be a

country guided by the principles of the Charter of the

Organization.