Guatemala, 2014

I would like to begin my remarks by conveying our

greetings to Mr. Sam Kutesa, President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. At the same time, I

wish to express our appreciation to Mr. John Ashe for

his recognized leadership and exceptional performance

as President at the sixty-eighth session. I should

also like to take the opportunity to congratulate the

Secretary-General for his stewardship and especially

for the success of the recent United Nations Climate

Summit 2014.

Since September 2013, when the President of

Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, addressed the General

Assembly (see A/68/PV.12), 12 months have passed with

significant progress for Guatemala in three priority

areas of our domestic policy, in spite of our having to

face some new challenges, including a recent prolonged

drought.

First, I can report that we have advanced in the

battle against chronic malnutrition among children.

According to an independent investigation, in one year,

the program Zero Hunger has succeeded in reducing

chronic malnutrition on the same scale as that achieved

during the past decade, that is, by almost 2 per cent.

That means that, should that trend be maintained,

by the end of this Administration we will have been

able to reduce the rate of chronic malnutrition beyond

that achieved since 1985, proving that democracy and

appropriate policies would have enabled us to make

progress for Guatemalan children.

Secondly, I would like to say that the Administration

of President Pérez Molina has also advanced in

complying with the Pact for Peace, Security and

Justice. For the third consecutive year, the number

of homicides in Guatemala has decreased, with a

cumulative contraction of 25 per cent between 2011

and 2014. With that, we are coming closer to achieving

the same levels of security recorded after the Peace

Accords were signed in 1996. That progress shows that

the measures taken are producing the expected results

and that Guatemalan democracy is slowly winning its

battle against crime and impunity, in the framework of

respect for the law and compliance with human rights.

With regard to that second achievement, once more

we express our appreciation for the support received

from the International Commission against Impunity

in Guatemala (CICIG), an entity that has strengthened

criminal prosecution against mafia networks, some

of which even infiltrated the security and justice

establishment. As the final year of the mandate of CICIG

approaches, after nearly eight years of cooperation

with three democratically elected Governments, our

assessment is that international cooperation programme,

supported by the United Nations, was fully justified,

since Guatemalan institutions today are better prepared

to take on their constitutional role.

Moreover, this last year will be critical to

ensuring the institutional sustainability of the judicial

investigations and procedures already under way.

We thank the United Nations and the international

community for joining us and leaving that great

legacy for Guatemala. Our country will now have the

responsibility of strengthening a system of security and

justice capable of reducing impunity and ensuring the

total separation between criminal networks and our

public institutions.

A third advancement that I would like to share

with the Assembly has to do with competitiveness and

the business climate. In the past two years we have

advanced eight steps in the Global Competitiveness

Index, established by the World Economic Forum. In

fact, the World Bank has highlighted us for the second

consecutive year as one of the most reformed countries

in the world in terms of improving the business climate,

jumping 19 positions in the respective report. That

is due to the actions of the present Administration

in the framework of the Pact for Oversight and

Competitiveness.

That improvement in the business climate is

above all the result of administrative improvements

that have reduced bureaucratic procedures, supported

additionally by a progressive improvement in the

country’s infrastructure. In addition, as we informed

the Climate Change Summit, our commitment

regarding economic progress is made within the context

of increasing sustainability. The change in the energy

matrix towards more sustainable and environmentally

friendly energy sources and away from fossil fuels,

which produce greenhouse gases, is being achieved by

bringing into the system more plants that depend on

the sustainable use of water, geothermal sources, solar

energy and even natural gas.

In that context, we have gone ahead with various

strategic agreements with our neighbouring countries.

For example, with Mexico, we can report on the projects

to reconstruct and modernize border crossings on land

and the signing of a historic agreement for a project

that will transport gas from the Gulf of Mexico to

Guatemala and all of Central America. With Belize, we

are moving forward and have negotiated 15 important

bilateral agreements in all areas, which we will sign

in December. They will strengthen the relations not

only between our Governments but also between our

peoples. In the Central American Integration System,

we are making progress in consolidating our integration

process, and the next goal is to establish a customs

union. In addition, relations between Central America

and the Caribbean are becoming increasingly intensive,

guaranteeing greater markets and improved economic

and political relations among our countries.

In the context of advances in the social, economic,

security and justice areas, we cannot forget some

challenges that have gained a higher profile during the

current year. In that regard, I must refer to the crisis

of the Central American child migrants on the border

between the United States and Mexico. The crisis,

provoked by diverse factors in both Central America

and the United States, has alerted us to the need to move

more quickly on the path towards greater prosperity, in

particular for children and adolescents.

We trust that the people and Government of

the United States understand that the migrant crisis

requires a strategic response that attacks the structural

roots of the phenomenon and provides sustained

actions. That implies working together to promote

development and prosperity in Guatemala, Honduras

and El Salvador and intelligent management of seasonal

work for migrants that both satisfies the demands of

the labour market in the United States and provides for

workers from Central America. It is also important to

make the necessary efforts to regulate the situation of

undocumented persons in the United States. Above all,

migrants must not be criminalized, because migration

is neither a sin nor a crime. It is the networks of human

traffickers that are criminal, promoting corruption,

extortion, kidnapping and sexual abuse.

In the same vein, I cannot fail to mention the

challenge posed by the shortage of rain this year in all

the Central American region. The drought has led to the

loss of crops of basic foods for hundreds of thousands of

families, and addressing the food crisis will incur a cost

of close to $50 million for Guatemala alone during the

next eight months. It is clear that the drought is a result

of climate change and that, without decisive action by

our Government and the solidarity of the international

community, many families will find themselves in a

very vulnerable situation due to hunger. The speeches

during the Climate Change Summit must translate

into direct humanitarian assistance that reaches the

most needy communities in Central America and the

Caribbean. It is time to transform rhetoric into action.

I would like to mention three important processes

driving the United Nations that Guatemala strongly

supports.

First is putting together a post-2015 development

agenda that must clearly embrace inclusive and

sustainable development goals, including those related

to promoting justice for all. In that context, we must

also incorporate specific goals to avoid man-made

climate change.

Secondly, Guatemala is committed to supporting

the 2016 special session of the General Assembly

to discuss the world drug problem. President Pérez

Molina, together with other Presidents of the Western

Hemisphere, is determined to promote, through

leadership, a frank and sincere debate on this issue,

utilizing as a main reference the two declarations

emanating from the General Assembly of the

Organization of American States during the past 18

months. During the most recent extraordinary session,

held a few days ago in my country, I was charged with

transmitting to the presidency of this General Assembly

and to the United Nations Commission on Drugs and

Crime the text of the resolution, which I will do in due

time. Our focus must be comprehensive, objective and

evidence-based. And our goals must be realistic and

measurable — no more dead products of the war against

drugs, no more false promises. A comprehensive focus

is necessary.

Thirdly, Guatemala will follow up on the resolution

and recommendations of the World Conference on

Indigenous Peoples (resolution 69/2) and work to see

that the world recognizes the rights of the indigenous

peoples as one of the basic platforms of the international

legal architecture of human rights.

Like many of the heads of delegation who preceded

me in speaking, I view with growing concern the

deteriorating security landscape facing various parts of

the globe. The exceptional cruelty of militant jihadist

groups leaves us astonished, and we energetically

condemn those crimes. We support all measures to

combat them, including in particular the elimination of

the root causes that lead many people to those levels of

fanaticism.

We are also profoundly troubled by the instability

in the Middle East, especially by the prolonged conflict

in Syria, which has already taken an immense toll in

lives and human suffering. We are concerned that in

Central Europe principles enshrined in the Charter

of the United Nations, such as respect for territorial

integrity, are being put to the test. We also remain

concerned about tensions in various countries on the

African continent and on the Korean peninsula.

We believe that the United Nations offers the ideal

venue in which to address those conflicts and tensions,

and we reiterate our hope that dialogue, agreement

and preventive diplomacy will take precedence over

the use of force. In that respect, we pin our hopes on

a negotiated outcome of the long-standing conflict

between Israel and Palestine with the emergence of two

States, living in peace within secure borders.

I end my remarks by repeating what President

Otto Pérez Molina said last year to the Assembly,

when he congratulated the United Nations system for

its ongoing commitment to seek peace and justice

worldwide. Guatemala aligns itself with that statement

and those same goals and can affirm with pride that we

are and will always be a country that is guided by the

principles set out in the Charter of the Organization.

That sentiment is reflected in our commitment to

peacekeeping operations.