Honduras, 2004

For

the second time, I have this special opportunity of

appearing before you in the common home of the

nations of the world. Everyone knows that we live in a

time of great risks and problems, but also of great

opportunities. Allow me to refer to two challenges,

which in my opinion are the most important: the lack

of security and the existence of poverty.

First of all, I must refer to the lack of security. I

believe that it is obvious to everyone that the durability

of our democratic system and the alleviation of poverty

require us to provide for the security of each one of our

citizens. My Government is committed to that. The

safety of my compatriots is my first priority. I am

committed to ensuring respect for human rights and,

within that concept, I am even more committed to

ensuring the protection and the security of honest and

hard-working citizens. If we all strive to provide

security and reduce our citizensí level of poverty, we

will also be combating terrorists, and we will be

winning the battle against those who take advantage of

the positive qualities of democracy to destroy it

through terror.

Combating terrorism begins by combating crime

and delinquency in our countries. We are committed to

this struggle, and we know that we are not alone. This

is, in fact, a universal challenge. We know that we can

only confront it if we are together. Crime, delinquency

and terrorism have, in effect, already undergone

globalization and our actions, therefore, must be

equally based on international cooperation.

Organized crime appears in many shapes and

forms. However, few are as degrading as drug

trafficking. Few crimes generate as much corruption or

so thoroughly destroy the core of our society and our

values than drug trafficking. My country is on the drug

trafficking route. We are right in the middle of the

corridor that links the producers to the consumers. We

are victims of the greed of the producers and the

perverted desires of the consumers. Over the past 18

months in Honduras, we have impounded more drugs

than in all the previous nine years, but this is obviously

still not enough. Combating organized crime and drug

trafficking, if we are alone, will be almost impossible.

The Governments of the countries in which drugs are

produced, the countries that are used to transport the

drugs and the countries in which the drugs are

consumed must, together, confront this. If we are

alone, the poor countries have very few chances of

succeeding. If we remain alone, we will have to divert

resources that we need to combat poverty towards

combating drug trafficking and organized crime. We

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need more resolute, direct and substantial support if we

are to confront this tremendous challenge. I would like

to say to the wealthy countries: let us work together to

confront this scourge of our time.

Security also implies the rule of law and, for over

three years, we have worked to bring it about. We have

combated corruption by closing businesses that

engaged in tax evasion, eliminated the immunity of

public servants and promoted a responsible use of State

resources. We have achieved a great deal, but we

recognize that a great deal remains to be done. We

recently adopted a property law, which, for the first

time in our history, enables the poor to hold deeds to

their land. This may seem simple and almost trivial in

developed countries, but on our continent, by and

large, the poor have not enjoyed the benefit of these

valuable deeds. Eighty-four per cent of Hondurasí

citizens do not have a title to the plot of land on which

they live. We are opening new pathways, and before

my Government completes its mandate, we hope that

hundreds of thousands of poor people will hold, for the

first time, registered titles to their property.

Security also implies peaceful relationships with

our neighbours. For the first time in our history, our

land borders have been defined, and they are now

being conclusively demarcated. What is even more

important is that this was achieved without spilling

blood and without bellicose threats. We resorted to the

International Court of Justice in The Hague and we

have complied with its rulings. As far as Honduras is

concerned, solving a border dispute is not something

that can be achieved through violence. It can be achieved

peacefully, through international jurisprudence.

Having now consolidated our land borders, we

are defining our maritime borders, and we have once

again had recourse to the International Court of Justice.

In our opinion, the time has now come to take the

next step. The time has come to declare Central America

a zone of peace, a zone that renounces violence as a

means of resolving disputes. To consolidate this

process with the support of the Organization of

American States, we have already eliminated all the

landmines that were placed around our country years

ago, and we can now say with pride that we are a

country that is entirely free of landmines. To bring this

process to completion, we now propose reducing the

number of weapons of war throughout the region. To

lend credibility to this process, we invite the United

Nations to accompany us and to certify compliance on

the part of each of our countries. We also invite the

international community to join us in this process.

We propose that the process of arms reduction be

supported with fresh resources to combat poverty. We

propose an exchange: weapons of war in exchange for

funding for poverty alleviation. Please support us.

Poverty, and even more, hunger and malnutrition, are

the most fearsome enemies of our democratic systems.

A democracy based on empty stomachs is an empty

democracy. All the research that has been carried out,

including studies by the United Nations, tell us that,

today as never before, formal democracy prevails

throughout our continent, in Latin America. However,

the same studies tell us that, today more than ever,

dissatisfaction with our democratic systems is rampant.

Poverty undermines our democracies and hunger

erodes them. We know that combating poverty and

hunger is an effort that must be shared by all. In our

case, in Honduras, with much participation on the part

of our citizens, we have devised a strategy to combat

poverty that incorporates the Millennium Development

Goals. This legacy has been refined and perfected over

the past two years. The strategy to combat poverty is

the very foundation of our vision as a country and of

our planning as a nation.

However, alone and in isolation, our efforts

undoubtedly will not be able to produce the hoped-for

results for our people. We require the support of the

international community. International cooperation is

not a handout; it is an investment. Everyone, absolutely

everyone, derives benefit from it. Our small economies

are open to international trade and to globalization. We

do not fear this challenge; in fact, we see that it

provides tremendous opportunities to us.

However, we will not be able to overcome our

poverty if the rules of international trade are not fair.

We firmly believe that protected markets lead only to

stagnation and the growth of poverty. It is not fair that

while we are opening our markets, other countries are

giving subsidies to their producers.

We welcome the decision of the United States to

return to the International Coffee Organization, but at

the same time we ask that the hundreds of thousands of

families that grow coffee in rural areas be paid better.

Let me give you an example. Five years ago, our

farmers earned 40 per cent of the price of coffee served

to the final consumer. Today, they earn only 9 per cent,

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while the companies in developed countries pocket the

difference. I invite the presidents and heads of State of

coffee-producing countries to work together until we

achieve a better price for all of our farmers. Together,

producers and consumers, we can make sure that coffee

is not a bitter drink for the producers.

If the price of coffee can have a rapid and

massive impact on the struggle against poverty, the

price of oil, when it rises, rapidly makes our poverty

much worse. In the case of my country, over the past

year the increased bill for oil is 12 times what we

spend on providing school lunches to 870,000 boys and

girls who used to go to school without eating every

day. This is 12 times what it took us years and many

sacrifices to achieve. The world has seldom seen so

massive a transfer of resources from poor importing

countries to wealthy oil-exporting countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to

international conscience, and in particular to the

conscience of oil-exporting countries, that we may

establish a trading system that brings about a reduction

in the price of oil and helps to stabilize it. We need a

system that takes account of poverty in countries and

of the efforts that are being made to combat it. We need

a system that enjoys United Nations supervision to

ensure that it is used properly.

I am making a formal request to the United

Nations to take the lead in this matter. I am not

exaggerating when I say that there are few other

actions we could take that would make such a great

contribution to reducing poverty. I would also like to

appeal to the developed countries to use oil like a

scarce resource. Let them continue to improve fuel

efficiency and to establish taxes that reflect the true

cost of oil. Let them coordinate measures to make sure

that demand does not grow unduly and make prices

grow too fast. They should make prudent use of a non-

renewable resource to which we should all have access.

I would like to conclude by appealing to all to

strengthen the United Nations system. That is the only

way we can achieve peace in the world. Let us

subordinate our individual agendas in order to find

agreed solutions here in the United Nations. The well-

being of the world demands that we act in this manner.

I would also add that we support reforming the

Security Council by increasing the number of

permanent and non-permanent members. This will

make it possible for countries such as Japan to

participate, as well as a representative for Latin

America. This will lend greater legitimacy to the

Councilís decisions. We also support an all-embracing

approach for the United Nations, which, in our opinion,

means that we should find a way of enabling the

Chinese people in Taiwan to participate in the United

Nations processes.

As I said at the beginning, we are living in difficult

times, but this is also a time of great opportunity. We

hold out our hand in friendship to everyone. All that

we ask in exchange is to be treated fairly.