Honduras, 2025

I now give the floor to His Excellency Javier Bosoto, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras. Madam President of the General Assembly, Secretary General of the United Nations, Heads of State and of Government, Ambassadors, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, I address you today on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Honduras and on behalf of President Iris Jomaras Castro Sarmiento, the first woman to lead the destiny of our nation, who recognizes the historic meaning of this General Assembly, which commemorates 80 years since the establishment of the United Nations. Eight decades have elapsed since humanity, in the wake of the horror of two world wars, decided to build a new legal, moral and political framework to preserve peace, protect fundamental rights and build equal development between peoples. Today, in 2025, we need urgently to see if this foundational promise has been fulfilled or, worse, if there is the risk of it being meaningless, given the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century. Madam President, the world is not peaceful. The genocide in Gaza, the devastation in Ukraine, persistent violent crises, particularly in the Middle East, Africa and Haiti, the dangerous weapons business of global capitalism, all show the failure of the multilateral system to fulfill its essential mandate to achieve peace, to prevent barbarism, to stop the progression of the nuclear race, which major powers are engaged in and which could be the apocalypse of humanity. We categorically reject the fact that the most important decisions on peace and security throughout the world are hoarded in the hands of five permanent members of the Security Council. Their veto power, which has become an anachronistic privilege, has paralyzed collective action and the calls for peace in different parts of the world and has allowed those committing war crimes to enjoy impunity. The UN cannot remain a hostage to special interests, nor can it be idly complicit in the face of the destruction of entire peoples. It is morally unacceptable that while billions of dollars are spent on weapons, budgets for peacekeeping operations, humanitarian aid and sustainable development are being slashed. How can it be justified that the voice of 193 states who are present in this General Assembly and who are in favor of peace, to put an end to the different power blocs, can be cancelled out by one vote? We cannot continue to sustain a global order founded on privilege and inequality that leads to suffering for millions of poor people throughout the world. If we want the UN to survive as a guarantor of peace and not as an impotent bystander, we urgently need to reform its foundational Charter. That is why Honduras joins the clamor of the Global South, demanding that the UN Charter be structurally changed to democratize the Security Council so that it once again has legitimacy, effectiveness and justice for the nations of the world. To be clear, we are proposing the following. First of all, to broaden the composition of permanent members and non-permanent members, ensuring equitable regional representation therein. Secondly, we need to get rid of the veto, particularly when peace is looked for. And we need to ensure that this is particularly the case where there is genocide, war crimes and widespread violations of human rights. Thirdly, we need to beef up the role of the General Assembly, providing the Assembly with more power, more binding power, in decisions pertaining to peace, security and development. And finally, we need to open decision-making for women, indigenous peoples, youth and diasporas, whose voice continues to be marginalized. Honduras is not accepting any more excuses. We will not remain silent in the face of injustice. The norms of the international order cannot continue to be defined by the logic of war, the hegemony of capital or strategic workings of the most powerful. It must reflect the universal desire of people to live in peace, democracy, with dignity and freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, in Honduras we have embraced these principles. In these three and a half years of democratic government, led by President Jamara Castro Sarmiento, we have taken decisive steps forward to give our nation dignity once again, by restructuring our institutions, recovering our independence, our people's sovereignty and upholding people's civil, political and environmental rights. Twelve years and seven months on since the coup d'état against the democratic President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, back then, a drug dictatorship was installed whose head, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was convicted in New York and sentenced to 45 years imprisonment for being part of a drug-trafficking cartel to traffic drugs towards the United States. Public-private corruption, violence and institutional deterioration were the instruments used by the Honduran oligarchy to continue exploiting our natural resources and our entire people. Our government has begun the process to recover from this episode by carrying out root-and-branch changes, focusing on the well-being of the majorities who were sacrificed by the drug dictatorship and historically excluded by the neoliberal economic model. This recovery has meant putting people's lives above business and putting education and health above privilege. Our progress has been clear. Poverty, which was 73% in 2021, has come down to 63% in 2024, and extreme poverty has been reduced from 54% to 40%. This means that more than a million people in Honduras have been lifted out of poverty in these three years. Poverty has also been reduced by almost six points on the Gini index. This is double what the previous government had achieved. In addition to this, the income of the 20% poorest who had been sacrificed as a result of the looting and the indebtedness that had been carried out by the previous government, in contrast to this, in the administration of the democratic socialism of Jamala Castro that we now have, these people have seen their income increase by 150% and they now have access to health, sports, security, education, roads, agriculture and energy provided free of charge. In terms of security, Honduras ended 2024 with a homicide rate of 26 for each 100,000 inhabitants. This is the lowest rate in 20 years. In the anti-corruption fight, we have opened our public finances to scrutiny from social audits. We have got rid of corrupt trust funds and we have recovered our public goods. The tax justice law sent to the National Congress is part of our progressive tax reform which ends to redistribute wealth for education, health, agriculture and social protection. It eliminates privileges given to the most powerful 25 economic groups and 10 families who monopolise 80% of the country's GDP and enjoy generous tax breaks. In terms of gender, we have improved gender equality in decision-making. Our cabinet has equal representation of women and men and we also have programs that have been rolled out to eradicate gender-based violence. Distinguished delegates, Honduras is striving to recover its forests. We have a zero deforestation program to 2030. In this effort, we have established three military battalions to protect our forests. Honduras is one of the countries that suffers most as a result of climate change, even though we are one of the countries that contributes the least to global pollution. Droughts, devastating storms, a loss of biodiversity and false displacements are all open wounds that we have not caused but which we are nevertheless paying with our lives and with our future. This is a struggle that we cannot carry out alone. Similarly, we reject the way in which migration is being criminalised with harsher laws and more militarised borders. This road resolves nothing. It only perpetuates tragedy. It multiplies suffering and it denies the fact that there is shared international responsibility to address a human global phenomenon. People migrate as a result of unequal systems that have failed them for years, not because of their own choice. Criminalising them means punishing them twice, first to poverty and then to exile. Colleagues, our foreign policy is based on our unwavering respect for sovereignty, the self-determination of people and human rights. That is why we denounce the illegal unilateral sanctions that throttle economies and condemn people to misery. These measures, such as those imposed against Cuba for decades now, must cease immediately. We unreservedly condemn all forms of foreign occupation and threats of military interference in our hemisphere. They are totally unacceptable. Measures such as these mean denying people's rights to live in free sovereign states. This right is inalienable and its recognition cannot continue to be postponed or manipulated. No rhetorical justification can legitimise the violation of sovereignty or the subjugation of nations. That is why today, before this General Assembly, we repeat our recognition of the State of Palestine, in line with our historic commitment and with our unwavering stance in favour of peace, security and the co-existence of two states in the Middle East. Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this November, Honduras will hold General Elections, which will be transparent, inclusive and democratic. The Government of President Xiomara Castro will ensure the free participation of all political sectors, respect for public freedoms and the presence of regional and international electoral observation missions. Madam President, the United Nations must dare to change so as not to be a relic of the past, but rather the voice of the future. Eighty years since its establishment, it is not enough to commemorate the past. It is now time to open fora for dialogue and hope for a better tomorrow that is still possible. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I thank the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras. I now