Panama, 1969

81. Madam President, in. speaking at this session of

the General Assembly of the United Nations, I wish, first of

all, to convey to you, on behalf of the Republic of Panama,

our warmest and most cordial congratulations on your

having been. chosen, so wisely and with such justice, to

preside over this twenty-fourth session.

82. The delegation of Panama, which is well aware of your

devotion to the purposes and principles of the United

Nations, welcomes the presence in the President’s chair of

one who is both a symbol of the women of the present-day

world and a most distinguished representative of Liberia

and the African continent which is emerging dynamically

and promisingly on the international scene, and because it

is convinced that that presence constitutes the best guarantee

of impartiality and tact in the guidance of the debate

and of success in our deliberations.

83. May I also be permitted to pay a sincere tribute to the

memory of the great Guatemalan, Emilio Arenales, who

died during the twenty-third session of the United Nations

General Assembly, of which he was President, when he was

at the height of a fruitful life in the service of his country,

of America and of the world. Here his name is added to the

list of those who have joined the immortals, leaving behind

a trail of prodigious and noteworthy efforts to promote

international peace and security, fundamental human rights

and social progress and who, quite properly, deserve the

grateful thanks of peace-loving nations.

84. The Republic of Panama is attending this Assembly

with a very clear and definite intention to contribute, as far

as lies within its power, to ensuring that the general debate

and the work of the committees furnish the United Nations

with new considerations which will still further justify its

existence, enhance its prestige, strengthen its activities and

stimulate hope, on the eve of its twenty-fifth anniversary.

85. We understand and, at the same time, regret that at

this historic moment, which is the background to this

Assembly, the realities of international life confront us with

a motley panorama full of questions. We are not unaware

that conflicts in an acute form are still continuing and cast

a shadow over the peace of the world, although there had

been understandable hopes that they might be settled or at

least that their effects might be reduced, and we know that

in various regions in the world situations exist which offend

the most elemental feelings of humanity. But we also know

that, despite these facts, efforts continue to be made to put

an end to these conflicts and situations, and that programmes

whose purpose it is to promote peace and general

welfare through international co-operation are being implemented

and expanded.

86. Without indulging in undue optimism, we reiterate our

unshakable faith in the usefulness and benefits of this

association of peace-loving nations. The existence of problems

as yet unresolved, the undeniable preponderance of

strong nations which talk of law and sovereign equality but

which, without shame, scoff at and disregard the rights of

small and defenceless nations, and the lack of adequate

resources to cope with the urgent needs of the world,

should not lead us to either anaemic acceptance or to

cynical scepticism, but, on the contrary, should stimulate

efforts to overcome this state of affairs.

87. Peace — as has rightly been said in this very forum — is,

in the present-day world, a continuing process of creative

evolution, because there can be no stability without change.

It is not sufficient to abolish war. Peace inevitably

presupposes effective progress both in the task of satisfying

the material needs of the human being and in that of

fulfilling his spiritual desires.

88. We share that way of thinking. We are convinced that

every nation, in the exercise of its supreme right freely to

determine its own future, can and should — when its existing

conditions make it necessary — undertake the political, social

and economic reorganization which is necessary in the

interests of the dignity of each and every one of its citizens

in order to ensure its internal peace, the absence of which

in our times easily endangers peace abroad and the

international order.

89. For that reason, machinery for co-operation among

nations, in order to be really effective, must make itself felt

in the national sphere as a factor aiding the process of

recovery, Only in this way can it truly serve world peace, It

is for that reason also that every country, every State is

duty bound to make its influence felt beyond its frontiers,

either in order to find, through negotiation, ways of

removing the causes of domestic ills which have their roots

or origin in other countries, or to co-operate, as a good

neighbour, in fulfilling a duty to aid, as far as it is able, the

efforts made by other nations to overcome their shortcomings.

90. Recently, the Central American isthmus was shaken

by a clash between the armed forces of two sister nations,

Honduras and El Salvador. Despite the obvious ideological

affinity of these highly esteemed and respected small

Central American territories, in spite of the fraternal ties

uniting Salvadoreans and Hondurans, a bloody conflict

erupted, which we all observed with amazement and heavy

hearts.

91. It is true that the efforts made by the Organization of

American States succeeded in bringing about a cease-fire,

and the restoration of the status quo ante bellum, which

facilitated the adoption of measures designed to bring

about a peaceful solution of the conflict; but the graves

which put thousands of families into mourning, the tears

that flooded, with their stream of sad questions, the

formerly loving and calm eyes of mothers and wives, the

ashes which today constitute an epilogue of ruin and

desolation, are there as a melancholy and sinister spectre

which recalls the horrors of war. And, what is more serious,

we have not taken any decisive step towards the removal of

the causes which gave rise to, stirred up and aggravated the

tragedy. It is necessary that the problems which gave rise to

and fomented the war should be tackled at the American

level and settled by new, bold formulas.

92. The Republic of Panama is not satisfied with spectacular

and dazzling lyrical outpourings regarding American

unity. Panama wants to have machinery established which

will put an end to the virus of under-development, and open

up employment opportunities for intelligent minds and

strong arms which find their frontiers hemmed in and

constrictive. And because, as a member of the American

family, it is interested in these problems, it hopes that after

the ruins and tears, after the graves and sobs, an embrace of

reconciliation and forgetfulness will come about. Both

nations have sufficient grandeur to drown transitory resentments

in the enduring waters of love. If yesterday we

witnessed a rupture of brotherliness, today we can proclaim

the rebirth of peace fostered by affection and brotherhood.

We hope that on the frontier between El Salvador and

Honduras there may shortly be erected a monument to

perpetuate the flowering of the most absolute harmony and

that the passions which yesterday darkened people’s minds

will turn into tears of love, which also can be shed when we

pardon and forget.

93. For almost a year the Republic of Panama has been

engaged in the process of changing its fundamental structures

in order to meet the vital needs of the Panamanian

nation. A lengthy period of social decomposition led to

fearful chaos involving the political and institutional

disintegration of the country. Democracy was wiped out, the

procedure for determining the results of the people’s voting

being converted into a crude farce; and the constitutionally

established electoral jurisdiction was in fact replaced by

machinery with arbitrary powers in the hands of a small

group which seized control of the electoral institutions. The

Constitution was turned into a dead letter, the institutions

providing safeguards, the principle of the separation of the

organs of the public power, and the limited nature of its

exercise, being ignored. Access to the courts of justice was

impeded, the decisions of the courts were disregarded, and

the rule of law was replaced by an infamous absolutist

régime. The public treasury was the pitiful prey of political

corruption, and the national economy failed to keep pace

with the requirements for national development. In view of

this state of affairs, the Panamanian people, imbued with an

unchanging desire for peace and freedom, decided once

again to become masters of their own destiny, and acting

through the remaining elements of law and order, set up the

present provisional government, which is now carrying out

the task of bringing about a radical change.

94. In this connexion, intensive efforts are being made to

establish the bases for the restoration and effective operation

of representative democracy in our isthmus so that

there may be real and conscious participation by every

citizen in the formation and activities of a government

which guarantees to every Panamanian full enjoyment of

his fundamental rights and affords equal opportunities to

all to attain a life in accordance with the principles of

human dignity which the reactionary forces, now definitely

driven out, persistently disregarded.

95. In the field of public administration the State is being

provided with an efficient, competent, honest and dynamic

organization which is fitting for a government worthy of

the name, rooted in the most genuine Panamanian traditions,

in order to guide the nation along the upward road of

progress in all spheres of life.

96. With respect to the economic aspect, a policy designed

to restore the rate of development and promote higher

levels of living, with well-defined objectives, is already being

carried out. The necessary foundations are being laid to

promote the development of new sources of income

through private enterprise. Through our own efforts we are

trying to organize, institutionalize and also stabilize economic

activities in the country, which, with timely and

wisely channelled aid, will enable us to progress from a level

of low income and poverty — causes of social and political

instability — to a level of greater well-being within the next

decade. An attempt is being made to achieve economic

integration by continuous and planned channeling of

resources generated around the transit zone to the other

parts of the country and by improving the physical and

human infrastructures of the whole interior of the isthmus.

97. The social integration of our community is being

carried out through a series of programmes designed to

extend the benefits of the wealth generated to the whole

population and particularly to those sectors which are most

poverty-stricken, all this within a system which does not

reduce the productive capacity but rather supplements and

Strengthens it, so that the total production helps the

population to the maximum extent and develops the

potential, and which requires that those who have more

should contribute more to that effort, without detracting

from the incentives to produce or impairing the right to fair

compensation for individual efforts.

98. Today we have a de facto régime. We do not deny this,

but we are supported by the tacit consent of the large

national majorities which see, almost with astonishment,

long cherished hopes of salvation looming up on the

horizon.

99. Many people think that we are an experiment in

America: military support for the action of professional

civilians, the merging of the efforts of youth who are

equally worried by the great problems facing the country;

we do riot wish to create a new caste, but to introduce a

genuine democracy, one of substance not form, with the

exercise of power in the true interests of the people, with

equal opportunities for work and education and not merely

the appearance of freedom destined to perish through

hunger and inertia under the pretext of complying with the

already discredited patterns of international political

conventionalities.

100. In the sphere of international relations, the Government

of Panama, which from its inception announced its

firm determination to fulfill the commitments entered into

by the Republic, has also resolved to fight tirelessly to

secure for the nation and for future generations the

abrogation of the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty, an unjust

international agreement on the basis of which the inter-oceanic

waterway was constructed through Panamanian

territory, and with its abrogation to achieve a new

agreement which would establish a completely different

canal statute, of limited duration, satisfying, in justice and

equity, the rights and interests of the two nations which

made possible the construction of the Panama Canal.

101. The history of that struggle is already long. It was

reflected first in periodic revisions of the Convention on the

isthmian canal which resulted in the treaties of 1936 and

1955, revisions that failed in their objective of rectifying

that unfair treaty, which violated the most elementary

principles of international morality, because of the biased

and unilateral interpretation given to the text by the more

powerful State, which later led to the insistent demand by

the Republic for the abrogation of the Convention governing

the canal régime on the basis of previous experiences,

which showed the ineffectiveness of any isolated revision of

its clauses.

102. In January 1964, as a result of the existing state of

affairs, unfortunately events occurred which led to the

breaking off of relations between Panama and the United

States of America. In April of that year, when those

relations were re-established, the authorized representatives

of both countries agreed that the Governments of Panama

and of the United States of America should appoint special

plenipotentiary ambassadors to engage in negotiations to

eliminate the existing causes of the dispute between the

two nations. Almost five years have passed since the special

ambassadors of the two countries were accredited. Starting

with the negotiations, they have moved on to consideration

of a possible single-level canal which would replace the

existing multi-level canal.

103.The Panamanian Government, aware of these facts

and of the importance to the country both of the effective

exercise of its sovereign rights and of the optimum

exploitation of its geographical position, which is its

principal natural resource, is confident that through proper

negotiations the necessary agreement will be reached to

eliminate the causes of conflict between Panama and the

United States of America and finally to establish its

relations with the great nation to the north on equitable

bases which will ensure to both .countries the benefits

which they are entitled to expect from life now and in the

future, if something else is built, so that, while serving the

cause of international trade on the basis of a realistic

approach, the needs and aspirations which have been felt

for so long by the Panamanian people can be fully satisfied.

104. There is also a corollary of tears, mourning and

graves in our struggles to secure fair treatment in these

relations; and the memory of these sorrows will make

manifest at all times a complete unity of spirit among all

Panamanians without differences of colour, race or creed,

whenever we have to line up in defence of our legitimate

rights.

105. Only a few days ago, on 18 September, the President

of the United States of America stated in this Assembly of

nations:

“Our aim is to encourage the creative forms of

nationalism; to join as partners where our partnership is

appropriate and where it is wanted, but not to let a

United States presence substitute for independent national

effort or infringe on national dignity and national

pride.

“It is not my belief that the way to peace is by giving

up our friends or letting down our allies. On the contrary,

our aim is to place America’s international commitments

on a sustainable long-term basis, to encourage local and

regional initiatives, to foster national independence and

self-sufficiency, and by so doing to strengthen the total

fabric of peace.” [1755th meeting, paras. 52 and 53.]

We welcome those words with sympathy because we will

never allow the action of any foreign country to replace our

own efforts, and because, just as we reaffirm our determination

to carry out international agreements, we shall

vehemently reject any attempt to ignore our right to

self-determination and any denial of the elemental principles

of morality and equity which are as valid for men as

they are for nations.

106. The Republic of Panama will endeavour to maintain

the most active participation in those international organizations

of which it is a member, since it is convinced that

the cause of international peace and security will be served

better by increasing the existing machinery and its capacity

to promote the economic and social progress of all peoples,

which is the only thing that will really eliminate the causes

of friction which, as they grow in magnitude, turn into

threats to the peace and actual aggression.

107. We firmly restate our faith in regional unity, in the

joint development of efforts by the Latin American

countries which will enable us to overcome the state of

under-development that, to a greater or lesser degree, is

stifling the upward movement of our peoples. The immortal

thoughts of Simon Bolivar have never been so clear and

pertinent as they are today, and when we all have

interpreted his message correctly we shall have an America

united in peace and progress. Regional unity in each

continent will one day ensure peace in the world.

108. I represent one of the smallest nations in the world,

but it is great and vast for us in the feeling that cements our

nationality. We are weak in physical terms, but it is the

intensity of our spirit that will delimit the bounds of our

efforts.

109. Today we, or tomorrow other Panamanians, will have

to govern our country. In this lofty forum of all the

nations, on behalf of every Panamanian who was born near

the murmuring waters of the seas which bathe our shores or

those who in the silence of the mountains are steeped in

their eternal solitude, I renew once again the promise

which, although it has been repeated, will not fail to be

dogma and guide, namely that neither today nor at any

other time will there be any government in my country

which dares to compromise the national dignity, unless it

intends to unleash the fury of a people which, on the sacred

altar of the love of country, renders perennial and undying

respect to its own dignity.

110. May all in this sanctum sanctorum of all nations give

heed to this, and may all my countrymen when they hear

these words in their own homes feel strengthened by this

reaffirmation of our nationality.