Panama, 1999

The delegation

of Panama is particularly gratified to welcome your

election, Sir, to the presidency of the General Assembly at

this session. We are pleased that the noble people of Africa,

whose aspiration to progress is shared by Panamanians, are

so well represented in this forum, with you at the head of

our deliberations and another distinguished African,

Mr. Kofi Annan, leading the Secretariat. We join in the

congratulations conveyed to you in recognition of your

capacity and your skills, as well as in the expressions of

gratitude addressed to the Secretary-General for his

dedication to the Organization and his tireless efforts to

maintain international peace and security.

To your predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, the

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, I also wish to

convey our appreciation for the outstanding way in which

he conducted our debates and his contribution to the

success of the deliberations of the Assembly.

My warmest congratulations, on behalf of the people

and the Government of Panama, go also to the

representatives of Kiribati, Nauru and the Kingdom of

Tonga, States which were admitted to the United Nations

on the first day of this session. This event confirms

beyond question the universal and inclusive nature and

purpose of this body devoted to fostering world peace and

peoples' well-being.

Today I am speaking on behalf of a young, proud

nation that has written some illustrious pages in the

history of the Latin American peoples' struggle to achieve

nationhood. I am the spokesperson of a country where,

according to the design of the liberator, Simón Bol'var,

the first congress of the new nations of the continent took

place.

Here before the Assembly, I represent a State whose

geographical location has given it an extraordinary role as

a transit route, a country that has devoted itself heart and

soul to the service of inter-oceanic transport and that, as

a result, has had to wait until the end of the twentieth

century to recover dominion over the whole of its

territory.

Along with my compatriots, I am filled with

enthusiasm at the approach of the far-reaching event that is

the handing over of the Panama Canal to Panamanian

hands. On the eve of this tremendous event that arouses

such great expectations, we must recognize the efforts of

the many Panamanian men and women who, from the time

we became an independent State, began the nationalist

struggle to free ourselves from the burdens imposed on us

by the first Canal Treaty, which was signed in 1903. Their

patriotic deeds have been indelibly engraved in the history

and the tradition of our people.

Since its opening in 1914, the Canal has been an

important symbol of our nationhood and the centre of the

hopes of the Panamanian people to attain its development

as a nation. The Canal, which turned us into the world's

bridge and the heart of the universe, has given impetus to

the economic progress of the international community in the

course of eight and a half decades. The Panamanian people

will now be able to participate fully in the prosperity that

the inter-oceanic waterway generates because, at the

threshold of the twenty-first century, Panama has

determined that the Canal will be operated not only to

punctually serve international trade, but also to promote

sustainable human development. The administration of the

Canal is therefore not simply a right, but also a

responsibility that obligates all Panamanians to administer

the waterway responsibly, efficiently and with absolute

probity. We have prepared ourselves for this with redoubled

care.

The process for the legal transition of the Canal began

in 1977 with the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty. That

agreement recorded the commitment of the United States to

transfer to Panama the administration and total control of

the inter-oceanic waterway on 31 December 1999. Since

then, the Governments of Panama and the United States of

America have worked in harmony to bring about a seamless

transition. Furthermore, and particularly since the 1989

restoration of constitutional rule, we Panamanians have

agreed on the need to place the Canal above and beyond

political differences. The fruit of this consensus was the

fact that our political Constitution incorporates a provision

for the Canal that stipulates how the waterway is to be

administered from 31 December 1999. On the basis of that

constitutional provision, adopted in 1994, and with the wide

participation of society, we developed the Panama Canal

Authority Act, which was adopted unanimously in the

Legislative Assembly.

Those two legal instruments, the constitutional

provision and the Act, provide the necessary legal

mechanisms to ensure proper operation of the inter-

oceanic waterway. In recent years, the Canal has handled

unprecedented volumes of traffic and cargo and has dealt

with them with exemplary care and efficiency,

fundamentally thanks to our precious human resources,

who are almost all of Panamanian nationality.

In order to guarantee its future operation, Panama is

currently implementing an intensive programme of

investment at an approximate cost of one billion balboas

in order to modernize and improve the inter-oceanic

waterway and to ensure that it is ready to cope with

demand and to maintain the quality of its services. It is

hoped that this modernization and improvement

programme will augment the capacity of the Canal by 20

per cent.

One of the priorities of the Canal Authority is to

protect the environment. As the Act establishes, as of 31

December 1999 the Authority will have the responsibility

of vigilance over and conservation of the Canal basin, as

well as for coordinating the administration, conservation

and use of the natural resources of that immense region.

I should like to recognize the faultless way in which

successive United States Governments have fulfilled the

provisions of the Canal Treaty since it was signed in

1977. Thanks to them, it has been possible to overcome

the obstacles that have been encountered over a long

period of 20 years in the transfer of the inter-oceanic

waterway and in the hand-over of the military bases that

were established on our territory. Although there are

several matters remaining for both Governments to

confront, such as decontamination of certain areas

designed for military use by the United States Army, my

Government trusts that the differences that continue to

exist on this point will be resolved satisfactorily in a

reasonable period of time.

The handover of the Canal to the jurisdiction of the

Republic of Panama is an event of far-reaching

importance not only for Panama and the United States,

but for the international community as well.

Consequently, Panamanians hope that the representatives

of the international community will join in celebrating the

commemorative events associated with the transition.

Panamanians also hope that from now on the relations

between Panama and the United States will be based on

mutual respect, cooperation and equity in trade, in view

of the tremendously strong nature of the historical, social,

political and trading bonds that have joined the two

nations since the last century. The benefits that control

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over the Canal have yielded for the economy and the

political standing of the United States determine that that

nation should value the feeling of brotherhood that its

leaders have for decades professed and truly act on them in

order to begin a new period of relations with Panama that

will enable us to boost sustainable human development,

which is something the Panamanian people very much

aspire to.

In recent years, my country, like many others, has

suffered the imposition of an economic orthodoxy applied

more with an eye towards the interests of the major

international economic sectors than to the true development

of peoples, without any consideration being given to the

values that underpin our nationhood. This is the real state

of affairs that obliges my Government to review the

orientation of our economic policy in order to promote the

development of our people.

We are particularly concerned with the development

of rural communities. These communities make an

invaluable contribution to the strength of our nationhood,

but they are also the ones that have the greatest difficulties

in the struggle to ensure their survival. The fundamental

concern of my Government is bound up with improving the

quality of life of the neediest. That objective depends to a

large extent upon our efforts, but it also depends on our

succeeding in opening new markets for our products and

achieving greater participation for private investment in our

country and greater cooperation with developed nations.

At a time when the rights of women to equality and

participation in the public life of nations are constantly

being reaffirmed, I am proud to be the first Panamanian

woman ever to receive from her people, in an

unmistakeable manifestation of confidence, the mandate to

serve the Republic as President. I interpret this mandate as

a challenge calling on me to promote sustainable human

development honestly and devotedly, in accordance with the

universal political values that for half a century the

Organization has been upholding with admirable

persistence: the democratic system of government and

respect for human rights.

Consequently, I bear the heavy responsibility in

following in the steps of my predecessors — exceptional

leaders elected in democratic elections, such as Golda Meir,

Indira Ghandi and Corazón Aquino, among others; and, in

the western hemisphere, Eugenia Charles, Violeta Chamorro

and Janet Jagan. They helped to realize the warranted

aspiration that society should recognize women's skills and

merits to share on an equal footing in the great political

responsibility of presiding over a nation.

For Panamanian women I represent a dream come

true. In this respect, my election is a significant advance

in the campaign to ensure political equality for the

women of my country and the rest of the continent.

However, many Panamanian women are being hard hit by

poverty and destitution, an unacceptable situation that

they share with children, older adults and men, whom so-

called globalization takes no account of.

If we wish to secure the sustainability of human life

on this God-given earth, and if we wish to keep our

promises as leaders, we must strive to eradicate hunger,

poverty and destitution, which in my country afflict

almost two-fifths of the population.

If we wish to achieve these goals — which is what

we were elected to do — we must root out corruption,

which is the major obstacle standing in the way of

achieving the lofty results that our societies expect of us.

In this respect, I am pleased to assure the Assembly that

Panama is doing everything in its power to put an end to

the use and trafficking of drugs as well as to the money-

laundering that is the result of that heinous phenomenon.

We the leaders of nations have the opportunity to

undertake measures that will significantly help to fashion

a more just, more humane and fairer world governed by

the fundamental principles of democracy, justice and

liberty, for which my people, together with all the peoples

of the world, have fought throughout history.

I urge dignitaries and the representatives of Member

States to embark resolutely on the struggle against

poverty, destitution and corruption, which so adversely

affect the living conditions of humankind. I would ask

them to come with us to the rescue of the weak, of those

who suffer unspeakable injustice and those whose way of

life is threatened by invisible forces that they can neither

understand nor control.

My presence here is evidence of the Panamanians'

firm belief in the order provided by this Organization,

whose struggle to achieve equality among peoples and

peace among nations dates back more than 50 years. This

Organization has wholeheartedly championed human

rights and battled against discrimination on all fronts.

That is why we believe in the need to strengthen it,

because the United Nations is the court in which the

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voice of smaller States can be heard, as well as the ultimate

champion of all of our rights.

On account of the trust that my people have in the

United Nations, I invite all of the dignitaries and

representatives of Member States to join with us in

celebrating the recovery of the sovereignty that we never

resigned ourselves to losing. At this historic moment, which

Panamanians wish to share with the whole of humankind,

the bells of the world will ring out in jubilation because the

principle of sovereignty, so often proclaimed in this and

other international forums, will have been translated into

reality in my country.

May God, the source of all authority, guide the

deliberations of the Assembly.