Paraguay, 2009

I

should like at the outset to express my sincerest

congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his

election to preside over the General Assembly at its

sixty-fourth session. I also wish to express the thanks

of the delegation of Paraguay to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann, President of the Assembly at its sixty-third

session, for the progress made during his tenure.

I wish to begin by discussing what is most

important: life. I cannot forget that, while the first

paragraph of the preamble of the Charter of the United

Nations states that our peoples, gathered together, are

determined to save succeeding generations from the

scourge of war, the murderous onslaught of warplanes

has continued to kill, mutilate and traumatize children

in many civilian populations; in national coffers,

amounts allocated to the death budget, glibly labelled

“defence expenditures”, continue to swell; and the

military industries of the world’s most powerful

countries continue to reap the most lucrative benefits

without any questions from politicians or any outrage

on the part of the international news networks, in a

game of perverse hypocrisy that is undermining our

future with lies disguised as imposed truths.

We are very rigorous in estimating the high

global costs of containing and providing public health

insurance for pandemics such as H1N1 influenza. But

we forget that our “defence expenditures”, promoted

by the great weapons industries from high, snow-

covered summits of complacency, end up exchanging a

container of vaccine for a rifle or a significant part of

the public health budget for a warplane.

The United Nations was born to promote peace

and to eradicate war. However, the voracious traffic in

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arms continues to pass through our countries with its

convoys of machine guns, missiles and grenades.

Select regions of the world continue to be opportunistic

enclaves for the trade of the merchants of death.

Conflicts that mutilate, destroy and kill neighbours and

condemn them forever to disgrace are at the same time

opportunities for those who profit by, foment, create

and manage the business of war.

Who questions the bloodstained bank notes that

lie untouched in the vaults of the most powerful bank?

We are face to face in this Hall, but truly we, the

Governments of the countries of the world, rich, poor

and very poor, are face to face with history. If we could

just for one minute believe in the great tenets of

equality and the shared rights of the human race, it

would be time enough to ask ourselves the question:

How much longer will the warlords continue to

maximize their future income on the physical

elimination of human beings?

My country, Paraguay, declares before the world

that we are absolutely committed to peace. My

Government is not prepared to spend the cost of a loaf

of bread on weapons or war machinery. Any

investment in defence must be the bare minimum

compared to the social expenditures of the

Government. Paraguay will not pawn its daily bread to

dance the blind waltz of the warlords.

We believe that, in the context of globalization,

there should be a call for the creation of a new world

economic order capable of eliminating the sharp

contrasts of the present and the clearly unequal access

to the benefits of contemporary development. In that

respect, I should like to describe the reality of life in

Paraguay today. Our situation is essentially very

similar to that of other countries that are also at the

mercy of serious socio-economic problems.

A little more than a year ago, a historic transition

occurred in Paraguay that left our economy in

tatters — with backward and obsolete production

mechanisms, weak democratic institutions rife with

corruption, barely credible political parties and a lack

of channels for civic participation in the

decision-making process. Society was riven by serious

contrasts, including about 40 per cent of the population

living in poverty, tens of thousands of unemployed,

high levels of migration, and unscrupulous minorities

who lived well and sought to perpetuate their

illegitimate privileges.

Those traits are shared by the majority of

countries represented here, which, over and above their

individual circumstances, like Paraguay are facing the

threefold challenge of modernizing their economies,

strengthening their participatory democracies, and

eliminating serious and severe social inequities. As in

Paraguay, in all poor countries the causes of the

scourges we have suffered can be traced to the

entrenchment of systems without justice or equality

that ultimately widen the gaps between the rich

countries and the poor.

We have sought in vain to mask the failures of the

policies of recent decades with ostensibly technical

terms that do little to describe the pathetic global

reality. For example, we speak of least developed

countries, middle-income countries and developing

countries when the simple fact is that today we live in

a world where there are countries that benefit until they

can benefit no longer from world growth, while others

are left behind and condemned to poverty.

Since the United Nations was established, our

unavoidable obligation has been to proceed fearlessly

to change that reality. We must give serious thought to

a new world economic order with simple and specific

aims. First, we must promote and strengthen small

economies based on the fair and equitable distribution

of the benefits of the production of wealth. We must

put an end to inequitable trade relationships and

develop effective policies of solidarity with those

countries that endure adverse geographical or climate

conditions.

Secondly, we must promote the healthy political

development of all nations of the world and ensure that

the most powerful countries do not interfere in local

affairs, above all when these interventions seek to

destabilize genuine democratic processes. I would like

to clearly reaffirm my concern over events in the

brotherly Republic of Honduras following the savage

coup d’état that opened a gaping wound in the heart of

our regional democracy.

Thirdly, we must promote peaceful solutions to

international conflicts, firmly resolved to reduce the

alarming levels of militarization and armament.

Fourthly, we must advocate an end to the harmful

criminal attacks on the environment, including global

warming and the natural disasters that occur with

increasing frequency. We the peoples of the South are

paying the growing and unsustainable social,

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environmental and financial costs of climate change. In

the meantime, those States that bear greatest

responsibility for global warming are not shouldering

their obligations or the growing socio-environmental

debt that they generate. They are perpetuating and

aggravating a clearly unjust situation that must be

reversed. As a matter of justice and urgency, we must

heed the calls of the most vulnerable people on the

planet.

Fifthly and finally, we must promote gender

equality and put an end to discrimination of all kinds

based on sexual, political or ideological preferences or

racial, ethnic or religious differences. In sum, it is a

matter of developing a better and more humane world

on the way towards a kinder living environment that is

more supportive and much more in keeping with the

future of humankind.

I am fully aware of the scope of the challenge

that I am suggesting. I am also completely aware of the

difficulties that we will encounter in this epic fight, but

in the twenty-first century we cannot continue to

overlook an in-depth and open debate on realities of

concern.

I do not in any way underestimate the relevant

role that the United Nations has played in its relatively

short existence in promoting world peace and equitable

social development, but we must not ignore the

decades of failure with regard to comprehensive

modernization, much less fail to creatively and

resolutely make use of the greatest world forum of

today.

There is no time to lose. Historical justice and

redress of the rich countries to the poor ones must be a

priority on the agenda of the United Nations. In order

for the United Nations to meet that important goal, we

must support the General Assembly’s adoption of the

necessary reforms, so as to reaffirm its inherent nature

as a representative, democratic and equitable organ. We

must uphold the precedence of its bodies over other

internal organs of the Organization, such as the

Security Council, in order to underscore the processes

that will help build that greatly desired social justice.

The Security Council, as the organ entrusted with

the maintenance of world peace, must also be

reformed, not only so as to give it greater legitimacy

by increasing its representativeness, but also so as to

adopt new working methods to reflect a new

multi-centred world order, founded on relations of

cooperation, solidarity and peace, in which the

community and human dignity are at the centre of

every decision.

It is difficult to say this in such a hallowed Hall

but it is worth recalling that, at this very moment,

thousands of people are dying of hunger in the world

that we shape. The ease with which television news

switches between pictures of pitiful children

overpowered by appalling hunger and figures for the

brutal arms business of the industrialized countries

exposes human indifference.

Once and for all, we must believe in — and

create — a different planet that is able to retrieve its

vast natural wealth, having put an end to the terrible

havoc wrought by petty interests. We must believe in a

fairer and more balanced international economic

system, in which the huge discrepancies are a thing of

the past. I believe in the great solidarity of human

beings. I believe in the dreams of great leaders who

defiantly changed the world. I believe in Jesus Christ,

in Gandhi and in Martin Luther King.

Before ending my comments, I would like to take

this opportunity to set out some clear positions on

pressing matters that affect us.

First, I would like to say that the economic crisis

that began in the major Powers and spread worldwide

has had serious consequences in all countries. It has

brought about a rapid destruction of accumulated

wealth. Unemployment has risen to unprecedented

levels. The number of poor has increased. The crisis

has jeopardized dozens of democratic political

processes.

Secondly, I would like to resolutely state that the

violent rupture in the constitutional process in

Honduras is a tremendous setback for the

re-democratization of Latin America. Those involved

in the coup who dealt a resounding blow to the

honourable face of the continent’s democracy are

responsible for the human sacrifices and the

tremendous social unrest that is taking place. I would

like to state my explicit solidarity and that of my

people with Manuel Zelaya and the people of

Honduras, who are bravely standing up to the effects of

the coup.

Thirdly, I would ask the peoples and the

Governments represented here to vigorously condemn

the trade embargo that the largest economy in the

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world imposes on Cuba — another intolerable chapter

that, while it lasts, undermines the credibility of any

discussion on pluralism, tolerance and humanism in

these forums. We have complete faith in a new vision

that breaks with the past and its uncompromising

divisions. We believe that the hopes of Latin America

and the Caribbean with regard to the humanistic

approach towards Cuba of the new leadership of the

most powerful country on Earth will be met sooner

than later.

Fourthly and lastly, I would like to state open

concern about the sinister currents circling in the world

with the unbridled arms race that can in no way be

justified and can only be welcomed by the industries of

death and barbarity. We must defuse the tensions that

foster that interest in weapons and we must urgently

clarify the elements that obscure the prospect for peace

throughout the world.

I reaffirm the commitment of my small and

humble country to supporting any and all initiatives

that seek to build a better world for future generations.