Colombia, 2008

Speaking once again before the General Assembly, I

would like to congratulate you on your election,

Mr. President, and to wish you every success.

Colombia continues to fight so that each and

every citizen can trust that he or she will live, work,

undertake projects, study and be happy in his or her

homeland. That trust is sustained by democratic

security, security for socially responsible investment

and the construction of social cohesion.

Crimes against the safety of citizens continue to

decrease, but we are not satisfied. So far this year, the

number of crimes has fallen by 30 per cent in

comparison to the same period last year. We have

prioritized the protection of union leaders, teachers and

journalists. Of the 11,204 homicides committed as of

10 September, 36 were of workers and teachers

affiliated with trade unions or independent teachers. To

date, not a single journalist has been murdered. The

Government grants individual protection to 8,612

citizens, 1,462 of whom belong to trade unions.

Our determination to combat impunity is

ongoing. Between 1991 and 2001, only two

convictions were handed down. Thanks to efforts in

recent years in terms of budgeting, the strengthening of

the judicial system, the security policy and the

tripartite agreement among workers, business leaders

and the Government, sponsored by the International

Labour Organization, 199 persons have been convicted

for the murder of workers and 134 of them are in

prison. Of the 123 sentences handed down, 85 have

occurred in the past three years.

In the past, terrorist organizations penetrated the

labour movement, resulting in the murder of workers.

The dismantling of the paramilitaries has eliminated

that source of suffering, but terrorist guerrillas persist

in committing such crimes, as recently happened in the

south of the country with the murder of a group of

teachers by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de

Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC).

Recently, our tranquillity in the absence of

terrorist attacks was shattered by a car bomb set off by

FARC, which destroyed the palace of justice in the city

of Cali and left several people dead and others injured,

as well as many poor families with their small

businesses and homes destroyed.

Of the approximately 60,000 terrorists that

ravaged the country at the start of the Government’s

term of office, 48,000 have abandoned their criminal

organizations and joined the reintegration programme,

which is a great challenge for Colombia. As of

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17 September this year, 2,436 guerrilla members —

2,147 of them from FARC — had been demobilized.

In a democracy of opinion such as ours, the

sustainability of democratic security depends on its

credibility, which in turn is based on effectiveness and

transparency. That transparency is tantamount to the

observance of the fundamental human rights we all

enjoy. From that foundation comes our respect for

liberties in the midst of the fight against terrorism and

for openness, vigilance, criticism and debate at the

national and international levels.

Furthermore, a formative, world-leading effort in

human rights within our armed forces is crucial, as is

the ongoing adjustment of operative protocols through

such measures as that requiring soldiers to wait for the

presence of a judicial delegate before moving the body

of a member of a criminal organization killed in action.

We are also resolved to investigate and assist in the

investigation of any type of accusation and the

modernization of military criminal legislation.

On 10 December, our country will voluntarily

submit our human rights record to the Universal

Periodic Review, a new mechanism created by the

United Nations that is an additional contribution to the

public discussion of our new road map on the matter.

Our work with the Office of the High Commissioner

for Human Rights and with the Organization of

American States on the policy of truth, justice and

redress for victims must, along with our historic

memory, heal wounds and help to extinguish the flames

of violence forever.

There are intangible results of democratic

security. Citizens have greater faith in the State and

turn to it for protection, overcoming the past

indifference of some and the inclination of many to

solve problems by their own means. Additionally, we

have recovered the State monopoly on weapons and on

official justice. Citizens have lost their fear of

denouncing others, testifying and cooperating with the

armed forces and the justice system. Victims are no

longer fearful and today are coming forward to claim

their rights.

One year ago, I looked out at this Assembly in the

frustration of not having been able to rescue Ingrid

Betancourt and those held in captivity with her. Today,

thanks to the heroism, planning and bloodless

effectiveness of our soldiers, Ingrid Betancourt is a

symbol of freedom — the freedom to which we aspire

as we liberate those who remain in captivity and put an

end to such shameful crimes in our homeland.

Social cohesion validates security. Meeting the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015

is an urgent need for us as an essential part of building

social cohesion. We are close to reaching the goal of no

more than 3 per cent of children under the age of five

being malnourished. We are determined to reach zero

and are now beginning to provide early schooling to

those children.

By 2010, we hope to have reached 100 per cent in

basic education coverage. Towards the goal of

averaging 10.6 years of education for the population

between ages 15 and 24, we have already achieved an

average of more than nine years. The number of

students having to repeat a grade has decreased from

6.1 per cent to 3.3 per cent, towards a goal of

2.3 per cent.

Mortality rates for children under five years of

age have fallen from 37 to 20 per 1,000 births, with a

goal of 17. That same indicator for children younger

than one year has decreased from 31 to 15.6, with a

goal of 14. Vaccination coverage is almost at

95 per cent, the percentage defined in the MDGs for

2015. Our great challenge is to reduce the pronounced

disparities between regions.

Despite the economy’s problems, we are still

fully determined to meet the social goals through such

programmes as Families in Action, Bank of

Opportunities and the Together Network, which

focuses social tools on the poorest spheres. That is all

supported by very ambitious goals in the areas of child

nutrition, educational quality and coverage, vocational

training, health insurance, connectivity and good

management of social resources. With regard to the

latter, our administrative reform, which has already

been extended to 411 State entities, seeks to prevent

the State from being discredited, eliminating

bureaucratic wastefulness and achieving social

efficiency.

The mortgage and financial crises are minor

problems compared to the threats to the environment.

Although Colombia produces 0.35 per cent of world

greenhouse gas emissions, we are highly vulnerable to

the ravages of climate change resulting from melting

ice and floods. More than 51 per cent of our territory is

preserved as rainforest and is a major net contributor of

oxygen.

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Some of our most important environmental

programmes include the building of mass

transportation systems in nine cities, with plans under

way for 10 more; a network of 66,000 rural families

working as forest rangers, who are paid by the State to

maintain collective areas free from illicit crops and to

supervise the recovery and conservation of forests

under the oversight of the United Nations; the

conservation of 257 protected natural areas; the

implementation of aqueduct and basic sanitation

projects in the country’s 32 departments and the 1,102

municipalities; and the promotion of alternative energy

sources such as wind power and biofuels.

There are three common objections to biofuels:

the risk of destroying the rainforest, the elimination of

areas for agricultural food production, and the small

amount of energy generated compared to that used to

produce it. Colombia has 578,000 square kilometres of

rainforest and 43 million hectares of savannah. We will

not allow the rainforest to be touched. Protecting it is

our main contribution to combating global warming.

With the available savannah, we can expand our

agricultural production concentrated in 5 million

hectares, increase the number of livestock to 24 million

heads of cattle and, without affecting food production,

develop a large biofuel industry that generates good

quality jobs, increases income and becomes an

alternative to coca, which fuels terrorism. Our

productivity is high, thanks to sources of energy such

as sugar cane and the African oil palm, which also

protects the soil from direct sunlight and prevents

erosion. For every energy unit used, 8 energy units of

ethanol are produced, or 6.5 units in biodiesel.

Illicit drugs are a great enemy of the

environment, and they fuel terrorism. Colombia still

suffers from violence because of illicit drugs. We speak

of shared responsibility not to assign exclusive

responsibilities to consumer countries, for, unfortunately,

our young people also use drugs. We speak of shared

responsibility to spur the world to combat production,

trafficking, consumption, asset laundering and

chemical precursors on an equal basis. Our

Government requests that consumption be punished in

our country and across the international community.

We have extradited more than 800 persons. This year,

we must spray 130,000 hectares of coca crops, while

another 100,000 must be manually eradicated. Over the

past five years, 10,000 properties have been

confiscated. However, there has been no significant

reduction in illicit crop areas and consumption is on

the rise.

Let us consider that situation. It is more difficult

to carry out prevention and rehabilitation efforts

against the backdrop of exponential growth in

consumption resulting from a permissive attitude. The

destruction of the rainforest to plant coca, the erosion

of the soil and the pollution caused by chemical

precursors are enormous affronts on the environmental

balance. Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit drugs

encourages a child to become a distributor and, later, a

feared criminal. Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit

drugs helps to set off a car bomb in Colombia and to

destroy four trees from our Amazon rainforest.

Investors from all over the world are coming to

Colombia every day. Twice as many tourists, from

every corner of the world, are visiting our country as

were five years ago. Many of those who looked on our

country with scepticism and spoke about Colombia as a

failed State can now discern clear signals of

institutional strength and democratic boldness.

Colombia today generates more trust and respect, but

the work goes on. To free us all from the horrors of

drug trafficking, terrorism and poverty, we need more

resolute support from the international community. I

would very much like to thank the United Nations for

its very significant presence in our country.