Ecuador, 1998

When I assumed the presidency of my country

less than two months ago, I recalled that in the tradition of

the Aymara, an indigenous people of the Republic of

Bolivia, a human being and a country — and, may I say,

the United Nations — do their work if they manage to find

harmony in seven fundamental fields.

For the Aymaras there is a type of harmony that rises

from the head, and that is the harmony we need to maintain

with our beliefs and principles.

There is a second type of harmony which goes from

the feet down. That is the harmony we must maintain

with nature, the Earth and the environment.

There is a third harmony that goes from the body

out to the right side. That is the harmony we must have

with our families, with those closest to us.

A fourth type of harmony moves towards the left.

That is the harmony we must have with our neighbours,

our colleagues at work and those others who, without

being very close to us, surround us.

There is a fifth type of harmony which moves

forward from us, and for the Aymara people that is

harmony with the past. They believe that human beings

face the past and not the future, because we can see what

is in front of us, and the past is the only thing we can

really see.

A sixth type of harmony is behind us. That is our

harmony with the future, because although we do not see

the future we have an intuition about it and a sense of it.

Often, although it has not yet come, we can already feel

its weight on our shoulders.

The seventh and final type of harmony is self-

harmony, an inner harmony.

If we achieve harmony in those seven areas, we will

have a harmonious body, a harmonious country and a

harmonious world. It is with that vision that we have

begun to govern in Ecuador; and I believe it is with that

vision that the United Nations is doing its work.

We can discuss many issues here. I want to focus on

two, both related to left-sided harmony — harmony with

our neighbours, international harmony — and their

implications for the development of our peoples.

In Latin America, as in many parts of the world, we

face one of the gravest crises in our history. We have been

considering the advantages of globalization. Now we are

also suffering the problems of globalization. When we

speak of a global system, we speak of a real network,

which, like a large cobweb, encompasses us all. The

problem with such a network is that wherever we touch or

apply pressure to the web we produce a vibration and an

impact throughout the web.

The great majority of the countries of Latin America

have made enormous efforts to overcome the problems of

previous decades. They have worked to reduce their fiscal

deficits to a minimum, to open up to the global economy,

to participate in trade and to share the principles of open,

fair and transparent trade, free of discrimination. They have

understood that integration is the tool for progress in the

future. They have established regional markets, and now

they seek a continental market. After so much effort, which

at times has been costly in internal terms, we have found

that that effort can be wasted, that it may not be a way out

of our problems, because of an international crisis, which

did not originate in our countries; it came from outside, but

because of globalization, and the network connecting us, we

are all affected.

We understand the mechanics of the system. We

understand how something that affects markets in Asia has

an impact on Latin America. Yet, while we understand the

mechanics of the system, we cannot see its fairness. If

while working together we encounter problems that do not

originate in our region, we must ask the industrialized

countries in particular to take decisions that will ensure that

not all the countries of the world suffer to the extent that

we are suffering now.

There is talk of risk of a global recession as severe as,

or even more severe, than that of the 1930s. We see the

stock markets of the largest countries of our region affected

daily. We see a crisis that is already striking the

industrialized countries. I think this is the appropriate forum

for us to consider the need to work together. We small

countries like Ecuador can do little in a crisis of this

magnitude but call for reflection and true fraternity among

our nations so that a problem affecting the whole world

can be overcome. Otherwise, a crisis as big as this leaves

many of us with no option but to wait and see how we

can protect ourselves against these troubles.

The countries of Latin America see ourselves as a

region, and we believe we must behave as a region. Every

country has its own characteristics and has to do what is

necessary individually, but it is the region as a whole that

is being affected by all these changes.

The countries of Latin America have not come here

simply to ask for money and loans, as they have done at

other times of crisis. The countries of the region have not

appeared here one by one to try to overcome their

difficulties on an individual basis, as on other occasions.

This time we have made joint proposals — just, global

proposals. We hope these proposals will yield results.

All analysts maintain that unless interest rates are

lowered, in particular in the industrialized countries, this

global trend is undoubtedly not going to change. The 0.25

per cent drop in interest rates was widely considered

important but insufficient in view of the magnitude of the

current crisis. It is therefore crucial that we deal with this

matter here in the Assembly.

Along with this international crisis, Ecuador is

confronting an issue that is fundamental to its

development: its relations with Peru, and the search for a

definitive peace with Peru. We have a problem that has

been dragged out over many decades. In its most recent

stage, for the last 56 years, we have had a protocol of

peace, friendship and boundaries, which should now enter

a definitive phase. Peace is our objective; we see it as an

ethical, moral and economic good. Nothing is more

advantageous to the budgets of our countries than peace.

We can do great things for the benefit of our economies.

In this case, peace is accompanied by a set of

incentives, specifically, the possibility of $3 billion in

loans from multilateral entities for border development

projects, irrigation, roads, agricultural systems, schools

and health centres, to give a few examples. This $3

billion — a very large sum for both countries — can be

put into action if we achieve peace.

Over the past three years, we have been holding

talks. Commissions have reached agreements on border

integration, trade, navigation in the extraordinarily

important basin of the Amazon river and measures of

security and confidence-building for the future. But the

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most delicate and difficult issue has yet to be resolved: the

establishment of the borderline between the two countries.

We have held talks at a number of levels — among our

Foreign Ministers, in the negotiating commissions, among

the countries that are guarantors of the protocol — and

these conversations have also risen to the level of the

presidencies of Peru and Ecuador. We have had three

meetings in less than two months in order to seek that final

agreement. Last night, I spoke with President Fujimori; he

is planning to travel to the United States, and we agreed

that tomorrow we will see each other here in New York for

a fourth meeting to try to continue seeking the definitive

formula that will resolve the question of our border in a

way that is fitting, acceptable to the two countries and

appropriate for our peoples.

The principles are clear. As countries, we cannot enter

the twenty-first century dragging with us problems that date

back to the nineteenth. We must embark on the twenty-first

century with a clear and positive vision that is directed

towards the future.

We share all the tenets of the United Nations on issues

related to this one. We are completely in agreement with

the Ottawa Convention on the question of landmines. Our

country signed that Convention, and at the end of last week

in Brasilia, the Presidents of Peru and Ecuador submitted to

President Cardoso of Brazil a joint communiqué requesting

that plans be drawn up for the removal of all the landmines

that have been placed in the border area over the years.

This is a positive and very real step; it means that the

Convention will not simply be signed and ratified but will

also be applied in practical terms in the field.

We are also completely in agreement with the

proposals of the United Nations on the reduction of military

budgets and expenditures. We believe that money should be

invested in poverty reduction and in the social programmes

and projects our peoples need so much. We are completely

in agreement with the conventional disarmament

programmes. We believe that trust must replace distrust,

and we believe that this task, accomplished jointly, can

allow us to leave behind long decades of mutual suspicion

and the great scepticism that sometimes pervades our

countries. We are in agreement as regards general and

complete disarmament. We agree with the prohibition of

nuclear weapons. We welcome the decision of the Southern

Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) to make all the

countries of that region into a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

We believe in peace, and we are working to achieve

it. It will be hard to find, in the future, two Presidents of

neighbouring countries with a history of problems who

are so firmly committed to peace, so deeply convinced

that they must achieve peace, and so zealously at work to

reach a speedy, just and honourable peace. We hope our

efforts will soon meet their reward.

We completely support the initiatives of the United

Nations on the subject of the protection of human rights.

Ecuador has adopted its own national human rights plan

into law. We are the second country in Latin America,

and one of the first in the world, to adopt such a plan. It

is not a plan of the Ecuadorian Government, but a plan

made by Ecuadorian society, coordinated by the Ministry

with the participation of representatives of various sectors

of the society. We believe in human rights, and we

defend them in their entirety and without reservation. Our

Minister for Foreign Affairs was the first United Nations

High Commissioner for Human Rights before joining our

Ministry for Foreign Relations, so our support in this field

is complete.

In addition, we are concerned about the issue of

sustainable development, and we will vigorously promote

environmental issues. For the first time in history, a

woman from a country that is not in the northern

hemisphere has become chairperson of the world’s largest

intergovernmental organization on the environment. That

woman’s name is Yolanda Kakabadse, and she is the

present Minister of the Environment in Ecuador. We seek

to indicate several things by this, which are easily

understandable in what I have just said.

These are the central issues in the link between the

United Nations and my country: peace, the international

crisis and the search for a just global accord, the

environment and human rights. Other issues could be

taken up, but I prefer to focus on this message.

I believe that there is no better way to pay tribute to

the United Nations and to commemorate the fiftieth

anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

than for two countries with democratically elected

Governments to seek peace and endeavour to sign a peace

agreement — perhaps sign one this year — so that the

development of our peoples can proceed and their quality

of life can improve.

In this way we can sum up the most important

human rights. Democracy, freedom, development, life, the

right to work, gender-related issues, the problems of

minorities and the most disadvantaged groups and the

protection of children are encompassed in these words

that are so simple and so important: peace, development

and international cooperation. We want to emphasize these

ideas here, in this Organization which has done so much to

bring them about throughout the world.

I wish the Assembly every success in its work for the

benefit of all of humanity.