El Salvador, 1999

I should

like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Didier Opertti for

his tireless work during the session just closed. I should

also like, on behalf of my Government and my compatriots,

to thank the Secretary-General for his tireless work to carry

forward the principles that unite all the nations represented

in this Hall.

I should like to tell the Assembly about the

fundamental challenges facing my country, which have to

do, in those more specific circumstances, with those more

universal issues that are the concern of this Organization of

all nations.

In only my fourth month as President of El Salvador,

I believe I must say that I recognize what a great honour it

is for me to address the Assembly. During the months when

I was a presidential candidate, my country was full of

confused and contradictory ideas as to its direction and

destiny. I therefore felt the need to counter the many

opposing viewpoints with the one inescapable argument —

the reality of my country — in order to find what direction

that should be. That is why I dropped the political debate

to delve deeply into the only matter that is of interest to

any candidate in El Salvador: reading the relationship

between the citizens of El Salvador and their country in

order to move forward.

That enabled me to identify with rural people, potters,

industrialists and tradespeople in their efforts to build a

decent future for themselves and their families. At no time

during the conversations that I had in various parts of my

country was I asked for privileges or perquisites, and

neither did people demand assistance programmes: they all

wanted to see their own families' destinies built on a

foundation of decent work and their own efforts. That

requirement, those aspirations addressed to my

Government — and to which my Administration is duty

bound — are what bring me to this rostrum to address the

Assembly.

It seems to me that in recent decades significant

progress has been made by our region and by the world as

a whole in developing all the political freedoms. My

country in particular has moved rapidly during the past

seven years through universal suffrage to democratic

institutions and the will of the people expressed in all

organs of the State. Just seven years ago, El Salvador was

completely divided by a fratricidal war; today it has a fully

fledged democracy. And in this effort to move forward,

we have been encouraged and stimulated by many of the

nations whose representatives are listening to these words

here today.

However, I must say that the commitment of nations

to political freedom finds no corresponding stimulus to or

development of economic freedoms: developed countries

respond to our efforts to bring our products to the world

market with protectionism, trade barriers and quotas. By

contrast, our nations are completely open; we have

complete economic freedom; we welcome free trade with

all nations.

What is the cause of this discontinuity between

political freedoms and economic freedoms? How can we

promote political freedom and democracy when the world

is being closed to economic freedom? Neither I nor my

compatriots are asking the world for assistance because of

poverty: we are trying to build honourable nations forged

by our own work. That is the aspiration of my

compatriots, of El Salvador, and of all nations that can

hold up their heads in dignity. It is absurd for us to be

called upon to demonstrate openness when the developed

countries respond with protectionism.

That is why it is important that I highlight these

essential challenges. We must choose the path of freedom,

but not freedom limited to certain areas. It must be

freedom in all its fullness. If political freedom is not

matched by economic freedom, how can we justify the

efforts of those of us who are trying to change our

countries institutionally in order to make them freer?

Some in our region are waxing nostalgic about State

interventionism and other forms of authoritarianism, as a

way of solving our problems.

Future generations will not judge us only by our

deeds; they will judge us too by what we fail to do. If we

lack the courage to speak or to act, they will demand to

know why, on the threshold of the new millennium, we

did not want genuinely to open the world to freedom.

Let me acknowledge United Nations assistance and

intervention in my country. The efforts of Salvadorans to

meet our aspirations to lasting peace would not have met

with success without the proper forum through which to

bring conciliation among Salvadorans: the United Nations.

We must therefore express our gratitude to the

Organization, a house of concord among nations, and to

its Member States, for their involvement in the

achievement of our Peace Agreement. El Salvador has

4

only one way of expressing that gratitude: while

understanding that historical experiences vary, we offer the

world our humble experience so that it may be studied by

any country that chooses to resolve its conflicts by taking

the path of concord.

Following the armed conflict, hundreds of thousands

of Salvadorans were forced to leave their homes and

communities in order to feed their families. Many of my

compatriots have been received in nations represented in

this Hall. Let me address the nations in which Salvadorans

are living, sometimes in difficult circumstances: I ask for

understanding for my compatriots; they are in your

countries solely because they have to earn a living for their

families. They must not be blamed for social tensions that

predate their arrival. I call for respect for those

Salvadorans. Citizens of the world do not lose their dignity

or their rights when they become emigrants. And I wish to

send this message to my compatriots scattered across the

globe because of the armed struggle: in El Salvador there

will always be room for them to thrive. Our common

destiny is linked to our hopes and to a hopeful future: that

we should be together. I am here not only to represent you

but to defend your rights.

In the name of the freedom I have so often evoked, let

me speak of a matter that has been a concern of the

General Assembly: that of the Republic of China on

Taiwan. We believe that when a people, expressing its

sovereign will through democratic elections, elects officials,

chooses a common destiny and builds a vision of its

relations with the rest of the world, it is has the absolute

right to participate on an equal footing with the rest of us

in this forum. For nearly 50 years, we Salvadorans have

maintained relations of all kinds with the Republic of China

on Taiwan. It is our firm hope that that friendly people will

be able to have a voice in this forum.

We also express our concern that so many years have

gone by, and that the matter of setting up operational

machinery to promote peace among nations has so often

come before the Security Council without any resolution. It

is a paradox that, as we speak of concord for the next

millennium, we have been unable to reach agreement on

this matter. This weakens all; it weakens the United

Nations. It is a betrayal of the beliefs of all the nations that

want the Organization to participate actively in promoting

peace.

I stand in solidarity with nations that have been the

victims of natural disasters. We in Central America owe a

debt of gratitude to all who helped us when the recent

hurricane devastated our Republics — non-governmental

organizations, Governments, the United Nations and

friendly nations. That debt of gratitude can be converted

to solidarity only if we say that we in turn want to do our

utmost to help other nations that have been the victims of

natural disasters, such as Turkey and the Republic of

China on Taiwan, not to mention other, no less painful

difficulties such as the conflict that is of such grave

concern to our Colombian brethren.

In solidarity between the peoples of Latin America

and in solidarity between our two countries — for we too

have experienced such a conflict — we offer our brothers

in Colombia any kind of assistance or experience they ask

for to deal successfully with this problem so like the one

that tore apart the lives of the people of El Salvador.

In this Hall that is the forum for the comity of

nations, it is incumbent upon us to give substance to the

rhetoric of our words. For this reason, since you have

done me the honour of patiently listening to me, I would

like to say to you that we, just as you, in our efforts for

our common future, foresee that the entire world will live

in peace, justice and liberty in the years to come.