El Salvador, 2009

I

would first of all like to thank Mr. Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann of the sister Republic of Nicaragua for his

work during the sixty-third session of the General

Assembly. I would also like to convey our

congratulations to Mr. Ali Treki on his election as

President of the Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, as

well as to wish him every success in his efforts. We

would also like to thank Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon for his leadership of the United Nations.

A little more than three months ago, by changing

its Government after two decades under the same

political party, El Salvador began a process to expand

and strengthen its democracy. The new Government

has set just a few, but overarching, goals aimed at

beginning a process of change that pulls the country

out of its economic crisis and its social and cultural

backwardness while establishing the foundation for the

full development of its productive potential, including

social integration and fair distribution of its income, as

well as making it possible to achieve peace and

security, which is our greatest challenge. We have set

out the major outlines of my Administration in three

words: unite, grow and include.

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First of all, the Government over which I preside

is not based on a single political party, let alone on a

single faction. It is a Government of national unity

focused on two main goals. The first is to put an end to

the confrontations, hatred and divisions that have

drained a significant amount of vigour from our society

and fuelled a bloody civil war that has left behind

painful scars. The second is to put in place the

foundation for peaceful and secure coexistence.

That means that major national decisions will no

longer be taken behind closed doors or out of sight of

the majority of our people. Every measure, every step

in El Salvador will be discussed and decided at the

table through dialogue. Seated at that table will be

representatives of the production and labour sectors, as

well as of social movements, non-governmental

organizations, political parties, churches and academia.

It is untrue that the demands of administration require

curtailing dialogue as the basic instrument of the

decision-making process.

We were able to set up our economic and social

council in barely 100 days. That body is charged with

proposing and considering social and economic

policies that will allow us to successfully address the

crisis we are experiencing. In the same period, we were

also able to launch an ambitious low-income housing

programme that is unprecedented in El Salvador’s

history. That programme, which was the result of

Government working with the private sector, will

produce 100,000 jobs. Work has already begun in the

first projects.

That undertaking, like others in the area of social

and productive infrastructure, also helps to promote

temporary work for young people at risk and to

improve the housing and community conditions in the

poorest areas. It is also part of the comprehensive

anti-crisis plan that I promised during my campaign,

which we are carrying out through enormous effort.

Also in less than 100 days, we succeeded in

expanding the social safety net and the provision of

assistance for the poorest families in 100 rural

municipalities. Upon my return to the country, we will

launch the first safety net, involving social and

employment services in urban communities

experiencing extreme poverty. We are responding

promptly to the urgent needs of the most excluded,

impoverished and neglected groups in our society. I

should like to reiterate that all this is being done

through an honest and wide-scale dialogue that

includes the entire social spectrum of El Salvador.

We have resolutely addressed the concerns

resulting from changes in power. It was once believed

that changes in Government would lead to instability

and uncertainty. The complete opposite happened. We

have given legal guarantees and clear examples that the

new Government is serious, responsible in managing

finances and trustworthy when it comes to both

domestic and foreign affairs, including as regards

multilateral organizations and friendly countries

extending assistance to El Salvador.

In that connection, allow me to thank the

countries and groups for that assistance. Their

generosity makes us even more determined to follow

the path of responsibility, austerity and anti-corruption

efforts throughout society and Government.

My country has open wounds that have an impact

on our daily lives, including on our family, social and

cultural lives. Those wounds include public safety and

immigration, which has taken about 3 million of our

fellow citizens abroad in search of the work and

opportunities they have not found in our homeland.

I should first like to speak briefly about

insecurity.

As the Assembly is aware, this is not an

exclusively Salvadoran phenomenon. While it is a

global problem, it is certainly more pronounced in our

region. Organized crime, drug trafficking and the

activities of violent criminal youth gangs have

developed in the past decade to become the worst

threat to the stability of our countries. The policies that

have been implemented jointly and within individual

countries have not merely fallen short; they have been

but a succession of failures. That means that we must

increase our joint efforts while using all the means and

intelligence at our disposal to confront those scourges.

We are faced with a structural phenomenon that

hampers the full normal functioning of our societies.

In that regard, I am completely convinced that we

must have strong, long-term, decisive and intelligent

policies within our countries. However, we will fully

defeat crime only if we unite as a single entity that is

genuinely determined to defeat organized crime, which

is a destructive element that undermines institutions

and saps the creative and productive energies of our

peoples.

25 09-52228

I have said to my fellow citizens, and I should

like to reiterate here, that my Government will do

everything the law allows to combat crime with

determination and courage. However, this is not a task

for a single president or Government; it is also one for

society as a whole. I have therefore called for the

widest possible level of participation from all groups

and people of good will in carrying out what is called

“the good fight”, referred to by the Apostle Paul in his

first letter to Timothy — a good fight against

insecurity, fear and hopelessness. That is the great

challenge that brings us together, let us make no

mistake.

I should like to propose the holding of an

international conference to address these problems in

order to consider best practices with which to confront

that battle together. To that end, we would require the

logistical and financial support of both the

Organization of American States and the United

Nations.

The other wound to which I referred is the

ongoing waves of immigration by Salvadoran men and

women that have been taking place for many years. All

those who have left have been in their productive

years, the most skilled, seeking the work, security and

well-being denied them in their own country. With

3 million Salvadorans abroad, remittances equal about

18 per cent of our gross national product. That tearing

apart of families is difficult to overcome. It is also a

constant reminder of the fact that we have not been

able to put in place the necessary conditions to keep

our children home, as well as of the fact that we will

never be able to achieve our potential, individually or

as a society, unless we heal this terrible wound.

I have personally raised the flag of our country’s

full democratization, which means that emigrants

should have access to the vote that has been denied

them to this day. That unjustifiable denial is added to

the pain of separation and the loss of human rights to

which they are subjected as immigrants.

I have called on political parties, intellectuals,

academics and judges to draft the outlines of a national

political accord that advances the necessary reforms to

expand and strengthen democracy, increase

transparency in the workings of political parties,

improve the administration of national elections law

and — as a key element of my appeal — ensure the

right to vote for our brothers and sisters abroad.

We are concerned, moreover, not only by the

unstable situation of migrants living abroad with no

legal status, suffering constant uncertainty and fear of

being deported, but also by the difficult situation they

are currently experiencing as a result of the global

financial and economic crisis. For this reason a policy

for the inclusion and protection of the rights of our

migrant population and their families is a priority for

us. We will be undertaking measures within and with

countries of transit and destination countries to

guarantee migrants’ rights everywhere in the world,

and in particular the rights of our Salvadorian brothers.

We will emphasize an integrated and long-term

approach to addressing migration, considering all its

causes, manifestations and effects. We will bring this

vision to the process initiated at the High-level

Dialogue on International Migration and Development,

and we pledge our participation at the third Global

Forum on Migration and Development, to take place in

Athens.

My Government is carrying out a foreign policy

geared towards strengthening and broadening

relationships of friendship and cooperation with all

countries of the world, both at the bilateral and

multilateral levels, based on solidarity, mutual respect

and compliance with the principles of peaceful

coexistence, such as respect for sovereignty, territorial

integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, the

non-use or threat of use of force, the peaceful

settlement of disputes, respect for the right to

self-determination and respect for international law and

international commitments, in accordance with the

principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.

The foreign policy of El Salvador is free from

ideological or partisan political stances. In good faith it

is guided not only by national interests and priorities

but also by the common goals and interests of the

international community, in particular the quest for and

promotion of peace, political dialogue, cooperation in

solidarity, security and sustainable development. One

example of this is the restoration of diplomatic

relations between El Salvador and Cuba, which

overcame a lingering breach in our country’s

hemispheric relations. I also wish to underscore that a

further key objective of my Government is to

strengthen the ties that we have with our brother

countries in Central America.

In this context, I am certain that there will be no

solution or future for any of our countries if we act in

09-52228 26

isolation from each other. We long ago emerged from

the era of nationalities, and we are now ready to

embark on a new phase, one of greater integration. In

this regard the European Union is perhaps the most

advanced example.

I appeal to my Central American colleagues to

consider this point. There are many pending issues that

we must address. There are common challenges that we

must face shoulder to shoulder. We have everything to

gain and nothing to lose in the full integration of our

region. In these years of the bicentenary we must

regain the free and independent spirit of our ancestors,

which was exemplified in the concept of a Central

American union as a basis for development, well-being

and peace for our peoples. A first step would be to

convene a summit that would focus on a balanced

integration process and an analysis of greater transfer

of competencies to strengthen the mechanisms of

supra-nationality, in order to further the aims and

principles established in the Tegucigalpa Protocol, to

ensure its credibility and viability.

Among the aims, of course, would be to

strengthen regional democratic institutions, helping us

to avoid occurrences such as the Honduran coup d’état,

of which members are all well aware. Working together

we must ensure that it will be impossible to return to

the times of authoritarianism or military or civilian-

military dictatorships. The coup d’état in Honduras

must not be allowed to set a precedent which will

jeopardize the achievements that we have reached in

terms of regional stability and democratic institutions.

The de facto Government in our brother country has

ignored the clamour of voices raised by the

international community, calling for Honduras to return

as quickly as possible to constitutional order through

dialogue and political negotiation in accordance with

human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the

Honduran people.

Until the Constitution is restored in Honduras

through the immediate reinstatement of President

Zelaya and the creation of a government of national

unity in keeping with the San José Agreement, the

electoral process currently being prepared in our

brother country will lack the legitimacy or

transparency necessary to guarantee reliable results

which might help resolve the crisis in our brother

country.

The United Nations has played and will play a

leading role in the maintenance of international peace

and security and in the promotion of democracy and

development. El Salvador is a leading example: the

Organization helped in reaching the Peace Agreements

that succeeded in resolving our internal conflict — a

contribution for which I am deeply grateful, because it

led us from war to peace and from peace to a phase of

transition to democratization and development. In this

regard we will engage in a major review of the

international agenda in order to set priorities and to

ensure compliance with the key guidelines issued by

this global Organization and which benefit the well-

being and dignity of our peoples. We are implementing

policies that are geared towards meeting the

commitments we have entered into at major

international conferences, in particular the Millennium

Development Goals and the promotion and full

protection of human rights. We will also be joining

international agreements aimed at strengthening human

rights and freedoms.

We believe in the role that the United Nations has

played in the field of cooperation and development,

and we reiterate our support for the reform of its

principal organs, programmes and subsidiary bodies,

which will allow the Organization to adapt to the

demands and complexities of new challenges, in

particular through the interrelationship and interaction

that exist among political, economic, social,

environmental and security phenomena.

Thus we commit ourselves to strengthening our

national system for the protection of human rights and

to promoting and guaranteeing a policy of justice, truth

and compensation for serious infringements of human

rights, by implementing a policy of openness, honesty

and transparency in public affairs.

The effects of the international crisis that broke

out last year have been felt by all, but especially by

poor and developing countries whose economies are

dependent on large markets and that suffer from the

consequences of the decline of economic activity,

employment and consumption. Given this situation,

international solidarity and cooperation take on

extreme importance for developing countries, which

have limited natural and financial resources and are

very vulnerable. In this regard we call upon the

industrialized countries and on the donor community to

join every international effort and initiative to

overcome the current challenges, which jeopardize

27 09-52228

achievements made to date and future progress for

humankind.

We recommend taking full advantage of the

experience and expertise within the United Nations

system in fostering international cooperation and

coordinating efforts to achieve common goals. In this

context we appeal particularly to developed countries

to ensure follow-up, support for and implementation of

the recommendations and commitments set out in the

Monterrey Consensus and the Follow-up International

Conference on Financing for Development to Review

the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus that

took place in Doha in 2008, as well as the

recommendations contained in the Outcome of the

Conference on the World Economic and Financial

Crisis and Its Impact on Development (resolution

63/303, annex), in particular the need for donors to

maintain and fulfil their commitments and objectives

with regard to official development assistance. To that

end, there is a need for political resolve to reform the

international financial structure and system in order to

address the current difficulties.

The high-level meeting on climate change

convened by the Secretary-General provided us with an

opportunity to consider that issue, especially with

respect to compliance by States, and in particular the

industrialized countries, with the provisions of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change, which was adopted shortly before the Earth

Summit, and with later commitments to eliminate the

danger posed by environmental degradation and

ongoing activities that have exacerbated climate

change. We therefore hope that we will act in earnest,

responsibly and decisively at the Copenhagen

conference to achieve a new agreement in this area so

as to ensure that States do not put their own interests

before the common well-being of humankind. It is time

to adopt measures and mechanisms to rectify the

mistakes and shortcomings of the past, and to launch a

process to bring development into harmony with

environmental protections.

As participants here are aware, in my country we

have done away with ideological prejudices and

stereotypes in our international relations. We believe in

multilateralism and in particular in the systems of our

continental organization, the Organization of American

States, and of the United Nations. We believe in the

rich and valuable contribution that new and emerging

nations can make to the work of those two systems. We

believe that the future of humankind largely depends

on the intelligence, honour and generosity of the larger

nations in ensuring the full and fair development of

emerging countries so as to put an end to the

discrimination and differences that offend human

nature.

I thank the General Assembly for its attention and

its support for my country and the Salvadoran people.