El Salvador, 2011

This new session of the Assembly of the United

Nations brings us together at what is no doubt an

historic time of great importance, as has been said in

one way or another by the various leaders who have

preceded me at this rostrum. These are certainly critical

times that should lead us to adopt an attitude that goes

beyond addressing the specific questions of the

moment, because this is a moment of change in the

history of humankind. On the economic, social and

geopolitical levels there are many signs indeed that

show us that the world is changing and that the

transition towards something new, even if still

undefined, is already under way and will follow its

course, whether we are able to understand it or not.

That is why our peoples desire political

leadership that is able to respond to this time of

uncertainty. Our societies demand of us that we be

able, first of all, to understand and explain to them

what is really going on. They also demand of us that

we listen to their needs and satisfy those needs and,

above all, that we reach a new international consensus

in order to make that necessary qualitative global leap

in order to achieve a planet of greater justice, stability

and safety.

This is, therefore, an opportunity to reconsider

our policies, to review and change paradigms that seem

to be frozen, to renew the international debate and to

be ambitious in our aspirations as a global society.

Members know that nothing undermines the morale

and spirit of our peoples more than fear, uncertainty

and distrust. It is those evils that are affecting our

planet currently. We are suffering from fear in its

various guises. Millions of demoralized, unemployed

people live in daily uncertainty, not knowing whether

there is a future for them and their children. Entire

countries have seen their economies stumble because

of that lack of confidence. Hundreds of thousands of

families every day face the fear that takes the form of

political instability, natural disasters, the lack of urban

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safety, and poverty. All those people demand that their

leaders give them the inspiration to overcome that fear,

to regain a sense of collective self-esteem and to

believe in a different and better future. That is the great

historical challenge that we must shoulder with

responsibility and courage.

We must forge a new international agreement that

will allow us to overcome such fears and lack of

confidence in order once again to stride forward.

Therefore we must not allow that fear to be translated

into timid or cowardly political and economic

decisions that would deprive us of an opportunity to

undertake the changes that our people are calling for.

We must not betray their historic will for

transformation and development. It would be

unpardonable, unforgivable, if we were to allow

ourselves to be lulled by old political and economic

dogma and continue repeating once again the same

mistakes, while overwhelming majorities in every city,

in every State, on every continent, have clearly

expressed their desire for a new, audacious and creative

policy.

Over the past 30 years, while the economy has

grown exponentially, so has the root cause of many of

our misfortunes, and here I am referring to injustice.

Daily injustice has a most significant effect on our

peoples. It affects their options for health, education

and social development in very tangible ways. That

inequality has disastrous consequences, which has been

tried, tested and understood by some of the wealthiest

entrepreneurs, who are in favour of paying more taxes,

as they are aware that adopting any other position

would sentence us to a harsh future, even for those

living at ease.

The fight against poverty and inequality, as was

recalled at the inaugural meeting of this session of the

General Assembly by the President of Brazil, Dilma

Rousseff, has proven to be the strongest economic

policy in these difficult times. Therefore, it is time that

we no longer see our future in terms of macroeconomic

data but that we start to focus our political debate on

our peoples’ needs and on social justice, which is what

the debate should always have focused on. Any other

debate would be sterile and would only lead us away

from the common objective that should govern all our

policies, namely, the objective of the common good.

The unstable reality that we have experienced

also takes the form of conflicts which, increasingly,

call upon the indistinct arbiter, who goes by the name

of the “international community” and which is

represented here in the General Assembly better than

anywhere else. In that regard I welcome the fact that

one of the central themes of this session is the search

for the peaceful settlement of conflicts and prevention

strategies to cope with situations of instability. This

shows us that the arbiter is growing stronger, as are the

possibilities to prevent injustice and human rights

abuses wherever they occur. The United Nations arose

out of the global desire to avoid a new major conflict,

and that spirit of peace and harmony must continue to

guide us in our actions, even when the conflicts that we

face currently are very different from the conflicts of

the twentieth century. Indeed, we are living in a most

diverse and complex world where there are no magical

formulas or quick fixes but common responsibility,

which is committed to finding new avenues for

peacemaking and justice extending beyond our national

borders.

That resolve must also translate into our quest for

solutions to what is one of the oldest conflicts on this

planet, and I am referring here to the Arab-Israeli

conflict. As members know, my country recently

decided to recognize the Palestinian State. This in no

way seeks to undermine our good diplomatic relations

with Israel. We are of the view that both peoples have

the right and duty to coexist. Recognizing Palestine as

a new State within the United Nations is, in my

opinion, the right way to contribute to resolving the

conflict. With this firm belief we support all diplomatic

efforts that are aimed at achieving a peaceful

settlement of this long-standing conflict. We firmly

believe that dialogue is the only possible solution, and

our actions have always been guided by that principle.

Now I should like to refer to the main enemy, not

only of my country and Central America but of a large

portion of the American continent. I am referring here,

of course, to organized crime and drugs trafficking. As

was rightly stated by President Calderón of Mexico

following the terrible attack that occurred in a casino in

Monterrey, we are facing a veritable phenomenon of

terrorism that threatens the viability of our countries,

has taken more lives than many wars, and which

endangers the present and future of our peoples. Many

Latin American countries represented here have

become, against their will, true corridors for illegal

trafficking, thus becoming nations increasingly

affected by violence, with institutions that are

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susceptible to corruption. Because of their poor

economies of scale, their lack of development and the

weakness of their productive machinery owing to

widespread poverty and high levels of inequality, poor

States are threatened by this new form of terrorism that

has forged a strong economic network. All of the

cartels that are operating in the Mesoamerican

region — Mexico and Central America — possess

more money and influence than our countries do.

It is true to say that we are the true victims of

organized crime. It is our territories and peoples that

suffer from this violence and who weep for their dead.

These are not mere empty statements. Studies have

shown that violence and crime are 100 per cent more

likely in regions that facilitate illegal trafficking than

anywhere else on the planet. Our countries are

suffering as a result of this. El Salvador and all of

Central America are undertaking significant efforts to

deal with this fact but the figures are not on our side.

We are speaking of a drug-trafficking route that moves

$100 billion a year and which leads to the largest

market in the world, as well as the largest consumer of

these substances, the United States. Consider this:

$100 billion across our territories along with a

veritable arsenal of weapons to protect this amount.

That means $100 billion dollars that can corrupt public

and private officials, destroy our social fabric and

leave behind them a daily wake of chaos and death.

How therefore can countries such as El Salvador

with a gross domestic product of about $22 billion, or a

country such as Honduras with roughly $15 billion, or

Guatemala which barely reaches $40 billion, deal with

this enemy? Not even a large country such as Mexico

can successfully wage this battle on its own in dealing

with this terrorist strength. It is not scepticism that

leads me to speak this way but rather a sense of realism

in keeping with the reality experienced by Central

American peoples on a daily basis.

I wish to draw attention to this. The international

community must understand that it is also affected by

this problem. No nation on this planet is spared this

problem. There are drug users in every nation in the

world, who get their drugs from the criminal drug-

trafficking networks. That means that the fight against

organized crime is a common struggle and, in that

regard, I wish to make a special and hopeful call upon

the people and Government of the United States

resolutely to lead us in this the good fight against drug-

trafficking and organized crime. I believe that the

Government of the United States must lead us in the

struggle with great resolve. It must make the

commitment and apply all its economic, human,

technological and political resources in waging the

struggle, which is indeed the harshest war to affect our

continent.

The violence that is fuelled by drugs trafficking

and by its machinery of death has taken more lives in

Mesoamerica than conflicts that occur elsewhere on

this planet. That is why I wish to draw attention to and

invite all Members to focus on this shocking fact. We

require the firm resolve of our great North American

neighbour in order to strike the necessary blows to

weaken and end this criminal phenomenon. Naturally,

that does not mean that our countries will in any way

shirk their share of the responsibility. We shall

continue to strengthen our institutions, to reform our

security forces, to strengthen our presence on the

ground in order to protect our young people from

criminal gangs. At the regional level we are working

together and have undertaken significant steps in a

common undertaking by sharing strategies and tasks

with Mexico, Colombia and the United States.

Of course, these are truly difficult challenges that

lie ahead. Many of these challenges were referred to by

the President of Mexico — the fight against money-

laundering, disarmament, crime prevention, an

effective judiciary — and will require the reform of our

judicial organs. Inevitably, organized crime has

infiltrated the organs of the State, in particular the

judiciary and the police forces. That is why we must

wage a strong fight in order to clean up those

institutions.

But the consumer countries, in this case chiefly

the United States, are morally responsible in this

struggle that must be seen not only as a criminal

problem but also as a matter of public health. While

drugs consumption and narcotics use grow, the

business of drugs trafficking will remain powerful. In

short, we call once again for North American

leadership in this common struggle that we are waging

alongside Mexico, Colombia and all of Central

America.

Struggles such as these, which are being waged

across the American continent, once again show how

important it is to have a strong and united America.

Unity is a necessary prerequisite in order to meet our

common goals. Given this need, I now wish to refer to

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the blockade against the Republic of Cuba. We believe

that this blockade is an anachronism from a past page

of history that we wish to turn once and for all.

Essentially a blockade against Cuba is a step towards

disunity. It is a stumbling block on the road of history

that weakens us as a continent.

At the start of my statement I spoke of the

leadership that our peoples expect from us in these

difficult times, of the courage that we need in order to

face the challenges that extend beyond our borders and

also of this great opportunity before us now. Let us

show that leadership, from the smallest country, such

as my own, to the great Powers. Let us show an

unequivocal will to achieve peace, social justice and

the well-being of the men and women who place their

faith in us, in particular in times such as these when

crisis once again threatens our peoples. Let us not fail

them once more. We should not favour those in power

who triggered the crisis but rather the weakest, who are

affected by it.