Guatemala, 2001

Let me first condemn the monstrous attack on the

people and the Government of our host country. In

condemning it in the strongest possible terms, we

declare ourselves in full solidarity with the people and

the Government of the United States, the families of

each and every one of the victims, whatever his or her

nationality, and the residents of this great city of New

York. We also associate ourselves unreservedly with

the resolutions adopted last month by the Assembly

and the Security Council. We will carry on in our

commitment to the elimination of terrorism in all its

forms and manifestations.

Before taking up our Government programme and

the fulfilment of the Peace Agreements, and our

position on certain of the items on the agenda for this

session, I wish to warmly congratulate you, Sir, on

your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly. I have no doubt that your well-proven

capabilities and your recognized wisdom will enable

you to bring our deliberations to a fully successful

outcome.

I wish further to join the representatives who

have taken the floor before me in commending the

Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. Kofi Annan

for his wise leadership. We hail his well-deserved re-

election and rejoice at the recognition that both he and

the Organization have received, through the award of

the Nobel Peace Prize.

I come, like many of those gathered here, from a

small country that mirrors the grave problems facing

today’s world. Today we still do not enjoy the major

benefits of the great scientific and technological

advances, and we still suffer from great social

inequalities. Ours is a small country that is doing its

best to attain peace and democracy — a country that

believes in the rewards of economic freedom, but also

in social justice. It is a country that has opened itself

up to the world, although the world has perhaps not

opened itself up reciprocally in the same way. It is a

country that works and produces by making great

efforts but that, in the present circumstances, is

receiving less and less for those efforts.

In this context, our contribution to world peace

and democracy is diminished to the same extent that

inequality, social injustice and poverty imperil our

peace and our democracy.

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Today the struggle against terrorism is the

struggle against inequality in international economic

relations; it is the struggle against ignorance, injustice,

discrimination, intolerance, exclusion and poverty.

There will be no peace if we do not eradicate these

scourges. A peace that goes hand in hand with

inequality, poverty and injustice is a bad peace. And let

us not forget that a bad peace is worse than war.

We are making strenuous efforts to advance in

implementing our own Peace Agreements, which

coincide with our Government programme. The time

that has elapsed since I addressed the Millennium

Summit has witnessed intensive activities. I can point

to significant progress, but I must also admit to some

setbacks, which are due primarily to an unfavourable

international environment, which has affected the

economy in an extremely adverse way. I draw attention

to this situation, because full compliance with the

commitments contained in the Peace Agreements

would be far easier in a context of economic growth

than in the framework of serious fiscal restrictions and

increasing demands on the Government.

On a different matter, I would like to comment

briefly on the United Nations presence in Guatemala. I

wish to reiterate how much we appreciate the United

Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

(MINUGUA). We trust that its mandate will be

extended until the end of 2003 so that we can in a

progressive and orderly way transfer its functions both

to national institutions and, wherever possible, to the

United Nations programmes and agencies.

As far as our international relations are

concerned, I would like to mention the significant

progress made in the process of finding a peaceful

resolution to the historical dispute between ourselves

and Belize. In keeping with the principles of peaceful

settlement of disputes between States, we have

confirmed with deeds our commitment to dialogue as

the way of settling disputes. The commission of

facilitators appointed last year, within the framework

of the regional organization to which both States

belong, the Organization of American States, will soon

submit its report. Its fundamental aim is to work out

and prepare courses of action to make progress in

resolving the dispute.

We reiterate our firm support for Central

American integration and our commitment to the rest

of Latin America and the Caribbean. Our Government

has supported major initiatives in the area of regional

and subregional integration, and is working hard to

overcome problems left over from age-old border

disputes in Central America.

As to our position on other international conflicts,

we voice the hope that the differences or divisions that

persist between fraternal peoples in the Middle East,

Asia and Africa will yield to resolution peacefully

through dialogue. I also wish to take this opportunity to

reiterate before this Assembly our concern over the

situation of the 23 million citizens of the Republic of

China on Taiwan, whose aspiration to be represented in

international organizations has not yet been fully

satisfied. The Central American countries in general,

and Guatemala in particular, believe they could indeed

make a positive contribution to peace and democracy in

the world.

I would now like to comment briefly on our

views regarding the principal issues with which this

Assembly will have to deal at the current session. First,

I reiterate our full support for the United Nations as the

supreme expression of multilateralism. We are

convinced that the United Nations will have a crucial

role to play in the twenty-first century. It is our view

that the Millennium Declaration that our heads of State

and Government issued a year ago offers the right

agenda for our priorities and for the steps to be taken to

attain the goals set.

Second, we agree that it is necessary to adapt the

Organization to the exigencies of globalization and to

this post-cold-war era. It is up to us, the Member

Governments, to further this process of adaptation in

various areas, such as intergovernmental forums, the

efficiency and efficacy of the Secretariat, the setting of

priorities in shaping the programme of activities and

the financial strengthening of the Organization.

Third, of the pending reforms, the one that has

received the most attention is that concerning the

Security Council. One cannot but be frustrated at the

limited progress made in this area at previous sessions

of the General Assembly. Now more than ever before

we must redouble our efforts to endow that body with

greater efficacy, broader representativity and more

transparency in its working procedures. To achieve

these objectives, we advocate, inter alia, an increase in

the number of Council members, as well as a very

sparse use of the veto power. We also believe that now

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more than ever before it is necessary that the Security

Council’s work be monitored by the General Assembly.

Fourth, deeply shocked by the events that

occurred in this country on 11 September, we reiterate

our full and complete opposition to terrorism, and we

will support any collective action by the international

community to combat this scourge. As a matter of fact,

we are already working to comply with the spirit and

the letter of the undertakings embodied in Security

Council resolution 1373 (2001), within the parameters

of a democratic society that aspires to guarantee the

human rights of its members.

Fifth, we advocate the strengthening of the

General Assembly, and we congratulate the President

of its fifty-fifth session on his initiative to revitalize its

working methods and procedures. We trust that this

action will continue under the current presidency and

that it will extend to the wider task of reforming the

Assembly, in pursuance of the aims of the Millennium

Declaration.

Sixth, we are convinced of the need to strengthen

our collective capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts,

both between States and at the national level. We

believe that the report of the Panel on United Nations

Peace Operations provides an adequate basis for

achieving this purpose.

Seventh, as regards general disarmament, we

insist on the need for progress towards the total

elimination of nuclear, chemical and bacteriological

weapons, the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons, and the use of anti-personnel mines and other

explosive devices. In this connection, we support all

concrete actions by the United Nations to accomplish

these aims, including those that look to the

establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in all

regions of the world. As regards the control of illicit

trade in small arms and light weapons, we are of the

view that the results of the Conference held last July to

deal with this problem, while positive if allowance is

made for this being the first step taken at the global

level to deal with the matter, are nevertheless

inadequate.

Eighth, we offer our full support for and active

participation in the principal meetings scheduled for

the years ahead, among which I wish to highlight the

International Conference on Financing for

Development, to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, next

March, as well as the World Summit on Sustainable

Development, to be held in Johannesburg.

Ninth, in a world characterized by ever greater

interdependence, multilateral diplomacy plays a crucial

role in the fight against environmental degradation.

Guatemala, as a party to the main international treaties

relating to the environment, reiterates its commitment

to the maintenance of ecological balance.

Finally, we consider that the United Nations

should continue devoting itself to what we call the

great unfinished business of the twentieth century —

namely, the elimination of world poverty. Together

with the multilateral financial agencies, our

Organization should play a crucial role in ensuring that

the benefits of globalization are widely shared among

all countries, not only among a few of them; this

requires action at the level of each country and at the

international level.

Given the globalization process the world is

going through, we must recognize, as stated by the

great Mexican thinker Carlos Fuentes, that unregulated

globalization leads to more profound economic and

social imbalance. We cannot turn economic policy into

a mere balancing of accounts in which human beings

and populations are not taken into consideration. How

can we make demands on some countries when those

demands are not made of others in similar conditions?

Civilization is being put to the test. The question

is how to eliminate the universal threat posed by

terrorism and at the same time maintain and renew the

ethical, political, legal and social bases for ensuring

coexistence in a globalized world. The only solution is

to focus on fighting for more freedom, more

democracy, more tolerance and more justice. In this

respect, I would like to share with the Assembly the

words of a distinguished Guatemalan poet, Otto René

Castillo:

“We have suffered in so many places the blows of

the executioner and written his name so many

times on so little skin, that we cannot die, for

liberty has no death”.

May God bless and protect us.