Guatemala, 2003

I

come before this parliament of humankind to present

my final report as a Head of State who believes in

interdependence and for whom sovereignty is not a

closed door separating nations, but rather an open

window affording a glimpse into the identity of each

one, furthering the respectful interchange of

experiences and the quest for understanding and

solidarity among peoples.

My presence here reflects Guatemala’s

commitment to the United Nations, whose presence in

my country has been crucial to the implementation of

the Peace Agreements concluded in 1996. It also gives

me the opportunity to participate in the debate

concerning the main subjects that make up the

international agenda, while at the same time allowing

me once again to express our solidarity with the

inhabitants of the great city of New York over the

tragic events of two years ago.

I wish to reiterate our energetic repudiation of the

treacherous attack against United Nations headquarters

in Baghdad that took place just a few weeks ago. We

especially regret the loss of valuable officials of the

Organization, including the esteemed Sergio Vieira de

Mello.

I also wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Jan

Kavan, of the Czech Republic, for his enlightened

leadership of the previous session. At the same time, I

would like very sincerely to congratulate Mr. Julian

Hunte on having assumed the presidency of the

General Assembly at this session. We are pleased to see

a distinguished representative of our own region

occupy such an important post. We have no doubt that,

with his proven abilities and his well-known

experience, he will be quite successful in conducting

our deliberations.

Guatemala, just like its brotherly countries in

Latin America, has experienced a dramatic period at

the close of the twentieth century. That time has been

characterized by a complex agenda involving various

challenges, including those of entering into the

globalization process, building peace with justice and

consolidating democracy in a way that includes good

governance.

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In that regard, during the last four years we have

sought to make progress in opening up Guatemala to

the world and in making it part of globalization’s

technological, financial and cultural currents. We

promoted the democratization of institutions,

mechanisms, practices and values capable of

commingling freedom with authority and effectiveness

with equality. We have also nurtured the concept of

peace based on justice and respect for human rights.

Guatemala is a country where several historical

tasks remain to be completed or have been permanently

postponed. When I assumed the presidency, in January

2000, I resolved to thoroughly address some of those

pending issues. We have freed our country from its

captivity by powerful economic interests. There are no

longer tax exemptions that favour individuals. Trade

policy is no longer manipulated to the detriment of the

production of small farmers. Economic policy is now

seen as an instrument of social development. After a

century of captive markets, local monopolies are now

exposed to competition.

The Peace Agreements bestowed on Guatemala a

programme for democratization. With an eye towards

the twenty-first century, the Agreements constitute a

proposal for a wide-ranging reinvigoration of

coexistence between Guatemalans. But the Agreements

have also presented us with the challenge of

simultaneously completing various tasks pertaining to

different historical processes that other societies have

carried out in stages.

I am pleased to say that we have made progress in

various substantive areas. However, I must also admit

that we have fallen short, or inadequately addressed,

other areas.

Against the opposition of powerful interests, we

made a determined effort to increase the tax rate. We

achieved a historical level in the collection of taxes,

but without attaining the goal that had been set.

We carried out the most significant financial

reform since 1945 in order to modernize the banking

system, reduce the risks of speculation and restore to

the system its true mediation function.

We modernized the labour law, which since 1944

had suffered a series of setbacks. We consistently

raised the minimum wage in real terms at an

unprecedented pace. On average, workers in the

countryside now earn 50 per cent more than they did

four years ago.

Our illiteracy rate has historically been shameful.

We therefore adopted plans that made it possible to

reduce that rate by almost half. Special attention has

been devoted to young girls. Through scholarships and

school feeding programmes, we have removed tens of

thousands of children from child labour. We have also

reformed curricula to include the philosophy of the

Peace Agreements. And we have considerably

increased school enrolment.

With regard to basic health care, we have

confronted structural weaknesses in the critical areas of

child and maternal mortality rates and nutrition.

However, much more remains to be done. We are

in an unfavourable economic environment. The

traditional engines of growth and employment have

weakened, and the necessary changes in production are

taking place slowly. We have therefore undertaken a

massive effort to stabilize the economy and have

implemented emergency measures, such as providing

small farmers with agricultural supplies so that they

can sustain their productive capacity.

The issue of transforming the production process

is so sensitive that it was a contributing factor in the

civil war that raged for almost 40 years during the last

century. Recognizing the urgency of the issue, I

introduced reconciliation mechanisms in which all

sectors participate in an effort to define the country’s

strategic policies, including in the areas of economic

and rural development.

Our people have made significant advances in the

area of participation in the past three years. We have

carried out the country’s most significant reform by

decentralizing our institutions, strengthening local

development councils and granting greater powers and

functions to municipal governments. Indigenous

peoples are now recognized as such and are able to

participate in defining a new institutional landscape

grounded in their own cultures. Women also have an

increased public role and are developing innovative

ways of organizing.

All those efforts are aimed at reweaving our

social fabric, which had been torn apart by the war.

Reconciliation is an essential task in that regard, and

the Government must foster a favourable climate for it

to take place. That is why I assumed international

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commitments to counter violations of human rights.

That is also why we have begun a national

compensation programme that includes reparations for

the families of the more than 200,000 victims of the

war, most of whom were indigenous persons. We also

trust that the High Commissioner for Human Rights

will establish an Office in Guatemala.

Nevertheless, impunity continues to be a difficult

issue to overcome. Judicial bodies continue to be weak,

which is what led me to put forward an unprecedented

temporary measure to strengthen local institutional

capacity. I asked for the support of the United Nations

in immediately establishing a commission to

investigate illegal groups and clandestine security

mechanisms, as several repressive groups of the past

that are now in league with organized crime are

threatening and intimidating human rights activists,

judges and journalists.

Civilian authority must be strengthened if we are

to restore all aspects of democracy. Our efforts in that

regard have been clear. We have established a civilian

national intelligence agency, as well as a civilian body

responsible for presidential security. We now have a

defence policy in keeping with the principles of

democratic security that was the product of an open

debate among the members of our society. We have

designed laws to provide for free access to information,

the declassification of secret State archives and the

establishment of civilian controls over security

functions, which includes an advisory council on

security. Those efforts are well under way and should

be fully implemented during the next few years.

Promoting a culture of peace has not been easy.

The trauma of war continues to hamper trust in our

society. Political polarization also exists, as a result of

powerful economic and military groups defending their

privileges. However, human life is less endangered and

the democratization process continues to move

forward.

I will fulfil two other basic commitments in the

remaining 114 days of my presidency. One of them will

be to ensure that Guatemalans are able to take part in a

free and transparent electoral process that is closely

monitored by the international community and in

which all political forces participate without exception.

Such an event will be taking place for only the second

time in our history during the past century.

The second commitment involves carrying out an

orderly transition of power that safeguards the reforms

begun in the context of the Peace Agreements. To that

end, I have worked with my Government team to come

up with a basic transition agenda that includes

providing for continuity in programmes and policies

and the strengthening of institutions involved in the

peace process.

I would now like to turn briefly to some of the

issues we will be dealing with during this session. In

particular, I would like to respond to the challenge that

the Secretary-General put before us this morning,

namely, how to rethink the United Nations in these

times of fundamental changes.

As I have already said, we fully support the

United Nations as the highest proponent of

multilateralism. We also firmly support the stewardship

of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. We concur with his

view that it is imperative that we adapt the

Organization to the exigencies of globalization. We

will also support efforts aimed at improving the

managerial capacities of the Secretariat and at

promoting the reform of intergovernmental bodies.

We therefore believe that we should not delay our

efforts to make the Security Council more

representative, and its procedures more transparent.

Moreover, we think that it is necessary to strengthen

the General Assembly and the Economic and Social

Council in order that the three principal organs of our

Organization mutually support one another.

We reiterate our opposition to all forms of

terrorism and we support the collective efforts of the

international community to combat that scourge.

We believe that the United Nations should

continue to give priority to the essential issue of

development. Along with multilateral financial

organizations, our Organization should dedicate itself

to the task of ensuring that the benefits of globalization

are widely shared among all the inhabitants of the

world. We also stress the singular importance of the

Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan of

Action.

We express our disappointment at the lack of

progress made at the recent meeting of trade ministers

held in Cancún. As part of the G-21, we commit

ourselves to working constructively to bring together

the positions of all parties to produce a more open and

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transparent international trade regime that provides

more opportunities for developing countries.

We also underscore the need to give greater

importance in the international agenda to the situation

of immigrants and migrant workers while focusing on

undocumented immigrants, who constitute a vulnerable

group vis-à-vis the need to protect human rights.

I would especially like to refer to the subject of

children and to the obligation of States to guarantee

their rights and protection. A case in point is the effort

that is taking place in the context of the Convention on

the Rights of the Child to re-establish links between

three Guatemalan children and their mother, Gabriela

Arias.

We support all efforts to put an end to the tragic

spiral of violence afflicting the Middle East and to

achieve a just and lasting peace in that long-suffering

region.

We associate ourselves with efforts aimed at

restoring peace, security and the rule of law in Iraq, as

well as to reinstate that country’s sovereignty. We share

the view that the United Nations should play a

significant role in that undertaking.

We support the heartfelt aspiration of the 23

million citizens of the Republic of China on Taiwan to

be represented in international organizations such as

the United Nations. Guatemala, like all of Central

America, believes those aspirations to be a positive

force for peace and democracy in the world.

We are making our best effort to strengthen the

bonds of friendship and neighbourliness with Belize,

without prejudice to the search for ways to peacefully,

honourably, equitably and permanently resolve our

territorial dispute. We express our complete willingness

to continue to seek a negotiated solution to that dispute

within the framework of the Organization of American

States.

We reiterate our devotion to, and support for,

Central American integration, as well as our solidarity

with, and commitment to, all of Latin America and the

Caribbean.

We live in exceptional times that affect each and

every one of our countries, as well as the United

Nations as a whole. Such critical moments create

opportunities for re-evaluation and change. I hope that

God will grant us the wisdom to take advantage of

those opportunities, thereby making it possible for us

to overcome the obstacles that have served to distract

humankind from a future of solidarity and common

welfare.