Honduras, 1969

136. Madam President, at this twenty-fourth

session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, I

venture on behalf of the delegation of Honduras to convey

to you my warmest and most sincere congratulations on the

honour conferred on you both as an illustrious lady and as

a worthy representative of your country Liberia, a prominent

member of the African community.

137. In wishing you every success in the delicate functions

entrusted to you, I recall with deep emotion the name of

your illustrious predecessor, Mr. Emilio Arenales, who quite

literally gave his life in the service of this Organization.

138. In beginning this statement I cannot hide that I am

not as optimistic as in past years, since in the melancholy

history of the United Nations few sessions have been

heralded by so many and such ominous portents for the

peace of the world. It is undeniable that mankind has

always been in a state of crisis. Nevertheless, it is no less

true that the crisis we face today is the most general and

most serious that we have ever encountered.

139. Some years ago the dominant political and economic

ideologies were virtually polarized in two great Powers.

More or less peaceful coexistence had been maintained

because of the well-grounded fear of bringing about mutual

destruction on such a scale as to amount to collective

suicide. Today one of those ideologies has become divided,

creating a greater danger with the emergence of a third

great Power.

140. Moreover, the unjust differences which exist between

the developed countries and those striving to emerge from

under-development become deeper every day. Solutions

have been proposed to narrow the vast gap separating the

wealthy nations from those which have been called the

third world; but twentieth-century man maintains his

utilitarian and selfish attitude, his attempt to postpone

what all countries desire: a more stable and balanced world

resulting from better and greater opportunities for happiness

and well-being. In this connexion may I be permitted

to pay a tribute to the great work and praiseworthy efforts

of the United Nations, particularly through the United

Nations Conference on Trade and Development? May I

also be allowed to pay a just tribute to the active and

constant labours of the Secretary-General of the United

Nations, U Thant?

141. Colonialism, despite the efforts of this Organization,

has not yet disappeared from the face of the earth. In

various forms desperate efforts are still being made in this

world by Powers which, although they have largely risen

above feudal systems as internal legal regimes and the law

of the strongest as the only means for international

coexistence, have not succeeded in adapting their political

systems to the historical epoch in which we live, in which

the less fortunate peoples of the world constantly advocate,

with greater awareness, the strict application of the

universal principles of law.

142. Nine years have already elapsed since the General

Assembly of the United Nations adopted at its fifteenth

session, with the ostensible purpose of speeding up

de-colonization, resolution 1514 (XV), which states that “the

peoples of the world ardently desire the end of colonialism

in all its manifestations”, proclaims “the necessity of

bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in

all its forms and manifestations“, and declares that any

“attempt aimed at ... disruption of the national unity and

the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with

the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United

Nations”.

143. We all know that, based on the principles and

purposes of the Charter signed at San Francisco, a new

international law has come into being. In it mankind places

its hopes for peace and justice; and on the basis of those

universal principles, principles that we ourselves created

with the firm intention of acquiring for them a positive

legal character, we today demand acceleration of the

decolonization process.

144. Three years ago we submitted to the General

Assembly a statement regarding our rights over the Santanilla

or Swan Islands, a territory which has legitimately

belonged to us since the discovery of America. The

question of sovereignty over the Santanilla Islands, and our

recovery of that sovereignty, has a profound effect on

public opinion in my country and has created a national

awareness of the need to reach a favourable solution. Direct

negotiations initiated between our country and the United

States of America appear more encouraging since that

country, in a fine gesture of continental brotherhood,

accepted Mexican claims to the territory of El Chamizal.

This attitude leads us to hope that the example will be

repeated, all the more easily this time, for the benefit of

our own country, America and the world.

145. Once again Honduras expresses its solidarity with the

Republic of Argentina in its just claim to the Islas Malvinas.

It likewise supports Spanish claims for the implementation

of General Assembly resolution 2429 (XXIII) regarding the

Territory of Gibraltar.

146. Odious racial differences typified by the policy of

apartheid continue to be a source of shame for our world,

but despite the strong repugnance expressed by most

nations, there unfortunately seems to be no prospect of the

early disappearance of this policy.

147. In the Middle East conflict our position remains

unalterable: we support United Nations decisions making

for a stable peace in that region, whereby the States

involved would abandon any attitude of permanent

belligerency and at the same time withdraw all military forces

which have occupied by force territories that do not belong

to them. The Charter of the Organization of American

States, that of the United Nations, and the rules of

international law establish the principle that conquest gives

no rights.

148. It is fitting to recall here the thoughts of Mr. Richard

M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, as

expressed recently in this Assembly:

“The test of the structure of peace is that it ensure for

the people of each nation the integrity of their borders,

their right to develop in peace and safety and their right

to determine their own destiny without outside interference.“

[1755th meeting, para. 47.]

149. It is painful to recognize that since the end of the

Second World War, supposedly the war to end all wars, the

world has not lived a single day in complete peace, and

violence has relentlessly assailed Europe, Asia and Africa.

The rights of nations and men have been trampled

underfoot in the four corners of the earth. Nevertheless,

one continent proudly proclaimed its respect for law as a

standard for international coexistence: the new world

discovered by Christopher Colombus, whose destinies were

forged by Valle, Bolivar, Washington, San Martin and so

many other paladins of freedom and justice. Yet the

honour of America, the continent of hope and peace, has

also been sullied by the frustrated ambitions of a bellicose

country desirous of conquering territories and lacking the

most elementary sense of legality.

150. I have said once before in this august forum that at

this point in time it is no longer conceivable that

semi-sovereign States should continue to exist under

protectorates; but an undeniable reality shows us, to the

sorrow of mankind, that States do exist which under the

influence of their totalitarian doctrines endeavour to

impose their interests and to destroy the self-determination

of peoples by force of arms and a reign of vandalism and terror.

151. I have recalled my past statements because Honduras,

whose respect for international legal standards is traditional

and whose sincere belief in Central Americanism has been

constantly reiterated at the cost of many sacrifices, was — I

say this with indignation and sadness — recently the victim

of a treacherous and cruel aggression. It was treacherous,

because it was carried out without any declaration of war

and because, oblivious of the fraternal, political and

economic links among the Central American peoples, it

threw away to the boom of cannon and the rattle of

machine guns all the progress that had been made in Central

American integration. It was cruel because, ignoring the

international rules governing armed conflicts and not as an

act of war, it carried out a mass destruction of property

and, from the beginning to the end, crime and pillage were

daily and constantly perpetrated by the invading troops

against the civilian population of Honduras.

152. Indeed, on 14 July of this year the Republic of El

Salvador carried out a surprise bombing attack against eight

Honduran cities, while at the same time its land forces

invaded the territory of my country. After five days of

battle, during which the invading army was unable to break

through our defence lines, the Organization of American

States by an appropriate resolution put an end to hostilities

at 10 p.m. on 18 July. The same resolution established a

96-hour deadline for the departure of the Salvadorian

troops from the portion of Honduran territory which they

had occupied illegally by force. The deadline was ignored

by the Government of El Salvador, which on the contrary

took advantage of it to move forward without opposition

from our troops, which faithfully observed the cease-fire

that had been decreed.

153. In view of the manifest violation of the regional

organization’s injunctions, the Council of the Organization,

acting provisionally as an organ of consultation, convened

on 26 July 1969 the Thirteenth Meeting of Consultation of

Ministers of Foreign Affairs to examine the case put

forward by El Salvador against the organization under

article 7 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.

154. The Government of El Salvador sought to justify its

reprehensible conduct by setting up, in parallel with its

military aggression, a vast propaganda machine operating

both inside and outside its territory. Within the territory its

purpose was to produce an explosion of hate among the

Salvadorian population against everything Honduran; and

this was widely and systematically fostered. Outside its

territory the purpose was to give international opinion a

false image of Honduras by distorting the facts. These

publicity tactics recall the practices used in the recent past

by the notorious Nazi regime, when it was setting the stage

and preparing a propitious atmosphere for aggression

against a country.

155. In both the Commission on Human Rights and the

Organization of American States El Salvador presented

slanderous accusations against the people and Government

of Honduras, even alleging that they had committed the

crime ‘of genocide against Salvadorian immigrants living in

Honduras. It made that accusation to justify its planned

aggression, seeking to use the argument that the army of El

Salvador had the obligation to defend its fellow citizen: in

Honduran territory. This again is reminiscent of the

philosophy of the Nazi régime: the living space theory and

the rights of the German minorities in the Sudetenland.

156. Honduras, in its turn, denounced before the Organization

of American States the crimes committed on 13, 14

and 15 June by El Salvador against thousands of Honduran

citizens, both men and women, as well as the outrages

inflicted on its national symbols, the flag and the anthem,

and requested an investigation of the facts. The Commission

appointed a sub-committee to visit Honduras and

El Salvador to carry out the investigation which had been requested.

157. In Honduras the international officials of the group

were unable to find any traces—and how could they? — of

the non-existent crime of genocide. Hence, they gave a

resounding refutation of the monstrous Salvadorian slander,

a refutation backed by their moral status and integrity.

Continuing this policy of defaming Honduras, the Government of El Salvador alleged that, in my country, the funds

of Salvadorian persons and companies had been frozen and

confiscated. That allegation, like so many others, is totally

false. Neither the Government nor the Central Bank of

Honduras has adopted any such measures.

158. Asa result of the military aggression to which my

country was subjected on 14 July last the Central Bank of

Honduras placed the accounts of Salvadorian individuals

and companies in Honduran institutions under a special

regime for the purpose of preserving the stability of the

banking system, which was threatened by the fact that El

Salvador was encouraging its nationals in Honduras to

transfer their funds to El Salvador on the ground that

Honduran banks belonged to American companies and that

the funds were being transferred to the United States. It is

not only the accounts of Salvadorian citizens that have

been subjected to the special regime, but also the accounts

of those Hondurans who listened to the insidious campaign

of El Salvador.

159. The funds of the Branch in Honduras of the

Salvadorian Investment Bank have not been frozen, nor has

any action been taken which would prejudice Salvadorian

interests in that institution. On the contrary, to safeguard

those interests the Central Bank of Honduras repeatedly

stated that the Investment Bank was operating normally, It

was, however, considered necessary to guarantee that that

Bank’s reserves would remain in the country so that the

deposits of Honduran citizens would not be left uncovered,

particularly when it was observed that on 3 July, in a

departure from its customary practice, the branch had

transferred a large sum of money to its central office.

160. What is certain is that in El Salvador the funds of

Honduran residents have been frozen and — a most unusual

fact — it has been confirmed that the governing boards of

Salvadorian companies with branches in Honduras have

given instructions from El Salvador to United States banks

to refrain from making payments to those branches.

Financial operations cannot be normalized as long as El

Salvador is unwilling to guarantee the payment of more

than $4 million advanced in credit to Salvadorian citizens

and companies by various Honduran national institutions,

apart from $3 million in commercial credits.

161. It is likewise false that there still exist, or have

existed, any official restrictions on Salvadorian companies

such as to cause them to close down or to transfer their

businesses to Honduran citizens. What happened was that

the owners, aware of the situation created for them by the

Salvadorian military aggression against Honduras, decided

of their own accord to sell their businesses. We see,

therefore, that all these problems were created for the

Salvadorians by the warlike actions of their own Government.

Neither is it true that the Government of Honduras

has confiscated any equipment or materials from

Salvadorian companies engaged in road works in Honduras.

162. Honduras has full confidence in the regional organization

and complete faith in the results of its action. It

must now perform the painful but ineluctable duty of

explaining very briefly some of the circumstances and

causes of the present situation between Honduras and El

Salvador. First, the frontier between the two countries has

never been determined, an anomalous situation which my

Government has tried to resolve by the civilized procedures

laid down in international law and required for the

harmony which should exist among the countries of the

world. To that end, and in fulfilment of previously

contracted obligations, Honduras submitted to El Salvador

almost two years ago a draft of bases and procedures for

drafting a frontier treaty, but received no reply or comment

whatsoever from the Government of that country, despite

repeated requests. Secondly, there has been for more than

50 years a constant and indiscriminate emigration of many

groups of Salvadorians, which is manifestly directed against

our country, to get rid of this economically unproductive

and socially dangerous part of El Salvador’s population.

163. Honduras has demonstrated its desire to co-operate

in finding a solution to El Salvador’s socio-economic

problem, and to that end presented to the Fourth Meeting

of the Foreign Ministers of Central America in January this

year a plan for a rational and balanced demographic

integration of the Central American isthmus.

164. El Salvador claims that the Government of Honduras

has expelled thousands of Salvadorians who have returned

to their own country, where, of course, they are described

as “refugees”. In answer to this further calumny my

Government has repeatedly explained that the Honduran

authorities have never given any order for the expulsion of

Salvadorians. Those who have left our country have done so

of their own free will, prompted by one of the following

reasons: the first is that they know they have no identity

documents, This group which has returned to El Salvador is

made up of individuals of very low social status who fall an

easy prey to the cunningly-devised instructions given to

them to make themselves appear as victims. Moreover,

because of their low cultural level and their minimal or

non-existent economic productivity they have easily been

able when so ordered by their Government to pretend to

have been victims in Honduras so as to receive in El

Salvador what they hoped would be gratuitous assistance to

them as “refugees”. This is all the more likely since a type

of person has come to Honduras from El Salvador who in

his own country is condemned to be a Social pariah. An

attempt has been made to impress the world by the return

of these false victims to their own country.

165. Others have left because they are aware that the

present situation, provoked by El Salvador, has meant that

their residence in Honduras cannot be the same as before

the conflict. They are no longer welcome to the Honduran

people. This is a natural and readily explicable reaction to

the affronts and physical and moral harassment which, to

begin with, thousands of Hondurans suffered in El Salvador.

These difficulties were later compounded by the

murders, violations of women and slaughtering of children,

together with the looting and depredation of property,

desecration of churches and other acts of pillage committed

by the Salvadorian troops and hordes of Salvadorian

civilians during the days following the cease-fire.

166. These and no others were the causes that led the

Government of El] Salvador to take the extraordinary step

of breaking off diplomatic relations with Honduras and

launching, for its own advantage, a premeditated and

undeclared war of aggression, throwing overboard the entire

inter-American legal system. It was for that reason that the

organ of consultation of the Organization of American

States was on the verge of declaring it an aggressor, with all

the consequences applicable under the Inter-American

Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.

167. Although its crime was specified, for sentimental,

politico-economic and not strictly legal reasons it was not

declared an aggressor. Nevertheless, I believe that the

majority of the Foreign Ministers attending the Thirteenth

Meeting of Consultation were convinced that there was an

aggressor State, El Salvador, and a State victim of

aggression, Honduras.

168. At the end of the Meeting of Consultation his

Excellency, Mr. Juan B. Martin, Foreign Minister of the

Republic of Argentina, stated:

“I should like to point out that, as is stated in two

articles of the documents we have just approved, there is

a cause underlying the confrontation between them and

that, if we go away from here with any feeling that we

have done a good job, we shall be mistaken, Our work

must continue, since the principal reason for this

confrontation and its deep-rooted cause obviously lie in the

under-development of some of our Latin American

countries; and unless we are all capable of meeting this

challenge, we shall soon see another of our countries in

the same situation. We can unequivocally say that want,

misery and under-development generate violence. Only if

we are fully conscious of this fact can we seek the road to

a solution.”

169. These words of the illustrious Argentine Foreign

Minister were part of a statement he made when submitting

a draft declaration to the Thirteenth Meeting of Consultation

of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of America. Paragraph 3

of that draft declaration, which was adopted by acclamation,

establishes that the “status of immigrants is regulated

by the laws of the countries in which they reside and to

whose jurisdiction they are subject”.

170. The underlying causes in El Salvador are implicit in

the inordinate concentration of the ownership of that

country’s arable lands in a few hands and in the unequal

distribution of the national income, circumstances which

keep more than 3 million inhabitants in humiliating living

conditions, as the official documents of the country itself reveal.

171. For the sake of a better illustration, allow me to

quote the following ideas contained in the paper “Lands

and Settlement” written by Dr. Abelardo Torres, former

Minister of the Economy of El Salvador, and published by

the university of that country in 1961:

“State—Planned Settlement. History.

“After these distributions of State lands, made for the

purpose of increasing the cultivation of coffee, the liberal

agrarian reform was carried out which abolished the

common lands and the indigenous community properties

and decreed that thenceforward all common and community

lands would become the private property of their

occupants on payment of a given sum. On the other hand,

the State ‘dispossessed’ itself of the lands it owned for the

benefit of their occupiers. Those reforms were put into

effect by the Commons Abolition Act, 1882, and the

Indigenous Community Properties Abolition Act, 1881.

“The peasants were thus degraded to mere wage-earners,

with no resources other than their hands to work

as seasonal labourers on the estates of large or

middle-sized landowners.

“The discontent among the rural masses, deprived of

their lands and exploited on wretched wages, began to

manifest itself in a violent form at the same time as the

Commons and Indigenous Community Properties Abolition

Acts were put into effect. Thus there were uprisings

in the west of the Republic on 12 August 1872, on 16

March 1875, on 2 January 1885 and on 14 November

1898. The relation of cause to effect, of the loss of their

lands to the rebellion of the peasantry, is manifest. Thus

in the 1898 revolt, several judges who had subdivided the

common lands had their hands cut off as a punishment

for measuring and distributing the land and dispossessing

its former occupants.

“Yet, despite the rumbling discontent of the rural

masses and sporadic local uprisings, things never became

as grave as they were in the events of 1931 and 1932. In

the first of those years, during the Presidential electoral

campaign, one of the opposition parties systematically

harangued the peasants on the idea of land distribution,

thus sowing the seed of a revolt. The revolutionary

movement acquired an extraordinary impetus and at one

time very nearly triumphed.

“To put it down, all available armed forces had to be

mobilized and a civilian militia established. Repression

was remorseless and probably excessive. It is estimated

that 17,000 farm workers perished, most of them being

executed after they had surrendered or simply slaughtered en masse.

“Those facts show, moreover, that the liberal agrarian

reform has had harmful social consequences by uprooting

the peasant from the land he had cultivated for centuries

and by creating that mass of wage-earners who work

when they can as season farm hands and see every day a

further shrinkage of the lands they are allowed to

cultivate as sharecroppers or tenants.”

That is what a Salvadorian citizen, Dr. Abelardo Torres,

stated in his paper “Lands and Settlement”.

172. J take the following information from page 46 of the

National Plan for the Economic and Social Development of

El Salvador, 1965-1969, prepared by the National Council

for Economic Planning and Co-ordination and published in

December 1964:

“Income distribution is as important as average income;

since if wealth is highly concentrated the great majority

suffer even though the average income may appear high.

A recent study has shown that only 8 per cent of families

have an income of 400 colones ($160) or more per

month, while 60 per cent of families earn less than 130

colones ($52) per month. Approximately 8 per cent of

the population receives approximately 50 per cent of the

national income.

“Thirty per cent of the total population of El Salvador,

approximately 750,000 persons, spend less than 12

colones ($4.80) per month on consumer goods, and 58

per cent spend less than 24 colones ($9.60).”

This is a quotation from the document ”The National

Plan”.

173. With this basic information it will be readily understood

that the aggressive policy of El Salvador has as one of

its primary origins the serious and deep social imbalance

which compels its Government to adopt a bellicose attitude

endangering the peace and tranquillity of the Central

American region.

174. This conflict between two States members of the

Central American Common Market showed that in time,

even in contractual and voluntary economic unions

imperialist attitudes may emerge which lead a member State

to impose its will by threats and pressures.

175. In this connexion the illustrious Foreign Minister of

Mexico said in his statement in the General Assembly on 24

September 1969 that:

”...the economic integration of several countries,

though undoubtedly valuable in creating larger areas

where industry can develop on an adequate scale, may

also create grave tensions which paradoxically inflame

nationalist feelings even between States which are really

part of one nation...” [1763rd meeting, para. 25.]

176. Because of the foregoing you will understand the

lack of optimism to which I referred at the beginning of

this statement. Although I have repeatedly stated that war

is the negation of all values, and although my country has

always had and still has faith in the means of peaceful

settlement of disputes provided in international treaties, I

wish to make it perfectly clear that the Government of

Honduras is now on the alert and fully prepared to exercise

its right of self-defence at any time it should become

necessary. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

177. Yet, despite the sombre outlook and the apparent

frailty of legal standards, I should be failing in my duty as

my country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and as a lawyer if

I did not end my statement by reiterating the staunch faith

of Honduras in international law and its steady confidence

in the effectiveness of the regional and world organizations,

on whose existence depends the very life of our world;

since, as I said on another occasion, there meet in this

forum all the anxieties and aspirations of mankind.

178. Madam President, your wisdom and skill are a lofty

and firm guarantee for the best success of this session of the

General Assembly.