Mexico, 2012

By virtue of its historical conviction, Mexico has

always been a strategic ally of the United Nations. As

one of the founding Members of the United Nations, we

fully share its fundamental precepts.

This is the last session of the General Assembly I

will attend as President of Mexico. Over the past six

years, my country has taken part in many different

forums to pave the way for United Nations initiatives.

We have endeavoured to make it the main body for

dialogue, peace and security, and for the rule of law,

including, in particular, the effective exercise of

international law.

Today the world faces challenges that threaten the

very existence and viability of humankind. The first

of those is the current economic emergency and the

urgent need to promote global trade and growth with

strong job creation. That problem has plunged entire

populations in crisis and prevented developing nations

from overcoming setbacks with respect to poverty,

ignorance and marginalization.

When Mexico became President of the Group of

20 (G-20) in 2012, our mission was clear: to reconcile

the apparently competing interests of developing and

developed nations. It is no secret that at the previous

meeting of the G-20, in Cannes, we were unable to

make as much progress as we would have liked towards

adopting measures to advance the global economy.

For that reason, the Mexican Government made it a

priority to build a broader consensus. We brought as

many countries as possible into the process, along

with representatives of the widest possible range of

sectors, including unions, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and youth, and we took their proposals to

the plenary meeting of the G-20.

We held many preparatory ministerial meetings

over many months and managed to bring apparently

divergent positions closer together. That work was

critical in ensuring that the G-20 Summit in Los

Cabos last June achieved significant progress. While

it is true that months ahead of time there were doubts

about the viability of the euro as the sole currency for

many European countries, the meeting in Los Cabos

solidified the Group’s commitment not only to that

currency as a monetary unit but also to financial, fiscal

and political unity in the eurozone. The commitments

of the international financial institutions were spelled

out in greater detail and broadened, in particular those

of the European institutions, but also those of the

International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Among the most significant achievements agreed

at the Los Cabos G-20 Summit, I should like to mention

the long-term action plan that proposes to tackle the

current economic situation as well as to move forward

towards the full and lasting economic recovery that we

all yearn for. It is also very important that we agreed

to provide the greatest contribution to the resources of

the IMF in the history of the organization. More than

$450 trillion was committed, and is available to help

developing or developed countries facing a critical

financial situation as a result of the current economic

crisis.

It is true that financial problems in some European

countries persist. Those are problems that will take a

long time to recover from. But, from our point of view,

there is now more promise for a solution than there was

before the G-20 meeting. The commitment on the part

of the G-20 countries has been a valuable element, so

much so that today the global economy is beginning to

show more optimistic signs of medium-term recovery

than we saw a little more than a year ago. That is why I

believe that we are starting to see a turning point when

it comes to economic prospects. We must all contribute

to ensuring that the recovery in fact takes place through

the implementation of the commitments undertaken.

That should not keep us from undertaking further

efforts. On the contrary, we must step up our efforts

in order to overcome, once and for all, the global crisis

and promote development in our societies.

I would like to underscore that the Los Cabos

Summit did not look only at the international crisis, and certainly not only at Europe. We also dealt with

various pressing and important topics. We wanted to

ensure that countries would recover growth through a

sustainable approach. We included several other items

of extreme importance on the agenda, including green

growth — to which I will refer later — food security

for our peoples and financial inclusion for the poorest.

In that regard, approximately 3 billion adults in the

world do not have access to financial services. That is

a clear obstacle to justice, but also to the efficiency and

growth of our economies. That is why we in Mexico

have expanded people’s access to financial services.

Today, banks offer simplified requirements for opening

accounts. We are establishing a completely new bank

that functions through the use of cell phones, which

80 per cent of the population own. We are offering,

through bank intermediaries, financial services in the

most remote places.

Not only has my Government been introducing

programmes to promote justice and fight poverty,

but the majority of the support that we give to the

poorest sectors of the population today is done

through a financial inclusion effort. Our Opportunities

Programme is an innovative financial transaction

programme for 6.5 million families, or over a quarter

of the total population of Mexico, including the poorest

families. They receive monthly economic support to

purchase food and cover basic needs as long as mothers

take their children to schools and to the doctor, as that

is one of the best ways of structurally breaking the

cycle of poverty. That support is delivered through

debit cards linked to an individual bank account, which

those 6.5 million poor families have perhaps never had

access to before.

Food security was another other topic that we

explored at the G-20 Summit. The increase in food

prices around the world largely explains why, besides the

political reasons that might exist in any nation, people

in North Africa and many other parts of the world have,

from 2010 to the present time, taken to the streets. If the

poorest families devote half of their income to buying

food and the price of that food increases by 10 or 20 per

cent, we are talking about a net global impoverishment

that is higher than those percentages. We are saying

that one of the most tragic problems in the fight against

poverty is preventing such enormous rises in global

food prices.

Concretely, we achieved agreements to promote

greater investment in technology and greater public

and private investment in agriculture, so that, with the

same resources and the same land and water, we can

produce more and better food globally. Mexico took

an active part in the green revolution at the beginning

of the 1970s. Now we need another green revolution to

produce food. Mexico wants to be an active participant

in that transformation of technology, public policy and

financial cooperation that could provide food to the

poorest people in the world. At the G-20 Summit, we

showed that it is possible to find a solution to urgent

and topical problems, as well as to long-term problems.

The second challenge of the four I would like

to mention today has to do with the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), which the United

Nations so wisely established. It is very clear that they

encapsulate the yearnings of all of our peoples for a

harmonious, humane and sustainable development.

My country, despite the unexpected rise in global food

prices and the worst global economic crisis in living

memory, has made real progress in reaching the Goals.

I would like to stress that Mexico is close to achieving

the MDGs. Three years from the deadline, we have

achieved one of the greatest aspirations of any nation,

whether developed or developing, namely, universal

health coverage. What does that mean? It means that

today in Mexico we have doctors, medicine, treatment

and hospitals for every Mexican man or woman who

requires it. That will allow us to comply with the

commitments taken on in the area of reducing mother

and child mortality. We are also energetically tackling

such problems as HIV/AIDS. In Mexico, we provide

free medical care and free antiretroviral drugs to all

HIV/AIDS patients, thereby contributing to overcoming

that serious global challenge.

Furthermore, not only have we achieved universal

health coverage, but we have also provided universal

coverage when it comes to primary education. Today,

every boy and girl of school age — between 5 and

13 years of age — has a place in a free public school.

We have also closed the gap between men and women

so that they participate equally in basic education at

almost every level.

We have achieved important progress. We have

built over 1,200 new hospitals and clinics in six years

and established 140 universities. Those are new free

public universities, where every year we train 113,000

engineers who are, besides enhancing their earning power, also revolutionizing the competitiveness of

Mexican industry.

We have also achieved progress beyond the agreed

goals in terms of access to drinking water, information

technologies and decent housing. Almost 650,000

mortgage credits for as many houses are provided every

year in our country, especially to workers who earn less

than $20 a day. All of those achievements put us on

track to comply with one of the MDGs within the time

frame established.

Globally, Mexico is aware of the fact that progress

is uneven, but that should not be a reason to abandon

our efforts. We must reinforce the progress we have

made and ensure that it continues.

That is why Mexico would suggest that we move

towards a second generation of MDGs that would be

universal, measurable and adapted to distinct national

realities in areas such as gender equity, environmental

protection, green growth, education, food, access to

water and international democratic governance. That

should be a central part of the 2015 development agenda.

The third challenge is that of climate change. Its

impact could be irreversible, both for societies and in

terms of national resources. I know that, in all of the

countries represented here, there is currently either

an unprecedented drought or unprecedented f looding.

Here in Manhattan, less than two years ago, there was a

hurricane on Fifth Avenue for the first time in history.

There were also tornadoes in Maine and Massachusetts.

Climate change is affecting all nations. This is a

challenge that threatens to overwhelm humankind. If

we do not tackle it today, the cost for each country to

deal with its consequences will be significantly greater.

Mexico is seeking to engage all of its capacities in

prompting a sense of responsibility when it comes to

the fight against global warming. That is why we have

set up a special unilateral programme to fight it. We

are committed to reducing our yearly carbon dioxide

emissions by 50 million tons for this year. We made that

commitment in 2008, and we are meeting it: by the end

of the year we will have reached our goal.

We are also the first country to deliver a national

message in the context of the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. We have delivered four

messages to date, and today I will deliver Mexico’s

fifth such message in that regard. I will report on how

we have complied with our commitments, as well as illustrate how we have managed to uncouple Mexico’s

economic growth from its greenhouse-gas emissions.

In the past two decades, our emissions have increased

at a rate that is 40 per cent lower than our economic

growth rate.

We are doing this because to challenge a false

notion that we have heard expressed here at the United

Nations and in every economic forum around the world.

The idea seems to be that we either grow or we tackle

climate change, we either put an end to poverty or we

put an end to global warming. It would seem that we

cannot do both at the same time, but I am here to say

that we can. I would even say that we should. We have

to overcome the false dichotomy that exists between

protecting the environment and promoting economic

growth, and between fighting poverty and fighting

climate change.

In Mexico, we are doing both at the same time.

Through ProÁrbol, for instance, which is a programme

that pays for environmental services, and is perhaps the

largest in the world to do so, we are paying poor and

indigenous communities who live in forests and jungles

for the water that they give us and for the oxygen that

we breathe. We are paying them not to cut down trees,

to restore their water basins so that those environmental

services will remain for us. With this programme,

as we take care of our forests, we are also providing

income to the poorest communities, who have never had

income before. In the six years of the programme, we

have planted 1.3 billion trees in our country. I recall a

United Nations programme five years ago that aimed at

planting 1 billion trees around the world. We took part

in that programme enthusiastically. We have planted

1.3 billion trees in six years and designated 3.5 million

hectares as protected natural areas.

A promising result of that effort is that, according

to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Mexico has

reduced its net deforestation rate from 350,000 hectares

annually in the 1990s to 150,000 between 2005 and

2010. I am sure that we will have reduced it further

between 2010 and 2012. Our hope is that not only will

we achieve a rate of zero this decade, but that we will

reverse deforestation around the world.

With respect to that challenge, working with

the United Nations, we were pleased to organize the

sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(COP 16) in Cancún, Mexico. Against all predictions, COP 16 was a rather successful meeting. We reached

a first ever agreement on implementing an emissions

reduction scheme for deforestation and degradation,

called REDD-plus, which will enable developing

countries to contribute to reducing emissions while

preserving and augmenting forests and jungles.

The greatest riches that poor countries have are their

natural capital, and developing countries do not pollute

with industries that they do not have. The greatest riches

are forests and jungles, and carbon emissions come

from deforestation. If developing countries are given

the support they need to preserve forests and jungles,

we will be contributing to reducing carbon emissions

and helping to raise the income of those communities.

We agreed on that in Cancún at COP 16.

That success also points to a possibility that was

first raised in the context of the fight against global

warming. We have managed to overcome the differences

between developed and developing countries. We have

managed to set aside the perverse game of blaming

each other by saying either that the rich are to blame

because they are the ones polluting, or that the poor are

to blame because they are the ones emitting greenhouse

gases. In this we are all responsible, and we all have to

find the solution. We are all responsible for the planet

that we share, which does not recognize our borders

when it comes to the environment.

That is why the principle of common but

differentiated responsibility enabled us to reach

reasonable agreements in Cancún. We set up the Green

Fund to fight climate change, as proposed by Mexico.

We established by consensus the clearly set threshold

of an increase of no more than 2 degrees in the planet’s

temperature in the long term, a commitment to reduce

emissions, an institutional framework for the adaptation

to climate change and mechanisms for the financing

and transfer of technology. Those achievements revived

multilateralism on the issue of climate change and were

folowed by the successful Climate Change Conference

held in Durban in 2011.

The fourth challenge — and I would like the

Assembly’s special attention as I address this problem,

which is responsible for more violent deaths around the

world than any other — is a problem that is costing

thousands of young people their lives, in particular in

our beloved region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

I am talking about transnational organized crime, which

is cutting short the lives of thousands of young people and constitutes one of the most serious global threats

of our time. Criminal organizations form operational

networks covering major illicit f lows not only of drugs

but also of arms, money and, unacceptably, of people.

They use violence to control their markets, supply and

clients and to seize the income of the honest citizens of

the places they dominate. In that way, they seek to control

territories and co-opt Governments. They challenge

the strength of States themselves and take advantage

of institutional weakness or bare-faced corruption to

establish power and impunity. They become entrenched

in communities and control everything they can. They

claim money from honest people for their work. They

collect quotas from businesses and working people and

control other criminal activities such as extortion, theft

and kidnapping.

Organized crime is one of the leading causes of

death today. It is a leading engine of violence, which

the United Nations has an obligation to fight. It is one

of the greatest threats facing democracy in the twenty-

first century.

Mexico has suffered the consequences of this

scourge, which, lamentably, has resulted from of years

of inaction in the face of the unbridled expansion of

such criminal activity. That is why protecting the

families and people of Mexico from criminality has

been, for my Government, not only a constitutional

legal imperative but an absolute ethical and political

one as well. We have fought robustly, decisively and

courageously against that unacceptable threat to our

peoples. We have done that based on our belief that our

principal duty as a Government is to protect families.

At the same time, we have promoted a truly

historic transformation of the institutions charged with

enforcing the law by developing new and improved

police and judicial capacities in the fight for security. We

require new and better capabilities that can cope with

the task of defending freedom and legality. However,

we regret that our efforts are not being matched in

all the countries where they are needed. I would like

to explicitly express my regret before the Assembly

that the diplomatic conference that took place here in

July failed to reach an agreement on the adoption of

an arms trade treaty. Such a treaty would have laid the

groundwork for controlling the irresponsible sale of

powerful weapons to transnational organized criminal

groups.

Over the past six years, my Government has

decommissioned more than 150,000 weapons that had

been in the hands of criminals. That is why Mexico

advocated for a treaty that would limit or ban, or at

least regulate, the transfer of conventional weapons,

because we know there is a risk — we know that that

happens — that those weapons do not end up in the

hands of good citizens who want to defend themselves;

they end up in the hands of criminals. That is why

such a business exists, namely, to commit horrible and

unprecedented violations of international law against

peoples.

The trafficking of arms is only one aspect of that

very complex problem. Today, we have to acknowledge

an undeniable truth: the illegal drug consumption

in many developed countries is killing thousands of

young people in producing and transiting countries. It

fuels violence that our peoples do not deserve. Drug-

consuming countries have not made progress — or at

least not significantly — in reducing drug consumption.

There is much work to be done in that regard, both in

terms of reducing demand and in preventing addiction.

We need to step up our efforts to deal with this public

health problem through preventive policies, fighting

addiction and media and information campaigns that

would make young people around the world understand

that drug addiction is the slavery of the twenty-first

century. It is a heavy chain choking our young people

to death.

In addition, we must also bear in mind the origins

of the greatest power of criminal organizations. Where

does it come from? It comes from the billions of dollars

of economic resources financing them, which in turn

f low from the drug-consuming countries. If we do not

stop that avalanche of funds from consumers, organized

crime will continue to undermine peace and challenge

whole societies and Governments.

That is why here, in this pre-eminent global forum,

I would like to say with the utmost clarity that the time

has come for consuming countries to ask themselves,

honestly and sincerely, whether they have the will and

the ability to reduce drug consumption significantly

and substantially. Otherwise, if they cannot reduce that

consumption, they must urgently take decisive steps at

least to reduce the extraordinry f lows of money that

end up in the hands of criminal organizations.

I know that to date the approach taken has been

well intentioned, seeking to keep drugs out of the hands of young people by pursuing the battle against drug

trafficking via legal means. But there is a fundamental

problem with that approach: it fuels the black market.

The enormous earnings that have been made possible

through that market owing to the prohibition have in

turn further fuelled greater ambitions among criminals

and further increased the massive f low of resources

towards their organizations. That has allowed them to

create powerful networks and given them an almost

unlimited ability to corrupt. They are able to buy entire

Governments and entire police forces, leaving societies

unarmed and families defenceless, especially in the

poorest countries.

While it is clear that powerful countries have

powerful judicial authorities and police forces, what

about the poorest countries in our continents? I am

talking about our countries in Latin America and the

Caribbean. But what will happen in Africa or Asia, or

in the very many nations that do not have the economic

power to tackle such criminals?

Let us grasp once and for all that the ever-growing

demand for drugs gives the criminals an economic

power that in some cases translates to political power

sufficient to bend the will of the authorities to their own.

I want to stress that all that money builds in them such

overweening confidence that they abandon all scruples

and commit the worst atrocities and acts of cruelty that

humankind has ever seen. Drug users’ money causes

the deaths of many thousands of young people in Latin

America and the Caribbean as a consequence of drug

trade violence. The countries that suffer most acutely

the devastating effects of the situation are countries like

ours that lie between the production zones in the Andes

and the largest consumption market, the United States:

Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador and

Honduras, and, in the Caribbean, Haiti, the Dominican

Republic, Jamaica and all other countries in that path.

I would like to report that in December of last year

the heads of State and Government of Central America

and of Mexico, Colombia and Chile met for what we

called the Tuxtla cooperation mechanism and issued a

very important statement, the Mérida Declaration. It

proclaims the urgent need to make a tangible reduction

in demand for illegal drugs in consumer nations. We

also said that if that is impossible the authorities of

those countries have the moral obligation to explore

every possible means to eliminate the astronomical

financial gains of criminals, including regulatory or

market options.

Some months later we convened representatives of

all the countries of the hemisphere for the sixth Summit

of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, where several

Latin American leaders reiterated our concern, and

countries from Canada to Chile reached an agreement

to give a mandate to the Organization of American

States to make a scientific analysis of all possible

options to battle the scourge more effectively. We also

agreed unanimously to establish a hemisphere-wide

plan against transnational organized crime to foster

real-time cooperation among all the hemisphere’s law

enforcement agencies.

Today I formally propose that the United Nations

commit to making an in-depth assessment of the scale

and limits of the current prohibitionist approach to

drugs. That does not mean giving up the fight or ceding

one inch to criminal organizations. We will never do

that. But what it does mean is that countries must take

responsibility, both the common responsibilities we all

share and differentiated responsibilities, in accordance

with each nation’s capacities..

In any case, irrespective of the regulatory

framework, all nations, especially emerging ones

like Mexico, must implement a coherent policy, with

a three-pronged approach. The first obligation is to

fight crime, not to run away from it and not to allow

criminals to establish territories as if they were a State.

The second is to strengthen laws and law enforcement

agencies and institutions. In particular, we must purge

and strengthen police forces, public prosecutors,

Government ministers and judicial authorities. The

third and most important is to restore the social fabric.

We must increase opportunities for young people in the

areas of education, health, employment and leisure. We

must do it through universities, music groups, soccer

teams and clinics to prevent and treat drug addiction.

We must establish active and massive prevention

and treatment policies for young people, including

teenagers.

We are already doing that in Mexico. The

three-pronged approach is crucial for any democratic

State, regardless of its political philosophy. Every State

must fight crime, improve law enforcement institutions

and create opportunities.

Today I call upon all States Members of the United

Nations to assume that responsibility, which so far has

not measured up to the magnitude of the problem of

organized crime, which, I repeat, is the main cause of violent death in the world. That is something the

United Nations must look at. If the developed countries

that consume ton upon ton of drugs on a daily basis

cannot or do not want to reduce drug consumption, then

at least they should stem the f low of money they are

sending to criminals and stop the exorbitant f low of

money whereby users finance the deaths of thousands

of young people. If they cannot do so, I emphasize

that this is the time to explore different alternatives to

reduce consumption.

Now is the time for the United Nations not only to

take part in such an analysis but to lead in earnest a far-

reaching international discussion, in order to take stock

of the scale and limits of the current prohibitionist

approach and to assess the brutal, unacceptable

violence generated by the production, distribution,

trafficking in and use of drugs. It is painful to say this,

but the drug trade has made Latin America and the

Caribbean the most violent region in the world. That

assessment must be done with lucidity, academic rigour

and global responsibility. Taking a world perspective,

we must explore alternatives, specifically regulatory

or market alternatives, to see what are and what are

not real options that would allow all nations, working

together, to put an end to the scourge that claims tens of

thousands of lives in our region.

As the United Nations considers and finds solutions

to global problems that threaten the integrity, health

and lives of millions around the world, as it deals with

famine, starvation in the Horn of Africa, epidemics such

as the H1N1 virus in Mexico, and as it tackles climate

change, so it must also take action to stop the wave of

death and suffering with which the drug trade blights

the lives of our people. I respectfully urge and exhort

the United Nations not only to take part in but to lead a

discussion, devoid of prejudgments, that addresses the

scale of the twenty-first century challenge, encouraging

all of us to seek new and effective approaches to solving

this dire problem.

My tenure will end in a few months. I am proud

that Mexico can now count on an economy that is

solid, increasingly competitive and able to generate

700,000 new formal jobs annually. I can say with

satisfaction that today Mexico is a stronger, more

fair and more prosperous country, as our indices of

human development for education, health, housing and

employment show.

I would also like to say that beyond tackling the four

challenges I referred to earlier, as a world community

we should strengthen the United Nations from the inside

so that it is equipped to meet global challenges. The

initial task in that area is realistic, democratic reform

of the Security Council to make it more representative

and maintain its capacity for action by improving its

working methods and the accountability of its members.

Mexico also welcomes the fact that the President

proposed “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of

international disputes or situations by peaceful means”

as the main theme for this session. It is a crucial subject

for civilized coexistence and cooperation. As a country,

Mexico is committed to cooperation and the settlement

of disputes. We are very concerned, as we know the

Assembly is also, about the weakness and, at times,

the inertia of the Organization in the face of f lagrant

violations of international law. The grave situation in

Syria, for example, is a danger to world peace and an

indignity for all of us.

We condemn unreservedly the Damascus regime’s

repression and the violence it has inf licted on the

civilian population, which has lead to a refugee crisis in

neighbouring countries. The paralysis of the Security

Council in the face of such crises must drive us to renew

our political will to change the Organization. Just as we

have transformed and embellished the United Nations

building and removed the asbestos residue that we

lived with for so many years, so it is important that we

renovate the Organization in order to bring it in line

with the demands of the twenty-first century.

We also condemn the premeditated terrorist attack

on the United States Consulate in Benghazi and the

assassination of the United States Ambassador and

several members of his staff in Libya.

I reiterate that Mexico will fully comply with

the Millennium Development Goals established by

this great Organization. That is evident in our human

development indices for education, health, housing,

employment and social security. In the area of security,

we have steadfastly fought criminal groups, updated

our laws and thoroughly restructured our institutions.

At the same time, we have continued to consolidate a

democratic culture and respect for human rights. In

Mexico today we have enacted reform whereby any

human right recognized in any international treaty

signed by Mexico also becomes internal law for

Mexican courts.

I am proud to leave a Mexico that has close relations

of friendship and cooperation with every nation; a

Mexico that is an active participant in building a world

of peace, justice, security and development. We want

freedom for men and women; justice and respect for

human rights in our societies; an environment that we

respect and that will allow our beloved planet Earth to

live forever; and democracy, without which there is no

freedom or development. And, of course, we seek and

desire peace on Earth, goodwill to men, and peace to all

those in this Hall.