Nicaragua, 2011

At this general debate of the sixty-sixth

session of the General Assembly, I convey to the

Assembly a Christian, socialist greeting of solidarity

from the people of Nicaragua and Comrade President

Commander Daniel Ortega Saavedra. We trust that our

work will contribute to strengthening the Organization

through an appropriate focus on its purposes, principles

and possible contributions so that we can successfully

deal with the challenges before us as a community of

States, peoples and nations.

One year ago, during our discussions at the sixty-

fifth session of the General Assembly, we extensively

addressed the serious and multifaceted international

crisis experienced by humankind. At that time we

called it an apocalyptical crisis. One year later, the

evolution of world events has confirmed our

profoundest fears that our civilization is now at a

critical stage and that peace between States and

peoples is dangerously at risk.

Expectations that the international economic and

financial situation would improve have dissipated

before the relentless reality of a profound crisis; its

gravest effects still continue to affect deeply our

peoples. The international financial system, which is

controlled by speculators, again plunged into a tailspin.

The measures taken have had a temporary, non-lasting

effect owing to the ever increasing greed of bankers.

We are now witnessing the effects of the United States

internal debt problem, which has generated great losses

in most exchange markets.

At present, as before, we affirm that we reject the

language of war between peoples and we reject war as

a means to resolve conflicts between States. In the light

of the events in the brotherly Arab socialist popular

republic of Libya, we reiterate our declaration of

principle and express our solidarity with the brotherly

Libyan people.

The blunt and shameful manipulation of Security

Council resolution 1973 (2011) regarding Libya — the

illegal war being carried out by NATO members — is

the most recent example of the pathological need of

particular States to attempt to subordinate the peoples

of the world at any cost. It is the most recent example

of attacks against the sovereignty of a State Member of

the United Nations in violation of the Charter of the

United Nations.

Nicaragua expresses its firmest rejection of the

use of the misnamed responsibility to protect in order

to intervene in our countries, bomb civilians and

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change free and sovereign governments. We cannot

allow the imposition of this new model of imperialist

aggression nor the continued aggression against our

peoples. Interference and intervention will not resolve

crises; only dialogue and negotiation among brothers

and sisters will resolve political crises among peoples.

The unacceptable policy of double standards has

become a constant of those Powers, which clearly

aspire to hegemony. Where are those countries, the

supposed defenders of oppressed peoples, the self-

proclaimed civilian protection apostles, when an

attempt is being made to recognize the inalienable

rights of the Palestinian people, their right to live in

peace, their right to a sovereign State enjoying full

recognition as a State Member of the United Nations?

This is clearly an instance of double morals, double

standards. After six decades of conflict, the Palestinian

people are now to be denied their right to a State, while

a mere 10 days ago, with unheard of haste and, I must

note, a certain irony, the General Assembly recognized

a transitional council that has not yet formed a

Government.

We reject the logic of denying the very existence

of a Palestinian State. From the moment of triumph of

our revolution in 1979 — the Sandinista revolution —

Nicaragua has been a proud witness to the noble

struggle of the Palestinian people and their substantial

concessions aimed at achieving peace.

Before the General Assembly, Nicaragua ratifies

its recognition of the Palestinian State within its 1967

borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. We call, here

and now, for the proclamation of Palestine as the

194th State Member of the United Nations.

Recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian

people can only serve to promote Middle East peace

and stability. At present, more than ever, such

recognition must become a reality. Clearly, Palestine’s

right is linked to the existence of the State of Israel, a

State we recognize in juridical and political terms. May

both States exist, so that both peoples may live in

peace and work for their well-being and development:

That is the universal appeal.

Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly for

more than two decades have demanded an end to the

United States of America’s economic embargo against

Cuba. They must be fully implemented. Despite

expectations, the facts confirm that nothing has

changed. Sanctions against Cuba remain intact and are

rigorously implemented. That criminal blockade

violates international law; it is contrary to the purposes

and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and

constitutes a crime against a sovereign State’s right to

peace, development and security. In its essence and its

objectives, it is an act of unilateral aggression and a

permanent threat to a country’s stability.

Despite that criminal blockade, Cuba continues

daily to strengthen its solidarity and fraternal relations

with all peoples of the world. Cuba’s armies of white

coats and educators are ever more numerous in

demonstrating their country’s solidarity. We also echo

the call for an end to the injustice against the five

Cuban heroes who have been unjustly imprisoned for

13 years as of this past 12 September, for having

alerted their people to the activities of terrorist

organizations against Cuba.

As unlikely as it may seem, the process of

decolonization has not ended, and there remain entire

peoples who have been denied their right to

independence and self determination. We welcome and

maintain our solidarity with the peoples of Puerto Rico,

the Western Sahara and the struggle of the Frente

Polisario and with Argentina with regard to the

occupation of the Malvinas Islands.

Observations made in the Assembly in 2010

regarding the need to achieve a balance between

human beings and Mother Earth remain relevant; they

have even led us to conclude that, far from

diminishing, pressures on the planet have increased;

threats have escalated and real and potential dangers

have multiplied.

Among those, the Fukushima disaster in Japan

had the virtue of bringing into view the chilling global

risk of radiation. The Japanese crisis has rightly been

described as a nuclear war without war. Its present and

future repercussions, which have not yet been fully

established, are considered by recognized scientists to

be more serious than those of the Chernobyl disaster.

While expressing our solidarity with the

Government and the heroic people of Japan — the

victims of the earthquake that levelled their territory

and those affected by the Fukushima accident — we

vehemently call on States with nuclear reactor

installations to take all measures to avoid similar

accidents that would gravely endanger people’s health

and would harm the environment.

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The upcoming Durban Climate Change

Conference and the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable

Development will provide renewed opportunities —

which we must not allow ourselves to squander — to

truly break with destructive logic and redirect

humankind towards development that is in harmony

with Mother Earth and respectful of the lives of the 7

billion human beings now populating the planet.

We all know that we have been incapable of

achieving an accord on climate change. Although the

sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

established a Green Fund and called for the

mobilization of financing for developing countries, that

accord is far from addressing the serious damage being

done to the environment and Mother Earth or the

historical responsibility of the developed countries,

which are bent on dealing a final blow to the Kyoto

Protocol so as to continue their uncontrolled emissions

of greenhouse effect gases.

In Rio and in Durban we will be called upon to

renew our political will and adopt genuine, concrete

commitments based on previous progress and

commitments. The issue is of transcendental

importance for our planet and for human beings.

Development must not sacrifice life. We recall that the

Universal Declaration on the Common Well-Being of

Mother Earth and of humankind is an essential guide

for our debates and actions.

Looking at other issues, Nicaragua salutes the

international community’s invitation to Taiwan to

participate in the assemblies of United Nations

specialized agencies directly related to the well-being

of the 23 million Taiwanese. We urge other

international forums to adopt similar positions.

The global economic and financial crisis has

compounded the already serious food crisis, primarily

in impoverished countries. We know that this crisis

also has structural causes in the present capitalist

development model — a model that discourages

internal production and impedes technology transfer to

the agricultural sector of impoverished countries, a

model without available credit or technical training for

small and medium producers, which results in

production difficulties.

Climate change has become an additional major

factor in the deepening of the food crisis. The trend

towards higher oil prices at the international level has

caused some countries with an agricultural base to

begin producing biofuel. That phenomenon has

significantly changed food supply and demand and has

reinforced the trend toward higher prices.

From the ethical point of view, as well as

political, economic and social, it is essential to take

immediate concerted action to avoid the continuing

increase in the number of hungry people and to

develop sustainable policies for guaranteeing food

security worldwide.

We renew our commitment to the cause of

general and complete disarmament. It is imperative

that we establish peace on Earth and provide the

7 billion human beings who inhabit it, and Mother

Earth itself, with the opportunity to survive the

destructive tendencies promoted by the dominant

economic model, so that humankind may develop in an

environment conducive to manifesting our enormous

spiritual and material capacities. No other way will

enable us to achieve a better future.

It is therefore unjustifiable and unacceptable that

the present world continues to spend more on the

development and testing of all types of weapons and

less on protecting the life and development of human

beings. While millions of persons suffer the effects of

the economic and financial crisis, global military

expenditures have skyrocketed. Over the past 10 years,

those expenditures have increased by 50 per cent, to

$1.5 trillion today. More than 8 million small arms and

light weapons and more than 16 billion munitions are

produced every year, the equivalent to more than

2.5 munitions for every single person on the planet.

That arms proliferation causes irreparable direct and

indirect harm to peoples and their economies.

We can end that proliferation if we decide to. It is

not true that the arms sector is vitally important to the

world economy. In fact, despite what the producers of

small arms and light weapons would have us believe,

their trade and the trade in munitions and components

represent less than 0.01 per cent of the world’s

industrial transactions.

We are firmly convinced that because the Korean

peninsula remains a focal point of international

tension, any solution must take place through goodwill

and sincere dialogue between the parties in order to

maintain peace and stability.

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The factors called new threats to security have

become an outright scourge for most of our countries.

Drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal arms

trafficking, and the trafficking of immigrants, among

others, constitute ethical, political and economic

challenges for Central America, which is stigmatized

today in some international reports as one of the most

violent regions on Earth. That stigmatization is

deliberate and carries serious consequences for our

countries. It transforms us into protagonists of the

problem rather than the victims we truly are, victims of

the lucrative businesses that constitute those new

threats. Through transnational networks they utilize our

territories as a bridge from South to North and from

North to South, in a dance of millionaires as thousands

of people are assassinated along illegal routes and

porous borders.

The International Conference of Support for the

Central American Security Strategy, held in Guatemala

last June, exposed the seriousness of a situation that

exists not only in our region, but in all of the countries

of the world. That is why the principle of shared but

differentiated and proportional responsibility must

guide mutual commitments. It is urgent that we move

in the right direction before it is too late for us all.

Nicaragua is going through a time of change

aimed at reversing the negative effects of 16 long years

under neoliberal Governments. We are recovering

values, restoring rights, strengthening capacities and

constructing a new model based on replacing the

neoliberal model of untrammeled capitalism with one

based on Christian, socialist and solidarity principles.

We are articulating popular democracy through the

national human development plan. Together these

constitute the backbone of a new phase of the

Sandinista revolution.

These achievements are due in large part to

Nicaragua’s integration into the Bolivarian Alliance for

the Peoples of Our Americas, an initiative stemming

from the genius of Fidel Castro, the Commander in

Chief of the Cuban revolution, and of Commander-

President Hugo Chávez Frías. This brotherhood,

unique in today’s world, enables solidarity,

complementarity and fair trade between our peoples

and advances the historical cultural unity of our

peoples.

At the same time, our national human

development plan is aimed specifically at promoting

the country’s economic and social health by adding

jobs and reducing poverty and inequality, on a basis of

sovereignty, security and integration. The restoration of

the human and constitutional right of all Nicaraguans

to free education is reflected in the fact that, in a

country with a total population of 6.5 million,

1,821,682 students are now enrolled in schools. This

year we are launching the battle for universal primary

education, aiming at universal sixth grade education by

2012. The goal is to achieve universal enrolment in the

third year of secondary school by 2015.

The restoration of the human and constitutional

right of the Nicaraguan people to free health care

means providing better access to, and improving the

quality of, health services, reducing maternal and

infant mortality, paying more attention to the

development of young people, expanding community

family health services, and the first large-scale

registering of people with disabilities. Our Programa

Amor is designed for boys and girls under six years old

and for street children and adolescents, and those who

work during school terms, in order to restore to them

their fundamental rights.

In structural areas, we are making progress in

transforming the energy matrix so that by 2017, 90 per

cent of energy will be from renewable sources and

10 per cent from fossil fuels, radically inverting the

pyramid we inherited in 2006. We are enjoying

macroeconomic stability, with gross national product

growth projected at 4 per cent or more. Our

improvement policies have increased direct foreign

investment in our country’s strategic sectors. We have

had outstanding successes in confronting drug

trafficking and transnational organized crime.

Nicaragua is now recognized as one of the safest

countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the

safest in Central America. We have had indisputable

successes in reducing poverty and inequality, as has

been recognized by international financial institutions.

We are fervent supporters of the integration and

unity of Central America, Latin America and the

Caribbean. Within the framework of the Bolivarian

Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, we are

securing our model through complementarity,

investments, fair trade and solidarity.

With our neighbours and brothers in Honduras

and El Salvador, we are working together for the

sustainable development of the Gulf of Fonseca.

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Comrade President Daniel Ortega Saavedra has also

made several approaches to the Government and

people of our neighbour to the south, Costa Rica,

concerning the possibility of joint development of our

common border, particularly in terms of protecting and

restoring the environment and working on sustainable

economic and social development for the benefit of

both our peoples. Throughout this process, young

people and women have been at the forefront of the

direct democracy model that is the essence and

continuity of the Sandinista revolution.

Nicaragua can demonstrate the profound,

concrete and verifiable economic, social, political,

legislative and cultural achievements our people are

undergoing. In the context of the serious crises that so

many countries, developed and developing, are going

through, our Christian, socialist, solidarity model is an

inspiration for an ever better future.

We are aware of our difficulties and limitations.

We know that the weight of the historical structure that

we inherited is still a liability that we must cast off in

our national development process. The burdens of

poverty and underdevelopment require sound policies

and sustained effort and political and governing

systems that have the necessary commitment to our

people’s aspirations. I can assure the Assembly that

through our Government of national reconciliation and

unity we will achieve that and more.

As we have said before, it is not easy for

developing countries such as ours to deal with an issue

of the breadth and depth of the global economic and

financial crisis. We have yet to recover from the harsh

effects of the last wave, while the new threat of another

and greater crisis is bearing down on us. According to

the International Monetary Fund, Central America’s

response to the previous world economic and financial

crisis was in large part successful. We were able to deal

with the situation successfully — success with costs

that in Nicaragua’s case were not passed on to the

poorest, because the measures we adopted were based

on the interests of our country as a whole.

As we consider international developments, we

must also turn our attention to our own Organization.

Global democratization must be accompanied by

democratization of the United Nations without further

delay.

In his book La reinvención de la ONU: una

propuesta, our comrade and friend, the former

President of the Assembly, General Father Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann — who is with us here — states

that it is urgent that we give true meaning to

democracy and independence in the United Nations, so

that the opinions of all can be heard and so that those

opinions really count in the decision-making process,

with no one being excluded.

This proposal, adopted by our national

reconciliation and unity Government, consists of

proposals on the United Nations charter, the statute of

the International Court of Justice and the statute for the

International Tribunal for Climate Justice and

Environmental Protection, as well as a proposal on a

draft universal declaration on the common good of

mother earth and humankind.

Reinvention and re-grounding are key concepts

that will pave the way for an international system

based on genuine multilateralism that is in harmony

with the changes the world has undergone during the

past few decades. We must restore a true political

dimension to international law and to the rights of

people.

Developed societies are sinking into the despair

caused by unemployment, the lack of social security,

financial insolvency, the implosion of established

labour rights and an uncertain future. Global Powers

are waging wars of aggression with no moral or

political base, causing material destruction and

enormous human suffering. Economic and financial

recovery are nowhere in sight; on the contrary,

specialists foresee a recession even more serious than

the one we have recently experienced.

Where do we find the solution we so urgently

need? Where do we regain hope in the possibility of a

different present and future world, in which there is

peace between States and nations? In which

development efforts and impressive scientific and

technological advances are equitably shared? In which,

as the Greek sophist Protagoras put it, man is the

measure of all things?

According to many prominent thinkers on the

global reality, the final crisis of the capitalist

development model has arrived. There is no time for

reforms. As Leonardo Boff has said,

“We need to find another way of thinking, one

based on principles and values that can sustain a

new test of civilization. If not, we will have to

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accept a path that leads straight to the edge of the

precipice. Dinosaurs already took that path.”

Nicaragua is proceeding on the belief that a better

future is possible if only we are capable of steering in a

new direction, if we struggle for justice and peace, and

if we commit ourselves to the development and

defence of the common good of the Earth and of

humankind.