Peru, 1999

The

delegation of Peru is greatly pleased, Sir, at your election

to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth

session, especially since Peru was an active participant in

Namibia’s independence process, which was advanced by

the United Nations. As the first speaker at this morning’s

meeting I am particularly pleased to congratulate you and

the other officers of the General Assembly.

The arrival of the new millennium is a great historic

opportunity to initiate an era of peace, progress and well-

being, from which no people on Earth should be excluded.

That requires a greater commitment on the part of the

international community to create conditions that will

enable developing nations properly to channel their own

energy and potential with a view to achieving

comprehensive national development.

At the height of the twentieth century, the majority

of the world’s peoples remain mired in the social, cultural

and technological conditions of the nineteenth century —

or even of earlier centuries. We shall be able truly to

speak of a new era only if our aspirations for the twenty-

first century and the third millennium become tangible

reality for those peoples and if those peoples succeed in

fulfilling their own legitimate aspirations: in other words,

if a globalized world can globalize well-being and dignity.

The conversion of our economies to adapt them to

globalization has social costs which we can bear provided

that this process assures us a future of development and

well-being, not one of additional frustrations. Such

frustrations could arise if our national economies, rather

than growing stronger, are weakened by economic

opening based on unequal or unjust terms of trade. The

reaction, which no one wishes to see, could be a return to

defeated economic ideas.

In speaking of my own country, Peru, I can say that,

like other peoples, it inherited a heavy burden of injustice

and backwardness, but it also has an extraordinary future-

looking calling that has made it possible over the past 10

years for our country to become an emerging economy.

That future-looking calling has enabled us to defeat

the totalitarian, terrorist designs of the Shining Path and

of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. It was the

latter group that seized the residence of the Japanese

Ambassador in 1996.

The destructive capacity of such criminal activity is on

the increase thanks to access to new technology, and today

it threatens every region and every continent. If it is not

duly stopped, it will undoubtedly become the nightmare of

the twenty-first century. Both internal and external peace

are essential for the coming of the new era that we are

championing.

In 1998, Peru and Ecuador were at a crossroads: either

to pursue the path of armed conflict, the situation typical of

the entire century, which has led to the destruction of

peoples; or to follow the path of peace, the only possibility

for development. Peru and Ecuador chose peace. The 1998

peace agreement between Peru and Ecuador was the

product of two equally important factors: the political will

of two Governments taken to its ultimate conclusion; and

the capacities, energy and awareness of two peoples

determined to overcome old prejudices and work towards

a future of development. Ecuador and Peru intend to reach

the twenty-first century without the baggage of the

nineteenth. Peace has opened up possibilities for the

development of Peru and of Ecuador thanks to savings in

resources once earmarked for defence, and it has shown

again that Latin America is a mature region that rejects

warlike tension.

But tranquility in our region has been disturbed by the

alliance of drug trafficking and terrorism. In some cases,

these criminal activities have created power sufficient to

challenge States as well as to upset the world economy:

illicit drug money may have infiltrated productive,

commercial and even political activities. Terrorism and drug

trafficking therefore represent a threat to modern society

and to good governance.

In general terms, poverty, terrorism, drug trafficking

and racial discrimination are the main barriers to our

glimpsing the new era that as civilized peoples we propose

to reach. Our task and our commitment is to overcome

these obstacles with firm political will if we want this

transitional period in which we live to mark the threshold

of a new era for mankind.

The concepts of democracy and fairness must prevail.

It is important to promote democracy within countries, but

also to promote it between countries and between peoples.

Democracy applies not only to the internal structure of

States, but also to the international relations that will

determine the fate of the world.

Human rights raised to their maximal power and

highest expression are the rights of peoples, and all

peoples have a right to the future.