Peru, 2001

This is the first time I have had the privilege of

addressing this prestigious world forum. To arrive here,

I travelled a long road. I was born in a small village

high in the Andes, at an altitude of nearly 4,000 metres

above sea level. Like millions of brothers from our

continent of Latin America, I know first-hand the hard

face of poverty.

To survive, in my childhood, I sold newspapers,

lottery tickets and shined the shoes in which others

walked.

Today, I have come before this world assembly as

the constitutional President of Peru, bringing the

stories, the hopes and the dreams of millions of

Peruvians.

I come from a country that is heir to an ancient

culture and the cradle of great civilizations. I come to

lead our present with responsibility and to construct

our future with vision. Thus, in these few brief

minutes, I would like to share with the Assembly three

subjects that are of the greatest concern to my

Government:

First of all, I would like to be clear about one

thing: we are engaged in a head-on struggle against

terrorism and its perverse alliance with drug trafficking

and corruption. These are scourges for which there can

be no room for ambiguity. With the same

determination, however, I need to point out that the

world is facing the enormous challenge of mustering

the necessary clear vision so as not to put off the

human development agenda, which in large measure is

the underlying principle of the United Nations.

Secondly, there is the need to reduce military

expenditures in Latin America and in the world, so that

these resources can be channelled instead into a direct

fight against poverty.

Thirdly, we need to think and act together in

dealing with the world economic situation to protect

employment opportunities and income for the poorest.

There can be no real democracy without sustained

economic growth that will generate decent jobs.

Barely a year ago, Peru was enmeshed in a

dramatic struggle between a corrupt dictatorship and

the hopes for democracy of the vast majority of the

Peruvian people. Faced with this situation, we

Peruvians stood up and proved capable of mobilizing

ourselves and peacefully struggling to regain our

democracy and our freedom. On behalf of millions of

men and women of my country, I would like to thank

the peoples and Governments of the world for their

friendship, active role and solidarity in helping us

regain our democracy.

Today, Peru has now begun a new democratic

dawn. We are aware, however, that we have great

responsibilities. We must strengthen a full-fledged

democracy and our still fragile institutions and

reactivate our economy so as to achieve sustainable

growth that will generate decent and productive jobs.

We must strengthen our institutions and defeat poverty,

which form an indissoluble part of the same goal,

because poverty, corruption and drug trafficking

conspire against democracy. We can now declare, here

before the international community, that the time has

come to give a human face to globalization, so that

competitiveness becomes permanent.

We Peruvians have freshly inscribed in our

collective memory a horror of terrorism. During the 20

years of terror, Peru has lost 25,000 human lives, which

has cost more than $30 billion and has left the poor

even poorer. That is why I reaffirm our deep solidarity

with the people and Government of the United States in

the face of the insanity of terror of 11 September. This

was not an attack against the United States alone. It

was an attack against the peoples that believe in peace

and democracy, for all our differences of opinion.

We are determined to take unambiguous actions

to fight terrorism. We shall do so in the spirit of respect

for religious freedoms and ethnic identity. We will

actively contribute to the work that has been entrusted

to the ad hoc Committee of the Security Council,

making available to it the experts that may be

necessary to intelligently fight the threat of

international terrorism within the framework of the

principles of the Charter and the decisions of the

Security Council.

At an inter-American multilateral forum, we

made an effective contribution. This week we

introduced before the Organization of American States

a draft convention against terrorism. In keeping with

this purpose, this morning we deposited at the

Secretary-General’s office the following instruments:

the Statute of the International Criminal Court; the

9

International Convention for the Suppression of

Terrorist Bombings; and the International Convention

for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.

Thus, my country has become a party to all

international treaties against terrorism.

Our States must build up an extensive network of

obligations to effectively cooperate in the judicial,

police, information and financial fields to facilitate the

capture and extradition of the perpetrators of crimes

against humanity or of acts of corruption that lead to

such crimes. Human rights violations and corruption

are two sides of the same coin. They spell impunity.

It would not be possible to face up to corruption

without linking it with the fight against drug trafficking

and money laundering. We are working hard in this

regard. We have established high-level authorities

directly under the head of State to wage the fight

against drug trafficking and corruption.

I know that this is a decision that impinges upon

powerful interests. We shall not be swayed from our

determination. Peru is now seeking to re-establish

democracy to the fullest. We are aware, however, that

there are powerful forces hidden in the shadows,

which, with certain political accomplices, are trying to

achieve impunity for the corruption committed during

the decade of Montesinos and Fujimori. That is why,

addressing you from this prestigious forum, I call on

the international community not to allow, as the

globalization of justice process, for capricious

interpretation of certain national laws that trivialize

actions or allow for the granting of impunity.

There is no justification for a democratic

government to sacrifice development of the poor for

the sake of an arms race. Therefore, the second issue

central to our foreign policy is our proposal, which we

put to the Heads of State and Government of Latin

America, for an immediate freeze on the purchase of

offensive weapons in the region. We also seek an

agreement among the countries of Latin America to

reduce their military expenditures and to reorient their

financial resources towards investment in nutrition,

health and education.

Peru has recently achieved important agreements

on this issue with the brotherly countries of Chile and

Ecuador and is promoting an understanding among the

other countries of our region that will allow us to

embark together on the path towards the reduction of

poverty there. Peace is not only the silence of guns; it

should also mean dignity for the poor. This proposal is

aimed at the adoption of a broad regional framework to

reduce military spending. However, might we not also

consider expanding this proposal, which is not a new

one, to other regions around the globe? We must invest

in the great enterprise of knowledge — in the minds of

our people. That means investing more, and more

wisely, in nutrition, health and education.

The third item relates to our concern about the

global economy. We regret the onset of recession in the

most important developed economies, which is

shrinking markets, eliminating jobs and thus hindering

the implementation of the measures set out in the

Millennium Declaration. There is an urgent need to

control the damage being done to the poor economies

by the current global economic crisis. It is therefore

important that the next round of the World Trade

Organization not be an aseptic commercial round. It

should be a round on behalf of the poorest, avoiding

protectionist policies for the agricultural sector of the

industrialized countries and allowing the textile

industry to create good jobs in our countries.

I call on the people of the world to embark

unflinchingly and without fear on the path towards a

future of peace and democracy, without terrorism,

without violations of human rights and without

impunity. I am convinced that, together, we can build a

globalized, competitive yet united world with a human

face. In that respect, Peru assumes its responsibility

today before the General Assembly.