Venezuela, 1994

On behalf of the Government and people of Venezuela,

I wish to congratulate you, Sir, Minister of Foreign

Affairs of Côte d’Ivoire, on your election as President of

the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session. I am

confident that under your guidance the Assembly will at

this important session contribute to progress in the

carrying out of the important task with which the

Organization is charged - the constant quest for peace.

I also take pleasure in paying tribute to Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary-General, whose intelligent

and expert leadership have given the world fresh hope, as

we are about to enter a new millennium, so that we may

be optimistic about the future, even though there are still

grounds for concern.

The twentieth century, which is drawing to a close,

has witnessed momentous events for mankind. Two

world wars, which cost an enormous number of human

lives and immense physical, economic and cultural losses,

demonstrated the extent to which man is capable of

destruction - above all, self-destruction. The world’s

political map has been changed many times, with

predictable consequences.

Science and technology have made remarkable

progress. The discovery of antibiotics has provided

undreamt-of opportunities for surgery. Surgeons have

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converted the human body into a fruitful field for

operations capable of correcting natural defects and injuries

arising from circumstances prevailing in an increasingly

complex society. Life expectancy has risen steadily, and

terrible endemic diseases that used to claim countless

victims have vanished almost completely.

Communications have been the greatest marvel of this

century. The twentieth century has been the era of radio

broadcasting and television. Important events occurring in

any part of the world are immediately known in the most

distant regions. The fax has supplanted the mails and

improved on the telegram and the telex. Communications

are the principal reason why the inhabitants of this planet

are gradually recognizing their role as members of a single,

vast community of nations.

Of necessity, institutions have endeavoured to keep in

step with the rapid and unremitting march of events. Both

internal and international juridical norms are subject to

constant change. Fundamental concepts of nationality and

sovereignty are being reconsidered, and formulas are being

sought so that inalienable and traditional rights may exist in

harmony with the requirements of the supranational

community. Amongst these values are the self-

determination of nations and non-intervention, as laid down

in the Preamble to our Constitution. Accordingly,

Venezuela has been and remains permanently disposed to

promoting the peaceful spread of democracy to every nation

on Earth, and especially to those of our continent. We

have consequently supported efforts aimed at reintroducing

a fully democratic system in those Latin American

countries where it is not at present established. Their

situation is inevitably of deep concern to us by reason of

history and natural affinities. For the same reason, though,

Venezuela did not support military intervention in Haiti,

despite the fact that the United Nations has lent it

multilateral and institutional support.

At the same time, regional integration is expanding,

with profound effect on the exercise of rights within every

country. This process is rapidly leading to hemispheric and

universal integration. For Latin Americans, the bicentennial

of the birth of Antonio José de Sucre, the young man who

consolidated our independence at the battle of Ayacucho,

will provide an opportunity to reassert the unbreakable links

of our solidarity. As we see it, the objective of the

forthcoming meeting of Heads of State or Government,

convened by the President of the United States, will be the

encouragement of a genuinely democratic system in the

American continent and throughout the world. It is our

hope in this regard that there will be a commitment to fight

without quarter against poverty and an effective

agreement to stamp out corruption.

The United Nations has managed to avoid most of

the obstacles that caused the failure of its immediate

predecessor, the League of Nations. Next year it will

celebrate its first 50 years of existence: a time in which,

amidst contradictions and disappointments, it has provided

a unique forum for constant dialogue, in every language

and in the most contrasting tones. It has made

uninterrupted progress and shown a willingness to accept

the structural changes that changing times have imposed.

For this reason we are awaiting further changes, such as

the expansion of permanent representation on the Security

Council to Latin America by granting Brazil permanent

membership. Latin America has every right to this by

virtue of its spiritual strength and its constant espousal of

liberty and international friendship.

However, despite all the progress achieved, it is

undeniable that we are still a very long way from having

established a stable, universal peace or a harmonious

coexistence amongst nations. Nor have we developed

standards of living that permit all social strata in the

various continents to enjoy a fitting human existence, with

a satisfactory world-wide level of equity in social

relations.

The struggle for human rights has spread

significantly, and international treaties have been signed

to ensure that protection of such rights transcends all

borders. But the basic human right to life itself, the right

to work and the right to have enough to eat for healthy

living are far from having been secured for a considerable

part of mankind.

The momentous International Conference on

Population and Development, recently held in Cairo,

seemed to be based on the assumption that it is

impossible to guarantee development interpreted as

participation by the whole human being and by all human

beings in economic and social processes - if the

population continues to increase. This is because many

countries have not ensured, as is essential, that everyone

who is born will have the means to enjoy a decent

existence. In my country, at the beginning of the century,

a time of manifest poverty and backwardness, there was

a saying that every child was born with an arepa under

the arm. "Arepa" is a bread made of maize and is a

popular staple of the daily diet. This saying has now

dropped out of popular usage.

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In spite of the dramatic repercussions of the events

following the destruction of the Berlin Wall, peace has not

yet been achieved. Just as we were ready to thrill with

emotion at the arrival of universal peace, the Gulf War

awakened us from that dream. Recent conflicts in the

former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, two countries so

fundamentally different one from the other, have stirred up

vestiges of barbarism that had supposedly disappeared for

ever. Religious conflicts and ethnic antagonisms, thought

to have been overcome once and for all, have re-emerged

with unbelievable bitterness. Events recall the Biblical

commentary of the Peruvian Victor Andrés Belaunde, an

illustrious Latin American, greatly appreciated in the United

Nations, who said that human beings bear the weight of a

curse implicitly imposed by God when He cast them out of

the Garden of Eden: Since they refused to be governed by

God, they would have to govern themselves.

The United Nations faces a constant challenge: the

quest for peace. It is clear that peace will not be achieved

simply through political discussion or diplomatic

negotiation, still less through the mere use of force. It has

often been said by knowledgeable speakers that peace is the

fruit of justice: that is, without some degree of justice,

peace is unattainable.

That was understood by the negotiators at Versailles

at the end of the First World War when they included in

their Peace Treaty a lengthy clause devoted to the

International Labour Organization and inspired by the

notion of social justice. Undoubtedly, however, the need

for justice goes far beyond international conventions and

recommendations with regard to labour, and meeting that

need is becoming a matter of increasing urgency.

The rapid process of globalization we are witnessing

is unstoppable and unavoidable. The steps being taken in

this direction are dictated by the state of today’s world and

the demands of the immediate and mid-term future. The

conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the creation of the

World Trade Organization represent undeniable progress for

mankind. The bilateral and multilateral agreements reached

on all continents are signs of progress and stimulate the

creation and exchange of wealth. It is nevertheless

essential to introduce into relations between States

instruments that will prevent commercial interchange from

becoming an economic war to the death. It is inappropriate

to transfer to social relations the concept of the struggle for

existence in the sense that nature itself, through this

struggle, will automatically ensure the survival of the fittest -

in other words, the absolute predominance of the strongest

and the disappearance of the weakest. The acceptance of

such an idea would be a crime against humanity.

It must be recognized that the United Nations and its

important subsidiary bodies have made great efforts to

alleviate the sufferings and shortages of those sectors of

humanity where the standard of living is below what is

deemed humanely indispensable. It is encouraging to

note that institutions directly related to the United Nations

such as the World Bank and the International Monetary

Fund recognize that the fight against poverty must be a

top priority. It is not, however, enough to give

humanitarian assistance to the neediest. It is essential to

afford nations the conditions they require to enable all

their inhabitants to compete efficiently, to ensure their

healthy survival and to encourage their progress.

It is true that economic-liberalization measures in

less-developed countries have produced positive

macroeconomic results, but in some countries that point

with satisfaction to the tremendous economic progress

they have achieved one can note, at the same time, a

growing concern about that portion of the population that

is living in poverty and, even more distressing, in critical

and even extreme poverty.

I share the aspiration voiced by the President of

Colombia to a new model of development for our

countries, for an "alternative model," as he put it when

addressing the Assembly. He proposed the establishment

of

"a new and more productive citizen in the economy,

a citizen who participates to a greater degree in

politics and who is more supportive in the social

sphere." (Official Records of the General Assembly,

Forty-ninth Session, Plenary Meetings, 5th meeting,

[p. 27])

In recent years my country, Venezuela, has faced a

difficult economic situation and disquieting social

circumstances. Undeniably, the blame lies largely with us.

Grievous mistakes in running the country and the

poisonous plague of corruption are the principal causes of

the acute crisis we are experiencing, but external factors

have also played a part. I am not here to pronounce

judgement on the past. As I have pledged to my

compatriots, I must find ways of restoring the confidence

that is indispensable if coming generations are to be able,

with training and hard work, to avail themselves of the

opportunities the country has to offer. Serious

institutional problems - such as the legal proceedings

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against two former Presidents of the Republic, one of

whom was suspended from office while still President -

have been handled within the legal system with strict

adherence to the Constitution. The people’s conduct has

been truly exemplary. The natural resources with which

providence has endowed us and the favourable prospects

guaranteed by our human resource, our people, who have

always demonstrated intelligence, creative audacity and

courage in times of danger, inspire us with optimism. We

realize that we must seek within ourselves the essential

elements that will enable us to win the struggle for

development to which we are so seriously committed. We

have put forward an economic stabilization and recovery

programme that has been in large part accepted. It lays out

a feasible and clearly defined course that will ultimately

lead to a solution of the crisis. However, we feel that we

are in duty bound to explain to international forums, and

most particularly to this world forum, the need for

favourable prospects to open up that can help us to avoid

exerting our efforts in vain and ensure instead that they will

be successful and will contribute to a better future for

mankind.

For example, when considering the need to strengthen

trade relations throughout the world we must call for

guaranteed access to the markets of the developed

countries, where mechanisms are sometimes in place that

are skillfully used to exclude our competition. We agree

with the need for environmental protection for the benefit

of the world’s inhabitants, and we are certainly ready to

contribute to that goal. However, we must make the point

that on more than one occasion the ecological struggle for

a healthy environment has been hypocritically used as a

way to prevent developing countries from gaining access to

the markets of wealthy nations. We further believe that

transfer of technology must be wide ranging and genuine,

for if it is not the gap between us and the developed

countries, which increases every year, will ultimately

become impossible to bridge and will lead to a sharp and

bitter rift between two sectors of mankind, with

unforeseeable but undoubtedly disastrous consequences.

Access to capital is a requirement that is becoming

ever more acute as technological advances make productive

processes more capital- and less labour-intensive. At the

same time, there must be fair payment for the raw materials

that represent the principal contribution of the

underdeveloped countries to international trade but that are

constantly losing their relevance in end products.

Consequently, access to capital must be arranged on

equitable terms to protect the interests of producers, who

are often obliged to accept conditions that are little more

than adhesion contracts. This struggle to obtain better

prices for raw materials, which are almost invariably

subject to conditions imposed by consumer countries

without any real participation by the producers, and the

establishment of reasonable terms for international loans

are part of the struggle for justice and an integral part of

the struggle for peace.

The external-debt problem of the developing

countries is still far from being solved. It is true that

there have been negotiations on restructuring and that

they have temporarily alleviated the dreadful burden that

problem represents for the debtor countries, but as the

repayment deadlines fall due the burden for those in debt

becomes harder to bear with the passing of every year.

To cite a concrete example: in my country next year’s

debt servicing payments will amount to 35 per cent of the

national budget, and in coming years the situation will

become even more acute. The drop in the price of our

main export has made it very difficult to meet the basic

needs of our population. We have never given any

thought to disavowing our obligations. We are resolved

to meet them, but we consider that this subject must be

placed on international agendas and that a search must

begin for a broad solution that will open up new horizons

of justice and peace.

I believe that as we approach the beginning of the

second half of the United Nations first century the

fundamental aim of the United Nations must be the search

for justice in relations among peoples.

Social justice has been one of the most important

achievements of this twentieth century that is now

drawing to a close. This demands of every individual and

every group whatever is required for the common good.

Above and beyond the numerical equality of commutative

justice, it also requires of all of us that we make a

contribution to the community of nations in proportion to

our individual possibilities. This concept has still not

gained acceptance in the international field. It is true that

there have been some minor concessions to the most

needy countries but there is a lack of any clear course

towards the achievement of universal well-being. It is not

only States that should be the agents. Once the door was

opened by the International Labour Organization (ILO),

international organizations also provided access for

unofficial bodies. The large transnational corporations

which have and exercise real power must become

involved in the management of programmes that will seek

peace through justice; economic justice in so far as it

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concerns them; and respect for the sovereignty of both

large and small States.

Those of us who love freedom; those of us who have

struggled to achieve it, regardless of cost and sacrifice;

those of us who consider democracy and respect for human

rights as priority objectives; those of us who sincerely

yearn for friendship and fruitful understanding among all

nations; those of us who believe in dialogue and resolutely

support the endeavours of the United Nations to encourage

it - all of us desire to see the United Nations displaying

unflinching determination that the search for justice - and

I shall never tire of repeating this - must play a key role in

the building of peace.

If peace is our goal let us strive to make justice its

foundation. In this way we shall realize the ideal which

our Liberator, Simon Bolivar, visualized as the most

important goal of the best system of government: "the

greatest possible degree of happiness", in other words,

happiness for all.