Venezuela, 1995

Everything that could be said has been said

during this annual routine, in which each Head of State or

Government, or Minister, stands before the United Nations

General Assembly. If all the speeches were to be published

in a compendium, the same universal themes would be

repeated a thousand times.

The compendium would include the great, insoluble

problems that, to various degrees, afflict the peoples of

every continent, as well as the solutions that have already

been found, and the promised solutions implicit in the

constant efforts of this Organization, which, like any other

human endeavour, has lived through 50 years of triumphs

and frustration.

We must rejoice that, thanks to the Organization’s

vigilance and action, we have enjoyed — as never

before — half a century of peace, although we lament the

fact that we must now deploy efforts against violence born

of intolerance, fanaticism and ethnic or religious strife that

frustrate the achievement of the harmony for which

mankind yearns.

Alongside the impressive achievements of the world

community, these 50 years have also seen numerous local

conflicts that have taken 23 million lives. Eighty seven per

cent of the weapons sold and used in the world come from

the five countries that are permanent members of the

Security Council. And, unbelievable as it might seem, at

this stage of our political evolution, two atomic Powers

are causing anxiety with inexplicable nuclear tests for

which we criticized other Powers.

But who can deny that in the fields of health,

technology, environment, human rights, communications,

the exploitation of the resources of the seas and many

other fields, there is progress and hope, and at least a

warning that awakens the universal conscience?

Today’s statement by the Foreign Minister of

Venezuela will be no different. Political scenarios change,

as do ideologies, the most extraordinary crisis in history

erupts, but life’s dramas continue, with man bruised by

change, but for the first time wavering between hope and

bewilderment. This situation results from the fact that we

have rushed from one era to another without the

demolition caused by war, although we have had the

enthusiastic and confident contribution of students and

workers, who have devoted their free time to making it.

We note hardly any curiosity about the era we are

approaching, an era as yet unnamed, though soon to be

upon us it could be called anything: “post-capitalist”,

“post-socialist” or “post-industrial”; or it could simply be

described as a time of transition between two periods that

our generations share.

There has been talk, of course, of the end of history,

with the end of ideological confrontation; that is precisely

what makes history: incessant conflicts and passionate

confrontations, fears and hopes, freedom and deprivation

of freedom, in any of the forms of oppression that have

always been applied.

Man today has the vague feeling that he is in contact

with all other men through the miracle of the media, fibre

optics, and cybernetic systems, and yet, now that there are

more human beings with whom solidarity may be felt,

solidarity is more precarious and man’s loneliness is more

poignant.

To create a different world based on a solid,

complex and long-lasting Organization that has been

taking shape since the end of the First World War, we

have begun to talk — since we want words to describe

what is going on — of globalization, of integration, of the

abolition of the nation-State and its replacement by large

blocs, in order to produce through strength of numbers

and unity a new dynamic different from military might.

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Let us suppose, then, that the world of the future will

have to be shaped according to regions, or large integrated

groups or communities, regional or otherwise, that have a

common cultural origin and wish to be identified with the

others, because of the particular characteristics of their

culture, such as tradition, language, religion and even mixed

blood.

This is what strikes me, as I now appear for the first

time before so distinguished a forum to speak on behalf of

a country such as mine — a country with a modest

economy, a small population, a territory that is

medium-sized but which, owing to its excellent

geographical situation, developed more than others; a

culture of social freedom, of mixed races and of political

independence, achieved by means of an epic struggle, not

only for itself but for all of its American neighbours. Mine

is a country that has never been at war with anyone, a

country whose desire to see its neighbours freed from

colonialism gave impetus to, and is inspiring, the brand-new

Caribbean community, for instance. It is a country that, as

we have proved time and again, will support and promote

any initiative aimed at pacification in the region, as we did

today in the Group of Friends of Guatemala, for example,

and when we welcomed the latest agreement between Israel

and the Palestinians.

Venezuela, like other countries, has been shaken — in

our case since 1989 — by a severe crisis. Not so much

economic or political as ethical in nature, this crisis has

weakened our institutions and undermined our financial

system, the collapse of which cost us 16 per cent of our

gross national product and has attracted the

not-always-understanding attention of international opinion.

This is the crisis that our Government inherited.

Aware that its characteristics are atypical in our region,

since its basic goal is to replace a paternalistic, oil-

dependent model by an open culture based on work and

self-reliance rather than on seeking the understanding of

other countries, our Government is proceeding to solve our

nation’s problems, which, fortunately, are no match for our

diverse and solid economic resources.

Venezuela is a country that has simultaneously — as

if by magic — produced great thinkers, the most credible

Utopians, the luckiest generals, the most visionary

educators. My country, situated at the northern gate of

South America, freed itself and other countries by following

the dreams of Francisco de Miranda, brought to fruition by

Simón Bolivár and Antonio José de Sucre, by systematic

thinking and by the actions of Andrés Bello and Simón

Rodríguez, among other well-known figures.

Simón Bolívar was clear-sighted. In that nebulous

period of history that was the year 1815, he set out, from

Jamaica — in the most famous political document of this

part of the world — a dazzling prophecy of what the

ideal destiny of Hispanic America was to be. To this day,

no one can understand how he thought it up. He wrote:

“It is a grandiose idea to try to make of the entire

new world a single nation, with only one link to

bind and tie together all the parts to the whole.”

Once independence was achieved, he foresaw that an

imperfect and erratic unity, such as that of the South,

could be thrown off balance by the organization of the

former 13 American colonies, whose integration he

already anticipated. He also foresaw the power of the

hard-working, driven race that would consolidate on the

American continent the formidable and admirable nation

that the United States has become, with its transcendent

and unique feeling of liberty, since its founders left

behind all prejudices and fears.

Bolívar visualized uniting the American half that

was discovered, populated and moulded in all its aspects

by Spain and Portugal, seeing it as one that must

necessarily have its own way of life and of behaving. His

vision was never based on rivalry, but rather, in keeping

with his views on the destiny of this shared hemisphere,

on the basis of emulation and friendship instead of strife

as its driving force.

The colonizing Powers contributed, and based this

half of America on, all they had brought with them. They

established a religion, a society reminiscent of the

offspring of settlers, whose physical surroundings and

indiscriminate crossbreeding gave rise to a feeling of

unfettered freedom and equality. This, in turn, engendered

irrevocably an equally free spirit of social democracy,

which Latin America has never since lacked, not even

during the long periods when political democracy was

non-existent.

In 1826, Bolívar, the Liberator, convened the

Congress of Panama to speak there, for the first time in

history, not of sacred or profane alliances of war, but of

alliances for peace. The thoughts he presented gave rise

to the idea of an organized international community, first

of all for the Americas, through the Pan-American Union,

which in turn gave rise to the present Organization of

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American States (OAS), then to the League of Nations and

finally to this Organization, which has given humanity,

together with peace, all the possibilities that peace offers.

This is an exceptional community, the largest in the

world, since it extends from the southern border of the

United States all the way south to Patagonia, uniting the

greatest number of peoples and republics with similar

characteristics. Here, the various languages spoken in Spain

fortunately became one, revitalizing the Castilian tongue,

and similarly, the Portuguese language, which in Brazil is

a language as open and soft as America itself. In the

northernmost point of America, the imprint of France in

Canada, as well as the Hispanic minority in the United

States, are living reminders of this community.

In geographical terms, we are larger than other official

communities, since the United States’ surface area covers

9,372,000 square kilometres and Europe’s covers

10,404,000 square kilometres. But we cover 20,000,000

square kilometres, and in these, the future of humanity is

pulsing.

In political and spiritual terms, we are history’s largest

laboratory, at once a mystery and a promise — an absolute

wonder that the future is revealing day by day. The seed of

a new world, different from our expectations, is growing

among us.

We are not the only five hundred million human

beings to be allergic to the discrimination that will confront

us in the year 2000. But we are the only human group to

have been born and moulded without privileges, hesitations

or complexes, on an equal footing. Though this sense of

equality was repressed for three centuries by pragmatic

measures that were respected but not implemented, and by

the extreme zeal of monks who consulted no one in

imposing a single faith on this immense geographical area,

it was imbued with the spaciousness of the land, the rivers,

the forests, the gentle climate, the mountains and prairies,

whose influence produced a different type of human

character. And I would repeat that this deep feeling and

sense of fundamental freedom was something that had

never happened to any other group of people.

Germán Arciniegas rightly said that

“America was colonized by a man who was destined

to a life of servitude in Europe. He became

emancipated when he crossed from one shore to the

other ... These wretches worked the continent with

their bare hands, they were the poor, the landless, the

illiterate of the popular Renaissance. Uneducated,

unenlightened, their common destiny was to join

together to become nations and so achieve justice.”

And justice was the most absolute independence,

influenced by American determinism.

In his sociologist’s discourse, Bolívar said that we

Americans represent a small human race. We have now

become an important branch of the broader human race:

the branch of possibilities and hope.

Our region would not enter into conflict with any

other; not even with the one with which it shares the

hemisphere, and which speaks a different language and

has different customs. It will not be another international

agency, or form another bureaucracy, or take up more

room than the enormous space of its present physical and

human geography.

In other words, we aspire to a beautiful Utopia, with

no other pragmatism than the pride of being a Utopia

with ever more solidarity; part of the universe with shared

values, in search of the same destiny.

If other continents fashion communities around

religious, racial or geopolitical banners, it is natural that

we, Latin Americans, put forth ours with our own

immense, protean sense of unity.

There was a time, as we followed a different cultural

pattern, when we had a more orderly society and enjoyed

political systems that brought us fame throughout the

world. Practically all Latin American countries

experienced a sort of golden age of culture and politics,

marked by originality. We created literature. We forged

our own laws with our own institutions. We pioneered the

Law of the Sea; we produced the first system against

nuclear weapons, with the Treaty of Tlatelolco.

A concerted Latin American community of nations

would tend to recuperate and exchange training and

educational systems capable of affirming our collective

pride and personality, as Europe has already done, despite

the diversity of its components, out of fear of the return

of thousands of years of violence. Morally, the Latin

American community would be equal to the commercial

and economic commitments made through ALADI, the

Latin American Integration Association, as well as the

Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market and

MERCOSUR, all designed to form a front of solidarity

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and a crucial link in the economic integration of the

universe.

A conscious Latin American community of nations

would guarantee the sustainable development of the world’s

most varied and richest ecological systems, and would

conceive not only of the larger spaces, but also of the

importance of drinking water, of mining resources, and of

the most varied and richest flora and fauna on the face of

the earth.

Of course, we bring before the United Nations the

many concerns that we have expressed about the fate of our

Organization which, in its 50 years of arbitrating peace, has

charted a new path for the peoples it represents. These

concerns have prompted talk of reforming the Charter, in

order for the Security Council, for instance, to take up and

represent new geopolitical realities, and not only military

might. This is the spirit in which my country, through the

voice of its President, Rafael Caldera, has realistically and

frankly proposed that Brazil be the permanent

representative of Latin America in an enlarged Security

Council. We have also spoken of the justification of

agencies and powers, to make the cost of peace less

burdensome; of the urgent need to adapt the Economic and

Social Council to the necessities of our time, as well as the

Council for Culture, Science and Technology, that is still

the monopoly of industrialized centres. If a common market

for technology were to be established, we would be truly

keeping pace with history.

In America, although less than in Africa and Asia, we

too are disturbed by the growing marginalization, the social

injustice, the poverty bordering on famine, the insecurity

exacerbated by the trade in illicit drugs and its

consequences, which we witness. We produce terrible drugs

in ever greater quantities to satisfy the voracity of the

consumer markets. But, at the same time, we fight this

scourge with the greatest tenacity and determination.

Our community has had the virtue of becoming

practically a breeding ground for democracy, thanks to the

steadfastness of its leaders and thinkers, as well as of the

oldest but least championed regional organization. We must

now see to it that democracy is purged of its dishonesty,

and is cleansed. To this end, at the Hemispheric Summit in

Miami, my Government proposed, with unanimous support,

to put a stop to the impunity of corruption.

We consider that drug trafficking and political

corruption are linked together by money laundering, under

the cover of electoral contributions.

If democracy is to acquire a new respectability, it

will be thanks to the common, concerted effort of

America; an effort which this world Organization will

also be called upon to make in the near future. That is

because political corruption, a manifestation of the

universal mafia, is not exclusive to our region and must

be fought at the global level, just like illicit drug

trafficking.

Very shortly, a world congress against corruption

will be held in China, doubtless inspired by our example.

We hold out great expectations for that congress. Indeed,

we are keenly interested in anything that is sponsored and

advanced by this Organization.

But I wanted to put before the Assembly the

somewhat romantic idea of a Latin American Utopia, that

it might inspire confidence in our neighbours in this

hemisphere and hope in all other regions, whether on an

organized basis or not. This is the spirit in which the Rio

Group has endorsed the oft-repeated proposal for a Latin

American Parliament.

Since the first Great War there has been a

dislocation in Europe, which conveyed itself through

Spain and Portugal; its aesthetic sense of life and

existence through Italy; its modes of thought and

philosophy through France; its political models through

Great Britain and its lasting technologies through

Germany. A regrettable dislocation occurred between

Europe and Latin America, which is truly its most

kindred continent, where we live as distant cousins, and

still the most vibrant and promising offshoot of this

lineage.

If we underscore the need to encourage this idea of

our community, it is because it exists, in fact, although it

is now beset with social problems that require combined

treatment. It also has a legalist existence, since States

such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and

Venezuela have incorporated it into their political

constitutions.

The greatest tragedy of Latin America is its social

condition, because of the imbalances characteristic of any

large society — irregularities in family patterns,

deficiencies in education, the destruction of homes due to

a lack of ethics — even housing, which was never one of

our biggest problems, has become one, because it is

linked to a sense of ethics at the family level. They are

inseparably linked.

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We could say, along with Arturo Uslar Pietri that,

caught as we are between the millstones that grind the

political universe, we have given more thought to building

republics than to perfecting the nation that we are.

In spite of all its faults, the United Nations — the

Organization we aspired to and wish to maintain — has

created a civilization. It is responsible for over 300

international treaties: for the consolidation of democracy;

for the dedicated protection of refugees; for self-

determination, freedom, independence, the dignity of life,

the arts, traditions; for coexistence — even if the phantoms

of intolerance reappear; for trade free of protectionism; for

children, women and our indigenous populations. And this,

beyond civilization, we can call the new culture of the

human family.

The Organization has grown and expanded since 1945,

and the world with it. Its many offspring, scattered among

the five continents and virtually all of them free, have led

to a membership quadruple the number of the founding

Members, among them Venezuela, which was represented

then by its great Minister Caracciolo Parra Pérez. At that

time he voiced an idea that has even greater validity today:

“The peoples of the world must know each other

morally and spiritually before they can manage to

dispel the distrust and ignorance which keep them

apart. We must build up a kind of intellectual

network, above the network of the physical

communications system which exists between nations,

or parallel to it.” (Official Records of the United

Nations Conference on International Organization, 7th

plenary meeting, p. 23)

This Organization’s greatest achievement has been to

offer the world a span of half a century during which,

despite remaining fears, it could think of a new course for

harmonizing all aspects of the life of societies with the

nature that shelters those societies.

I congratulate the Organization and the President of

the General Assembly, Mr. Diego Freitas do Amaral, in the

hope that under his leadership the Organization will achieve

all the success it deserves and needs. All races, all

religions, all the most varied shades of humankind bring

their aspirations and their claims here. This is an spacious

home that has always endeavoured to live in the peace that

is and must be the normal condition of life. It has been said

that if health is the peace of the body, peace is the health

of peoples. In that connection, the pre-Socratic philosopher

wrote that in times of peace people awake to the crowing

of roosters, while in times of war they waken to the

clamour of arms; in peace the young bury the old, while

in war the old bury the young.