BOLIVIA

STATEMENT BY

H. E. Fernado Messmer Trigo

Viceminister of Foreign Affairs and Workship of Bolivia
Head of the Delegation of Bolivia at
the Fifty-Fifth Session of the
United Nations General Assembly
September 20, 2000
New York

Mr. President:
I have been instructed by the Government of Bolivia to convey my
sincerest congratulations to you upon your election as President of
the 55th General Assemblywhich constitutes a recognition of
your personal merits and a tribute to your country, as well. At the
same time, I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to thank
His Excellency, Theo-Ben Gurirab for his work during the 54th
General Assembly and for his commitment to the preparation of
the Millennium Summit and Assembly.
Special thanks must also go to Secretary General Kofi Annan for his
document-report in the preparation of the Millennium Summit, the
political implications of which has given us an opportunity to reflect
upon and take up specific subjects concerning the United Nations in
its 55 years of existence.
In addition, we must congratulate ourselves for the recent admission
of Tuvalu, as a new full member of our Organization.
Mr. President:
The recent Millennium Summit has confirmed recognition by the
International Community of the importance, meaning, and
perspectives of the United Nations Organization. Likewise it has
made evident the urgency of adapting and conforming the United
Nations to the new reality in which we live, quite different, to be sure,
from the situation and circumstances that prevailed when our
Organization came into being.
Today, the concerns of peoples and governments are different.
Poverty, underdevelopment, and the heightened inequalities are
factors that determine new divisions which threaten to erupt in
violence. These are conditions that must be corrected because they
are the source of present and future conflicts which, if allowed to
persist, could place the world's economic and political stability in
serious jeopardy; international peace and security, it goes without
saying.
Our Organization needs to be strengthened if it is to successfully
channel the expectations and opportunities of globalization while

reserving, at the same time, the capability of controlling and

preventing the dangers implicit, especially for the more vulnerable
economies now threatened by new forms of exclusion.
The United Nations must be renewed so that it may continue being
an effective instrument for dialogue that calls for the building of a
world in which greater security and solidarity prevail.
Consequently, we must redefine the Organization's priorities in a
way that will be conducive to clear-sighted and effective action. This
signifies substantial reform of the system's economic and financial
organs, modernization of the General Assembly's modus operandi,
the Security Council's recommendation to the newrealities, and
other equally important tasks, such as ensuring the funds for our
institution, obtaining financing for development and peace-keeping
operations, modifying the scale of contributions, hewing to the basic
principle of the countrys ability to pay.
Only a few days ago at the Millennium Summit, the President of
Bolivia, Hugo Banzer Suarez referred to the close relation between
freedom and poverty and between poverty and violence, issuing a
call for the fight against poverty to be waged in accordance with the
principle of shared responsibility, with the adoption of truly
democratic obligations in order to mitigate present inequalities which
threaten to become more intense.
It is unfair in an open economy for markets to be closed and
discriminatory measures to be applied with protectionist intent. It is
also imperative that countries with small-scale economies be
favored through greater capital input and debt-relief programmes.
Science and technology must constitute a heritage for human
development. Scientific and technological knowledge must not
widen already existing gaps and divisions.
At the historic meeting of South American Presidents, recently held
in Brasilia, the heads of state of the region stressed the importance
of access to the new information-and-knowledge age, opening the
way for our countries to strengthen a system of continuing education
that ensures education at all levels for the broadest sectors of
society and permits access to knowledge and information without
restriction.

Mr. President:
Democracy, which basically seeks to organize the life of mankind in
society, is a vital concept, which changes and is updated at the
changing pace of the societies themselves; without impairing
essential values.
In the conviction that democracy must extend beyond electoral
ceremony, and in the understanding that sovereignty is vested in the
people and expressed through its representatives, the principle of
agreement on concerted political action has been declared in Bolivia
as the basis of a pluralistic and participatory democratic system.
In that context, the practice of ".National Dialogue" was instituted
during the administration of President Banzer, a mechanism which
seeks to establish a new relation of work and responsibility shared
between government institutions, the political system, and the
organizations of society. The establishment of important state
policies was the fruit of the first National Dialogue in 1997.
National Dialogue was put into practice again this year in order to
provide a new thrust to institutional reform and to outline a national
anti-poverty program. With the participation of over 3,000 inhabitants
of all the townships of Bolivia, a new plan was designed for
distributing rights and responsibilities that will allow, within a market
economy, to combat the poverty that still besets vast sectors of the
Bolivian population despite nearly twenty years of democratic
existence.
Mr. President:
Shortly after taking office in August, 1997, President Banzer
assumed the responsibility for getting Bolivia out of the drugtrafficking loop for good by implementing an integral policy that links
afternative development, eradication of illegal coca crops,
confiscation, prevention, and rehabilitation.
In spite of doubt as to the feasibility of this decision, we can now
declare that we will be fulfilling our obligation ahead of time. In 1997,
there were approximately 38.000 hectares of illegal coca in Bolivia.
Today, more than 80% of such illegal crops has been eradicated.

The concern now lies in the ability to sustain these achievements.

Conditions must be created which will, in the future, obviate a return
to the production of coca leaves as a consequence of the lack of
jobs and income. Our major efforts are aimed at alternative
development, in order that illegal coca income can be replaced by
legal earnings from other productive activities. If we do not obtain
clear-cut, feasible responses, we run the risk that those persons
who cannot hope to subsist will fall into the temptation of cultivating
coca anew. That would constitute surrender to the drug dealers. And
this would signify a defeat not only for Bolivia but for the world
community.
What Bolivia needs, then, is support in two basic areas. First,
investment, for promoting economic growth in all sectors that
generate greater opportunity for jobs and, secondly, the opening of
secure markets for our exports.
Mr. President:
At previous Assemblies, Bolivia has aired its historical, political, and
economic arguments upon which it bases its unavoidable need to
recoup its maritime status which gave rise to its independent
existence.
It is with this purpose that Bolivia has been encouraging direct
dialogue with the Republic of Chile.
As a consequence of prior contacts, the Foreign Ministers of Bolivia
and Chile met in Portugal on February 22 of this year where an
agreement was reached to prepare a working program to be
formalized in the subsequent stages of dialogue, which shall
incorporate, without exclusion of any kind, the essential points of a
bilateral relation, and seek to surmount the differences that have
stood in the way of full integration between Bolivia and Chile, the
main stumbling block having been, without question, Bolivia's
unresolved maritime demand.
In a significant advance, on the occasion of the Meeting of
Presidents of South America, held in Brasilia, the Chief Executives
of Bolivia and Chile, Hugo Banzer and Ricardo Lagos, reiterated the
Willingness of their governments to enter into dialogue on all topics
of bilateral relations, without exception, for the purpose of creating a
climate of mutual trust which will make possible the establishment of

closer relations based on the structure and positions maintained by

the two countries.
The word community and, particularly, the American region, follows
with expectation the course of this diplomatic process and its
advances. The purpose of holding dialogue on all the topics, without
exception, implies a challenge to the imagination and puts political
will to the test for finally correcting an unjust situation that has been
in force since 1879. Furthermore, Latin America's capacity for
settling its disputes in a fair, peaceful, negotiated manner will be
strengthened and, in this way, progress will be made on the road to
regional integration.
In that context, we propose that a program of integrated
development of western Bolivia and northern Chile be implemented.
We are also confident that Peru will participate in this program in
order to mobilize the resources and capabilities of the three regions.
In this way, a contribution will be made to the linkage of the Atlantic
and Pacific basins.
The persistence of Bolivia's landlocked situation in the heart of the
continent is, without doubt, an obstacle for the creation of a major
opening to thoroughgoing understanding and dialogue in the South
American region and, besides, minimizes the effectiveness of
integrationist aims being carried out in the area.
Mr. President:
This occasion provides a fitting opportunity to thank the Secretary
General Kofi Annan for his interest in the relations between Bolivia
and Chile, which has been brought to the attention of the authorities
of the two countries. The Secretary General has expressed his
satisfaction with respect to the conversations at the level of the
Heads-of-State, Foreign Ministers, and other authorities of Bolivia
and Chile, in the terms expressed by the parties.
My country pledges utmost effort in support of transmuting the
desire, recently expressed by the Presidents of Bolivia and Chile,
into action that will enable us, Bolivians and Chileans alike, to
advance in the resolution of our differences, with a view to the future
and in a spirit of brotherhood.
Thank you.