YouSaid · the spoken record

Álvaro Uribe Vélez

lines on the record: 112
first: 2002-09-24
most recent: 2009-09-24
sittings or episodes: 7
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Our fervent desire is to increase the Human Opportunity Index in order to eliminate poverty, build equity and guarantee every possible alternative for new generations. We propose to include in the measuring of the Index progress and setbacks in environmental 09-52228 16 policies. Opportunities are pointless without environmental protection. Let us be effective in our fight against climate change so that we do not condemn the future inhabitants of the Earth to a planetary holocaust.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“In natural sanctuaries such as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is the highest coastal sanctuary in the world, agreements with indigenous communities are being implemented. In exchange for security, the recovery of lands and the building of seven out of nine promised villages, they have once again taken over the noble task of preserving forests and water sources. We gain nothing from security, investment, health, education or any other social cohesion policy if we do not attach equal importance to the environment. We understand this in a “mega-diverse” nation that contains 14 per cent of the planet’s diversity and ranks second — behind Brazil — in terms of plant and animal species and first in terms of amphibians and birds.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Colombia, at more than 1 million litres per day, is the second-largest Latin American producer of ethanol from sugar cane and, at 1.8 million litres per day, the largest producer of biodiesel from African palm. The conditions in our country make it possible to increase those outputs without destroying the rainforest or limiting food security. We have introduced incentives for other clean energies such as solar and wind energy, the development of which remains small despite their great potential. We are working on building nine mass transportation systems in major cities and are now in the process of incorporating another 10 that are proportionally sized, with a view to replacing individual transportation with collective transportation. Eleven per cent of our national territory has been designated a protected area.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have as a concrete policy the forest ranger family programme, which has involved more than 90,000 rural families in the collective effort to protect the rainforest, keep it free from the shadow of illicit drugs and ensure its recovery where it has been destroyed. The State pays a bonus to those families. The programme, supervised by the United Nations, has received the highest rating from the Organization. In Colombia, forest ranger families protect the Amazon rainforest from predatory drugs; elsewhere in the world, a similar model could preserve trees in order to mitigate climate change. Clean energy, mass transportation systems and the protection of water sources are essential actions in our contribution to the fight against global warming.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“However, we are highly vulnerable, as shown by the winter tragedies in recent years, which have caused losses in terms of human life, production and high service costs. We support tougher international conventions to protect the environment. We hope that the Copenhagen conference will produce effective binding instruments so that it will not be another dead letter. Our main contribution to the fight against climate change is the preservation of our 578,000-square- kilometre rainforest, which constitutes more than 51 per cent of our national territory and the majority of which lies along the Amazon.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Colombia is moving forward in terms of competitiveness and confidence. Investment must perform a function of social responsibility to acquire popular legitimacy in democratic societies. Social responsibility — not speculation — is inseparable from capital as a significant factor in social-wealth creation. The economic crisis is a crisis of speculation, rather than of creative free enterprise. We are confident that the necessary conventions will be adopted to avoid the risks created by speculative money transfers and financial market speculation. We fear a new era of protectionism and the selective closure of developed economies, which would impede sustainable economic recovery. Social responsibility is inseparable from the fight against climate change. Colombia is a net producer of oxygen and emits insignificant amounts of carbon dioxide.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Co-responsibility must thus be exercised in accordance with its real meaning: a task that belongs to all of us, without any reservations. We believe that, instead of advocating the legalization of drugs, we should consider the need to 15 09-52228 criminalize consumption. There is no consistency between toughness when it comes to production and trafficking and permissiveness when it comes to consumption. That has led to deadly micro-trafficking in cities, the promotion of consumption by adolescents and young people and the involvement of children in the criminal trade. We are making progress in the constitutional process of criminalizing consumption, taking care not to confuse the sick addict with the criminal distributor. Our Government is promoting investment and entrepreneurship as ways to overcome poverty and build equity.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Its violent criminals used to deny being involved in narco-terrorism and to try to appear ideological; today, having lost all sense of decency, they cannot hide their criminal enterprise or feign ideological postures, which are negated by their cruelty towards their victims and those whom they have kidnapped. The democratic transparency of our country, which they tried to destroy, ensures that they will never be acceptable. We have a different view of co-responsibility and of the proposal that drugs be legalized. The former division between producer and consumer countries has disappeared. Colombia began as a trafficking territory, burst into production and now suffers as a consumer. Those who began as consumers increase production. All peoples are exposed to the risks of drug production, trafficking and consumption.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Our objective is to restore domestic security and never to participate in the arms race for the bloody game of international warfare. Our tradition is one of respect for the global community. We are concerned that, instead of progress towards greater cooperation to ensure the security, peace and tranquillity of the citizens of all countries, there is an acceleration of the arms race. Some justify it by citing the need to modernize their military equipment, while others admit their desire for war. Multilateral agencies, led by the United Nations, must strengthen their action so that Governments will fulfil their duty to protect their citizens and their obligation not to attack the international community. In Colombia, the only reason for terrorism is the drug trade.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We reaffirm our commitment to multilateralism in all its legitimate expressions, from organizations of neighbouring countries to the most global Organization, but we believe that multilateralism must demonstrate that it is effective in defeating international crime. Colombia has acknowledged its internal problem of narco-terrorism. We have carried out a heroic struggle that will ultimately prevail. We cooperate with the international community and we ask for more effective cooperation. We are cooperating with Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Afghanistan and other countries. We acknowledge the efforts of the United States to work together with us to make progress in dismantling narco-terrorism. We request greater cooperation from more countries and from the international community.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have been extremely generous with those who have been demobilized and extremely severe with the 7 per cent who have returned to crime. The Justice and Peace Law, which covers them, made it possible to report 29,555 criminal acts, 12,104 confessions, the discovery of 2,043 graves with 2,492 corpses, the identification of 708 bodies and the return of 581 to their families. The participation of victims and new procedures for restitution and restoration of their rights are a decisive component of this demobilization process. Terrorism cannot be ignored in the name of good international relations. To the contrary, multilateralism and diplomacy must lead to collaborative action among States to overcome this tragedy and its corollaries, including arms trafficking, illicit drugs, money and asset laundering and terrorist havens.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Our interest does not lie in the fanatical confrontation between left and right, which is as dangerous as it is obsolete. Rather, we are betting on a modern democracy, a democracy that is safe and free, that builds social cohesion, a democracy with independent institutions and with confidence that stems from the transparency that is based on a high level of civic participation. We have not been able to completely overcome the problem of displacement, but we have increased our budget twelvefold to help displaced persons. We promote trust between public forces and communities so that those who fight drug trafficking are not thwarted by the displacement that is caused by drug traffickers. We have demobilized 51,783 members of terrorist groups, whose numbers have dropped from around 60,000 to fewer than 8,000.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Colombia has voluntarily presented itself to a United Nations human rights review. Furthermore, despite the suffering caused by landmines that had been planted by terrorist groups, the State destroyed those that were used by its public forces for training purposes. Our country is one of the leaders of the Ottawa Convention to destroy these landmines and will host the next meeting of States parties in Cartagena. 09-52228 14 We tackle terrorism with the utmost determination, and we practise democracy fervently. That is why the doors of Colombia have been open without restriction to international vigilance. We deliberate and disagree, but both impartial observers and biased critics have had complete freedom to express themselves in Colombia.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Terrorism had displaced 30 per cent of our mayors, stolen and corrupted municipal and departmental budgets and exercised coercion within the public sector. Mayors have regained their security so that they may freely carry out their duties and transparently manage their resources. Politics is now expressed freely in all spectrums of thought. This terrorist threat has been tackled without martial law, with full civil and political guarantees and absolute respect for the freedom that we promote with security. We are working to improve the effectiveness of our public forces as well as respect for human rights. We do not hesitate to punish those who violate them, but neither do we refrain from defending our soldiers and policemen who sometimes have been victims of a dirty legal war.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Justice, with the Supreme Court that was attacked in 1985 by drug traffickers and guerrillas; justice, which was tormented by the threats to and assassination of judges and was dislodged in many regions by the terrorists leaders of guerrillas and paramilitary groups that attempted to replace it; justice has, throughout the entire country, regained its full effectiveness. Victims did not complain out of fear of retaliation or because they thought it was pointless. Now, thanks to the recovery of our security, we have registered 239,758 victims, whose situations we are determined to remedy, a remedy that is never complete but which will lead little by little to reconciliation by overcoming of the spirit of vengeance and hatred. We have regained the independence of decentralization and of political exercise.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have recovered two monopolies that we should never have lost: the monopoly of institutional forces to fight criminals and the monopoly of justice that the terrorists tried to dislodge. We have dismantled paramilitarism, a term that emerged to describe private criminal gangs whose objective was to fight drug- trafficking guerrillas. Today, the State is the only entity that fights all those criminals. Those criminals in all their forms — narco-guerrillas, criminal gangs — are part of a mafia-type relationship that unites them or pits them against each other to distribute or fight over the gains of the criminal drug business.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“I would like to congratulate the President of the General Assembly and reiterate to the United Nations our gratitude for its positive presence and cooperation with the Colombian people. The Government over which I preside aims to enhance the confidence of the national and international community in Colombia. This quest for confidence is based on three pillars: security with democratic values, the promotion of investment and entrepreneurship with social responsibility, and social cohesion with freedoms. We continue with our security advances, but also there are some outstanding challenges. I would like to highlight some intangible achievements that attest to the democratic credentials of our security project.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit drugs helps to set off a car bomb in Colombia and to destroy four trees from our Amazon rainforest. Investors from all over the world are coming to Colombia every day. Twice as many tourists, from every corner of the world, are visiting our country as were five years ago. Many of those who looked on our country with scepticism and spoke about Colombia as a failed State can now discern clear signals of institutional strength and democratic boldness. Colombia today generates more trust and respect, but the work goes on. To free us all from the horrors of drug trafficking, terrorism and poverty, we need more resolute support from the international community. I would very much like to thank the United Nations for its very significant presence in our country.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We have extradited more than 800 persons. This year, we must spray 130,000 hectares of coca crops, while another 100,000 must be manually eradicated. Over the past five years, 10,000 properties have been confiscated. However, there has been no significant reduction in illicit crop areas and consumption is on the rise. Let us consider that situation. It is more difficult to carry out prevention and rehabilitation efforts against the backdrop of exponential growth in consumption resulting from a permissive attitude. The destruction of the rainforest to plant coca, the erosion of the soil and the pollution caused by chemical precursors are enormous affronts on the environmental balance. Whoever buys a personal dose of illicit drugs encourages a child to become a distributor and, later, a feared criminal.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Our productivity is high, thanks to sources of energy such as sugar cane and the African oil palm, which also protects the soil from direct sunlight and prevents erosion. For every energy unit used, 8 energy units of ethanol are produced, or 6.5 units in biodiesel. Illicit drugs are a great enemy of the environment, and they fuel terrorism. Colombia still suffers from violence because of illicit drugs. We speak of shared responsibility not to assign exclusive responsibilities to consumer countries, for, unfortunately, our young people also use drugs. We speak of shared responsibility to spur the world to combat production, trafficking, consumption, asset laundering and chemical precursors on an equal basis. Our Government requests that consumption be punished in our country and across the international community.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“There are three common objections to biofuels: the risk of destroying the rainforest, the elimination of areas for agricultural food production, and the small amount of energy generated compared to that used to produce it. Colombia has 578,000 square kilometres of rainforest and 43 million hectares of savannah. We will not allow the rainforest to be touched. Protecting it is our main contribution to combating global warming. With the available savannah, we can expand our agricultural production concentrated in 5 million hectares, increase the number of livestock to 24 million heads of cattle and, without affecting food production, develop a large biofuel industry that generates good quality jobs, increases income and becomes an alternative to coca, which fuels terrorism.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“15 08-51839 Some of our most important environmental programmes include the building of mass transportation systems in nine cities, with plans under way for 10 more; a network of 66,000 rural families working as forest rangers, who are paid by the State to maintain collective areas free from illicit crops and to supervise the recovery and conservation of forests under the oversight of the United Nations; the conservation of 257 protected natural areas; the implementation of aqueduct and basic sanitation projects in the country’s 32 departments and the 1,102 municipalities; and the promotion of alternative energy sources such as wind power and biofuels.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Although Colombia produces 0.35 per cent of world greenhouse gas emissions, we are highly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change resulting from melting ice and floods. More than 51 per cent of our territory is preserved as rainforest and is a major net contributor of oxygen.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Despite the economy’s problems, we are still fully determined to meet the social goals through such programmes as Families in Action, Bank of Opportunities and the Together Network, which focuses social tools on the poorest spheres. That is all supported by very ambitious goals in the areas of child nutrition, educational quality and coverage, vocational training, health insurance, connectivity and good management of social resources. With regard to the latter, our administrative reform, which has already been extended to 411 State entities, seeks to prevent the State from being discredited, eliminating bureaucratic wastefulness and achieving social efficiency. The mortgage and financial crises are minor problems compared to the threats to the environment.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“By 2010, we hope to have reached 100 per cent in basic education coverage. Towards the goal of averaging 10.6 years of education for the population between ages 15 and 24, we have already achieved an average of more than nine years. The number of students having to repeat a grade has decreased from 6.1 per cent to 3.3 per cent, towards a goal of 2.3 per cent. Mortality rates for children under five years of age have fallen from 37 to 20 per 1,000 births, with a goal of 17. That same indicator for children younger than one year has decreased from 31 to 15.6, with a goal of 14. Vaccination coverage is almost at 95 per cent, the percentage defined in the MDGs for 2015. Our great challenge is to reduce the pronounced disparities between regions.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“One year ago, I looked out at this Assembly in the frustration of not having been able to rescue Ingrid Betancourt and those held in captivity with her. Today, thanks to the heroism, planning and bloodless effectiveness of our soldiers, Ingrid Betancourt is a symbol of freedom — the freedom to which we aspire as we liberate those who remain in captivity and put an end to such shameful crimes in our homeland. Social cohesion validates security. Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015 is an urgent need for us as an essential part of building social cohesion. We are close to reaching the goal of no more than 3 per cent of children under the age of five being malnourished. We are determined to reach zero and are now beginning to provide early schooling to those children.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Our work with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and with the Organization of American States on the policy of truth, justice and redress for victims must, along with our historic memory, heal wounds and help to extinguish the flames of violence forever. There are intangible results of democratic security. Citizens have greater faith in the State and turn to it for protection, overcoming the past indifference of some and the inclination of many to solve problems by their own means. Additionally, we have recovered the State monopoly on weapons and on official justice. Citizens have lost their fear of denouncing others, testifying and cooperating with the armed forces and the justice system. Victims are no longer fearful and today are coming forward to claim their rights.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Furthermore, a formative, world-leading effort in human rights within our armed forces is crucial, as is the ongoing adjustment of operative protocols through such measures as that requiring soldiers to wait for the presence of a judicial delegate before moving the body of a member of a criminal organization killed in action. We are also resolved to investigate and assist in the investigation of any type of accusation and the modernization of military criminal legislation. On 10 December, our country will voluntarily submit our human rights record to the Universal Periodic Review, a new mechanism created by the United Nations that is an additional contribution to the public discussion of our new road map on the matter.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Of the approximately 60,000 terrorists that ravaged the country at the start of the Government’s term of office, 48,000 have abandoned their criminal organizations and joined the reintegration programme, which is a great challenge for Colombia. As of 08-51839 14 17 September this year, 2,436 guerrilla members — 2,147 of them from FARC — had been demobilized. In a democracy of opinion such as ours, the sustainability of democratic security depends on its credibility, which in turn is based on effectiveness and transparency. That transparency is tantamount to the observance of the fundamental human rights we all enjoy. From that foundation comes our respect for liberties in the midst of the fight against terrorism and for openness, vigilance, criticism and debate at the national and international levels.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In the past, terrorist organizations penetrated the labour movement, resulting in the murder of workers. The dismantling of the paramilitaries has eliminated that source of suffering, but terrorist guerrillas persist in committing such crimes, as recently happened in the south of the country with the murder of a group of teachers by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC). Recently, our tranquillity in the absence of terrorist attacks was shattered by a car bomb set off by FARC, which destroyed the palace of justice in the city of Cali and left several people dead and others injured, as well as many poor families with their small businesses and homes destroyed.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Of the 11,204 homicides committed as of 10 September, 36 were of workers and teachers affiliated with trade unions or independent teachers. To date, not a single journalist has been murdered. The Government grants individual protection to 8,612 citizens, 1,462 of whom belong to trade unions. Our determination to combat impunity is ongoing. Between 1991 and 2001, only two convictions were handed down. Thanks to efforts in recent years in terms of budgeting, the strengthening of the judicial system, the security policy and the tripartite agreement among workers, business leaders and the Government, sponsored by the International Labour Organization, 199 persons have been convicted for the murder of workers and 134 of them are in prison. Of the 123 sentences handed down, 85 have occurred in the past three years.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Speaking once again before the General Assembly, I would like to congratulate you on your election, Mr. President, and to wish you every success. Colombia continues to fight so that each and every citizen can trust that he or she will live, work, undertake projects, study and be happy in his or her homeland. That trust is sustained by democratic security, security for socially responsible investment and the construction of social cohesion. Crimes against the safety of citizens continue to decrease, but we are not satisfied. So far this year, the number of crimes has fallen by 30 per cent in comparison to the same period last year. We have prioritized the protection of union leaders, teachers and journalists.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We continue working for a society without exclusion and without class hatred, in permanent constructive debate; one that looks for options, that does not stagnate in insurmountable antagonisms, that is respectful of the Democratic Constitution and guided by a long-term vision, and that sustains itself on an inclusive dialogue every day. I thank the international community for all its support. I invite everyone to visit Colombia, to talk to our fellow countrymen and women, and to experience the collective spirit to fight for the greater happiness of future generations. Colombia should be known not through bad news, but rather through a great relationship with Colombians themselves. I reiterate the invitation to visit our country.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“I thank the United Nations system for all its support for Colombia, and I would like to highlight four areas. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has been the guarantor and supervisor of our forest-keeper families programme to protect the rainforest from the destructive threat of drug trafficking. The International Labour Organization carries out excellent work in our workers’ protection programme. We have extended the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to maintain its presence in Colombia for the remainder of my Government’s term of office. Furthermore, various United Nations entities provide valuable support in the task of assisting displaced people.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“With indigenous communities, we have advanced in the construction of a series of villages that compose a barrier for the complete recovery of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Our new forest law prohibits the destruction of the rainforest and changes in land use. Colombia has 578,000 square kilometres of tropical forest, which constitutes a lung of the planet. We will soon have 80,000 forest-keeper families, who are remunerated by the State and are committed to abandoning illicit drug production and to supervising the recovery of destroyed forests. One national objective is the production of bio-fuels, for which we have 44 million hectares of savannah, which will allow greater development, initially in sugarcane and African palm, without jeopardizing food security or destroying a single square millimetre of rainforest.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We aim in the next three years to meet the goal of universal access to health services. We are working hard to fulfil, during the current four-year period, the target of providing 5 million microcredits to an equal number of families with scarce resources, as a basic strategy to overcome factors of exclusion. We have gone from 3.7 million to 9 million children who have benefited from our food programmes; we expect to reach 12 million in 2010. Our programme “Together”, undertaken to eliminate extreme poverty, combines a variety of social tools to cover 1.5 million families. We reaffirm our commitment to fighting global warming. We have gone from 37,000 natural gas vehicles to nearly 300,000. We have moved forward in the construction of mass transportation systems in nine cities to reduce individual transportation.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We have multiplied by a factor of 10 the budget to protect them. The phenomenon remains, but has shown a significant reduction. Today, Colombians feel more confident. The investment rate has risen from 12 per cent of gross domestic product to 26 per cent. Deficit and indebtedness are moving towards a net reduction. Unemployment, which stood at around 20 per cent, is now at 11 per cent, and we are struggling to lower it to 7 per cent. We are seeking to reduce poverty, which stood at close to 40 per cent, to a level no higher than 35 per cent in 2010. We are advancing towards the goal of achieving universal access to basic education. We have built an excellent technical training system. We have gone from 300,000 to 1.5 million families living in poverty that receive a subsidy for their children’s nutrition and education.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The dismantling of paramilitarism, the weakening of the guerrillas, the restoration of effective guarantees for democracy beyond rhetoric, and the protection of a free press in a country where 15 journalists were once murdered in a year this year there has been one case are results that allow us to look the world in the eye and demand full support for our democratic security policy. Today there is no paramilitarism. There are guerrillas and drug traffickers. The term “paramilitary” was coined to refer to private criminal organizations whose objective was to combat guerrillas. Today, the sole entity that combats guerrillas is the State, which has recovered the monopoly it should never have lost. With the backing of the United Nations, we are striving to assist displaced persons and to restore their dignity.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“President Chávez has invited some congressmen from the United States to join him at that meeting, with my Government’s support and suggestion that the American delegation be bipartisan so as to preserve a bipartisan approach in its relations with Colombia. We celebrate the positive willingness of the Government of the United States. We have established certain reservations in order to defend our democracy’s higher interests, and we encourage both President Chávez and Senator Piedad Córdoba in their tasks because we are committed to the release of those being held hostage.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Colombia will not permit the recovery of its legitimate and democratic sovereignty to be frustrated by restoring national or international space to the murdering power of terrorism. If terrorists want to be involved in politics, they have to renounce their bloody activities and submit to the Constitution. Recently, the Government gave its permission to Senator Piedad Córdoba, who is in the opposition to the Government, to play a role as facilitator of the humanitarian agreement. We also accepted the help of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who will meet shortly with representatives of FARC.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The only answer from the terrorists has been the treacherous murder of 11 assemblymen from Valle del Cauca, who were held hostage for more than five years, and the ongoing assassinations of defenders of democracy, such as those perpetrated last Saturday, in which the victim was Julio César Marentes and Alberto Martínez Barbosa, two candidates for mayor in Villarrica and Río Blanco, Department of Tolima, and members of a political party from the Government’s coalition. The options open for the release of kidnapping victims including a French female citizen who is also Colombian, and three American citizens are not options for the political positioning of terrorism.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The country was without law and order for many years, and with no security, which allowed its almost complete takeover by guerrillas and paramilitaries. Citizens do not want terrorists; they plead for the exclusive presence of the State in all regions. We are open to a humanitarian agreement, but we cannot allow demilitarized zones, which are ultimately concentration camps run by terrorists, nor can we permit those who are released from prison to return to crime, since it would be an affront to the sacrifice of the country’s soldiers and police. We have unilaterally freed 177 FARC members, as well as Rodrigo Granda, a high-ranking member of that organization, who was freed at the request of the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. We have given our consent for many people and institutions to be facilitators.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We will not refuse to negotiate with them if they cease their violent actions, but we will not allow for negotiation to become a trap that enables the destruction of our democracy. We have achieved the demobilization of 46,000 members of different factions and we are carrying out a costly and complex reintegration process with them that requires truth, justice and redress for the victims. Thus, I now turn to the humanitarian agreement to free kidnapped people being held by terrorists of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia Ejército del Pueblo (FARC). Most of those were kidnapped before or during the time of the Caguan demilitarized zone, which lasted 42 months. We do not understand why FARC should ask for a demilitarized zone to release the kidnapped when it had that option for so long and did not free them.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“There are 86,347 registered candidates of 235 different political origins to fill 18,332 posts by direct election. This is happening in a country that, five years ago, was facing 60,000 terrorists, and where about 11,000 still remain. To fight them, we deepen democracy instead of restricting it, protect liberties instead of suppressing them, and stimulate dissent instead of silencing it. Our fight against terrorism is being observed by national and international critics, who can be in the country and say what they please without restriction. Our democratic practice gives us the political authority to say that those who take up arms financed by illicit drugs are not insurgents against oppression but terrorists against liberty.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Overcoming that scourge once and for all is an inalienable objective of our democratic security policy. In that regard, our three Government objectives are to consolidate democratic security, strengthen investor confidence, and achieve our social programme, which is more ambitious than the millennium social goals that we hope to meet before the date set by the United Nations. With regard to democratic security, we are winning, but we have not won yet. With persistence and transparency, Colombia will overcome terrorism financed by illicit drugs. We have a long-lived, respectable and ever-deepening democracy. We are approaching the fifth electoral contest presided over by my Government, and the transparency and effectiveness of the guarantees offered to all contenders are increasingly evident.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Reports on the progress made, submitted by the ILO office in Colombia, have been positive. Allow me to affirm before the United Nations that murders and kidnappings have been the work of terrorists. First, it was the Marxist guerrillas who, in introducing their perverse scheme of a so-called combination of all forms of struggle, murdered, kidnapped and penetrated sectors of workers, students, politicians and journalists. Then came the paramilitaries, and they did the same, murdering workers and accusing them of collaborating with the guerrillas, which in reciprocity murdered those whom they believed to be friends with the paramilitaries. In certain parts of the country, the confrontation between the two guerrilla factions that still exist leads to the murder of workers.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“This year, there are 6,714 Colombians with individual protection from the State, of which almost 1,200 are workers belonging to trade unions, at a budgetary cost of almost $39 million. In our struggle against impunity, between the budgets for 2002 and 2008 we will have increased the resources for the judicial branch and for the Attorney General’s office by 76 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively. The budget for the special unit of the Attorney General’s office devoted to cases of the murder of trade unionists has increased by 40 per cent. The unit oversees more than 300 cases prioritized by trade union movements. The fight against impunity for the murder of unionized workers is being carried out under the guidelines of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in agreement between Government, workers and employers.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Our per capita income has gone from $1,851 to $3,517. After adjustment in terms of purchasing power, it has increased from $6,468 to $9,456. For the first time in decades, the Gini coefficient of income distribution has started to improve. From the first day of my Government, with our democratic security policy we made the decision not to tolerate the murder of any Colombian and to defeat impunity. The security situation has improved substantially. In 2002, Colombia suffered 29,000 homicides, of which 196 were perpetrated against trade unionists, and we closed 2006 with a 40 per cent reduction in general violence and a 70 per cent reduction in violence against trade unionists.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We provide every space for private initiative with social responsibility, which must be expressed in the transparency of relations between investors and the State, in entrepreneurial solidarity with the community beyond the legal minimums, and in labour relations framed by fraternity, contrary to savage capitalism and class struggle. In sectors such as electricity, metallurgy and health, we have encouraged participatory trade unionism, with simultaneous responsibility in the social field and entrepreneurial management, distinct from traditional entitlement organization. We have increased by 40 per cent the affiliation of workers to social security through the improved performance of the economy and our fight against evasion. In the past five years, the minimum wage has grown by 8 per cent above inflation.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Allow me to congratulate Mr. Kerim on his election as President of the General Assembly and to wish him the greatest success in his work. After five years in office, we come to the General Assembly once again to inform members on issues crucial to Colombian democracy. We have rejected the dismantling of the State and refuse to enter into a statism that would wither private initiative. We have reformed 420 State entities and are determined to work to that end until the last day of our Government. We seek a more efficient State at the service of the community and not owned by political machinations, union excesses or interest groups. We are committed to the development of an entrepreneurial society, in opposition to State or private monopolies, in a nation with a consensus centred on productivity, discipline and equity.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)