YouSaid · the spoken record

Carrillo Flores

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS CARRILLO FLORES

lines on the record: 138
first: 1965-09-24
most recent: 1970-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“Since the chief function of the United Nations, the very reason justifying its creation and its continuing existence, is to defend peace, it is vital for us to concern ourselves with the measures that the United Nations itself or its regional bodies might be able to adopt to divert the instinct for aggression that modern studies have shown to. be inherent in the human species into channels other than armed conflict. I would therefore repeat a suggestion that I had the honour to submit to the General Assembly in 1965: the possibility of initiating, preferably in a regional context, serious efforts to examine and ultimately to agree on measures of disarmament between the non-nuclear Powers, most of which are developing countries. 21.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“We States Parties to the Treaty of Tlatelolco also hope that the nuclear Powers will heed the appeals of this General Assembly and make their valuable contribution by signing and ratifying Additional Protocol II, by which they would undertake to respect the military denuclearization status of Latin America. 20. One basic feature of our times, of special interest to the middle-sized and smaller countries, is the apparent tendency to dissociate local conflicts from direct confrontation between the major Powers. This must reassure us as human beings but at the same time oblige us to recognize another fact: that relief of tension and an agreement between the nuclear Powers on disarmament would not necessarily mean that wars: would no longer break out anywhere in the world.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The peoples and Governments that have striven so hard for the success of this generous undertaking now hope that the countries of the region that have not yet acceded to the Treaty will do so, in order that what has been achieved may be made still more effective, According to best opinions we have been able to obtain, we have reason to say that, on account of both the cost and the risks of contamination which their use entails in the present state of technology, a country which renounces the carrying out of nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes with its own resources will be sacrificing none of its true opportunities for economic development; especially if we bear in mind that the benefits to be derived from such explosions will be available to it through an appropriate international body. 19.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“It is equally worth pointing out that what has already been achieved is truly impressive, for the territories of the fourteen members of OPANAL—the Agency’s Spanish acronym—where the régime of total exclusion of nuclear weapons is fully in force cover more than 5.5 million square kilometres and have a population of about 100 million. 17. Besides the military denuclearization of Latin America, the Treaty aims at encouraging the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, to speed up the economic and social development of the Latin-American nations. We therefore hope that OPANAL will foster that international co-operation which will give the Latin-American countries fuller access to nuclear technology, especially to those aspects most in keeping with their needs. 18.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The first of the objectives we are pursuing is itself twofold: to relieve the countries of Latin America which are present on future parties to the Treaty of the risk that they might become targets of nuclear attacks; and to prevent their resources—so scanty compared with the region’s tremendous needs—from being squandered on the manufacture of nuclear weapons. 16. It should be stressed that the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which created the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, was conceived to protect a whole sub-continent, with an area of more than 20 million square kilometres and a population of some 260 million human beings.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“From 2 to 9 September there took place in Mexico City the first meeting of the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, the culmination of nearly five years’ effort pursued jointly by the Latin American countries. The Agency’s object is to supervise the observance of the Treaty of Tlatelolco and compliance with its two fundamental aims: to ensure the total exclusion of nuclear weapons from the territories to which it applies; and to promote equitably the peaceful use of the atom in the region. At the inaugural session we had the honour of having with us U Thant, who said something for which we are deeply grateful: “In a world that too often seems dark and foreboding, the Treaty of Tlatelolco will shine as a beacon light.” 15.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The present negotiations in the Committee itself should therefore lead to the transmission to this Assembly of a draft which will enable the Members of the United Nations to state their views on this matter, which in differing degree is important to all. Whatever the content of the draft might be it seems to us essential that it should faithfully reflect the general feeling already expressed in the General Assembly’s debates that the exploration, use and exploitation of the sea-bed and ocean floor should be reserved exclusively for peaceful purposes. 14. My country’s capital has recently witnessed an event which we are sure will be significant in the history of international efforts to achieve peace and disarmament.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The Government of the United Kingdom submitted a draft convention banning the production, stockpiling and use of biological but not of chemical weapons. Two points in that draft treaty seem to us both valuable and useful: its ingenious system of control in the form of a “complaints procedure” to deal with suspicious events, similar to that already adopted in the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and secondly its application both to production and to stockpiling. Mexico hopes that in the coming year the Disarmament Committee will complete the preparation of a draft treaty to prohibit the manufacture, stockpiling and use of both these types of weapon. 13. We think that the prevention of an armaments race-on the sea-bed is another item on the agenda of the Disarmament Committee for which the time is already ripe for the conclusion of a treaty.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“We therefore believe that the time has come for the Disarmament Committee to intensify its efforts to reach an agreement to prohibit underground nuclear testing, which today is the major incentive in the nuclear race. 11. There is a well-justified world-wide outcry against chemical and biological weapons. The provisions of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which only prohibits their use, are not enough. A treaty prohibiting their production and stockpiling should be drafted as soon as possible. At the same time it seems urgent that those States which have not yet done so should accede to the Geneva Protocol. In regard to the scope of that Protocol, we are in favour of its widest possible interpretation. 12.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“There has been such an advance in the techniques of long-distance detection and identification of underground explosions and seismic phenomena that an agreement to prohibit them would no longer have to depend on complicated systems of international inspection. The studies and proposals by Sweden, Japan and Canada show that it might not be impossible to overcome the problem of on-site inspection which has always held up agreement. True, it is still theoretically possible that the one observation may be confused with the other below a certain magnitude; but international relations must be based on actual possibilities, not on absolute data. Perfection does not belong to the world of politics. The risk of detection would be so great that it is hardly conceivable that either party would take the foolhardy decision to violate the treaty.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“We also proposed that the General Assembly should address an urgent appeal to both parties to start negotiations for a moratorium, which could be renewable, on all testing and deployment of new launching systems for offensive and defensive nuclear weapons not yet operational. Allow me from this rostrum to stress how overwhelmingly important it is that the General Assembly, the most fully representative body of the world community, should urge a halt to such tests before it is too late. 10. We feel that the problem of underground nuclear tests is not quite the same today as when the Moscow Treaty was signed in 1963.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Of course we understand the grave problems and difficulties faced by the nuclear Powers in agreeing on measures of disarmament which might vitally affect their security; we recognize as a hard, inescapable reality that no measure which might upset the balance that seems at present to exist would be practicable. 9. In line with this way of thinking, Mexico expressed its view on the urgent need for the two chief nuclear Powers to start negotiations as soon as possible for the ultimate abolition of systems for launching nuclear weapons, and pointed out the grave risk of missing an historic opportunity which might never recur.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Almost at the same time the United States and Soviet Governments announced their agreement to discuss the limitation and reduction of nuclear-weapon launching systems. 7. Unfortunately, more than a year later these intentions have not yet been translated into facts. Those conversations have not begun; and, partly in consequence, negotiation on the other aspects of nuclear disarmament is virtually at a standstill, This situation may explain why, in the fifteen months during which the non-proliferation Treaty has been open for signature, only eighteen States have ratified it. The delay in opening negotiations on nuclear disarmament may endanger the very existence of the Treaty. I say this as the representative of a country which has already ratified it. 8.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Our first duty is that we should all go on co-operating, each to the measure of his ability and his responsibility, to lift the menace which, though fortunately much remoter today than it was a few years ago, still casts a shadow over our planet: a major confrontation, inevitably nuclear, between the super-Powers. 6. This leads me to speak of disarmament. About the middle of last year, disarmament negotiations seemed to have taken a promising turn. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)] was opened for signature. This treaty aimed not only at limiting the number of States to possess nuclear weapons, but also by its article VI, proposed by Mexico, obliged the Powers which now suffer the sad privilege of possessing them to begin negotiations on nuclear disarmament in the near future.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The agenda for this session, as for all the sessions that have gone before, reflects better than any other document the present fears and hopes of mankind; for the next three months the most experienced diplomats of these 126 countries will be dealing with those hopes and fears and with the problems they entail. As far as Mexico is concerned, I will confine myself in this statement to a few subjects that seem to me of primary importance and appropriate to this general debate. 5. It is hardly necessary to say that the first subject is peace.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The fact is that the United Nations is more—much more—than these solemn meetings of the General Assembly, or the meetings of the Security Council, or the meetings of its many component specialized agencies and regional bodies. It was created by a generation which had learnt that wars could no longer replace policy or diplomacy, and is a setting for many opportunities, much the most important of which are the sessions of the General Assembly, where the representatives of 126 countries—enormous, large, middle-sized, small and minute—meet to consider, to discuss and often to negotiate on the innumerable questions raised by the coexistence of peoples. 4.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“To the very end he discharged the heavy duties of the presidency of the General Assembly’s last session, which we had entrusted to Sim, not only with ability but also with exemplary devotion and enthusiasm. 3. The United Nations, which will soon be celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, is the international political organization which has had the longest continuous life, and the only one which we may reasonably hope will succeed in bringing together all mankind. Our President and the Secretary-General have rightly referred to the very grave questions facing us at this moment; but we should be encouraged by one thing: no one has even thought that the United Nations should disappear.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“1. Madam President, allow me to congratulate you most cordially on behalf of the Mexican Government and delegation. The General Assembly has wisely entrusted the direction of its work to an experienced diplomatist who knows the potentialities and limitations of the United Nations through and through, a woman representing a country whose history and very name recall the centuries-old struggle for freedom. Our choice shows that within the United Nations, respect for human rights is already an everyday reality. 2. I should like at the same time to pay a heartfelt tribute to the memory of Mr. Emilio Arenales, whose premature death was a loss mourned not only by his own country, the Republic of Guatemala, but by all Latin. America and especially Mexico.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“We likewise feel sure that everyone, participants and spectators, when they return home from my country at the close of the games, will be able to bear witness to having lived, even if only for a short time, in a community which, while not isolated from the problems and tensions of these days of transition and crisis, of challenge and hope, has long taken pride in seeking to establish friendly ties with all peoples, races and shades of opinion throughout the world, provided that they love peace and are prepared to help towards bringing equality among men to an every-day reality.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Thanks to the generous participation of the majority of nations, we have been able to exhibit on the plain of Anáhuac, to the delight and admiration of the inhabitants and foreign visitors, many of mankind’s finest achievements in his constant search for beauty in all forms, animate or inanimate, plastic or immaterial, from the earliest times up to the present. 29. In reiterating its thanks, from this rostrum, to the nations which have contributed to the events now taking place, Mexico pledges that it will live up to the commitment which has been assumed.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Young men and women of more than 100 countries, without distinction as to race, belief or ideology — a point which acquires a symbolic value in this International Year for Human Rights — will be meeting in clean competition for the honour of returning home, some bearing honours, the rest with the satisfaction of having tried their utmost to set the youth of the entire world an example which may encourage future generations to attain better physical and spiritual standards than those of the present generation. As a parallel celebration, a very successful “Cultural Olympics” has been in progress for a number of months.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“As a specific instance, I would refer to the joint United States-Soviet proposal, submitted only a few weeks ago in the Economic and Social Council, that all States, large and small, rich and poor, take part in the study and possible utilization of the resources of the sea-bed and ocean floor beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. We can only hope that the same spirit, and the spirit which made possible the treaty on the peaceful uses of outer space [resolution 2222 (XXI), annex] , could be extended to other regions. 27. In conclusion, I should like to make, on instructions from the President of Mexico, a brief final statement. 28. Next week, in my country’s capital city, the nineteenth Olympic Games will begin.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“What has not yet been achieved — perhaps because the States which are the most representative of the systems concerned have not been able to develop any fruitful co-operation among themselves — is the extension of the benefits of such progress to the countries which are often euphemistically referred to as “developing” and which account for the majority of mankind. 26. However, we prefer to believe — and no one can believe unless he wishes to do so — that there are signs on the horizon of the co-operation which is to come.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Although those agreements, important though they may be, are not so vitally significant — for reasons which I need not enter into now — for our country as for others, Mexico nevertheless reiterates its hope that they will be complied with. 25. Even though they have different concepts of the relations between man and the community, the world’s two great economic and political systems have shown - and why should this not be acknowledged? — that they can be effective in promoting the extraordinary technological progress and consequent economic development which has taken place in many countries.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“24. The results of the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development were, as the Secretary-General aptly noted [A/7201/Add.1, para. 84], below expectations, since the negotiation stage was not reached; several agreements of particular significance were, however, reached. In particular, the Conference agreed in principle that non-reciprocal preferences should be granted to the poor countries under a system which would start at the beginning of 1970, and that the flow of financial assistance from high-income to low-income countries should be increased up to a minimum net total equivalent to 1 per cent of the gross national product of the former.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“These formulas, while taking into account the differences which exist between the poorer countries themselves, should, in our opinion, cover at least the following questions: (1) The modernization of social structures — the task of each nation, but one in which the international community can co-operate by providing guidance, when so requested; (2) The implementation of projects necessary to raise productivity and improve standards of living, with the attendant transfer — under conditions which do not imply any anachronistic subordination — of resources and technology from the developed to the developing areas; (3) The opening up or expansion or guarantee of markets — in conditions of reasonable stability and fair prices — for the products of the developing countries; (4) If we may take a longer-term and perhaps Utopian view — a system of world-wide social security, which would reproduce at the international level a process which, on a national scale, has enabled urban economies to guarantee to country-dwellers a certain income level in keeping with the minimum earnings generally obtained in the towns.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Without underestimating the gravity of a number of conflicts which are causing us concern at the present time, we are all convinced that the key to peace for this generation—and unquestionably for the next one—is the finding of formulas that will meet the elementary aspirations of communities which have scarcely begun to feel the benefits of today’s astounding technology. 23.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Since such signature is — except for any States which renounce it — a prerequisite for the entry into force of the Treaty, it would make possible the effective denuclearization of a sub-continent in which more than 250 million human beings live. 21. I do not intend to deal with the many items which are on the agenda of the present session; that is not the purpose of the general debate. Accordingly, on economic questions I shall merely say that in the so-called developing countries there are increasingly grave symptoms of disquiet arising from profound causes which could create new threats to peace. 22. The decade of 1960-1969 is drawing to a close in an atmosphere of frustration; it is a period which the United Nations, at a time which we thought was auspicious, called the “Development Decade”.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Gromyko, declared its willingness — which the Government of Mexico greatly appreciates — to respect the status of denuclearization already in force in my country, as part of a general policy which supports the creation of a denuclearized zone covering one or more countries. I said at the time, and I repeat, that my Government, ready to accept whatever assurances are offered to our nation by the nuclear Powers, will continue in its endeavours to convince the two which are at present represented in the United Nations that the signing of the Protocol in question is in no way harmful to their interests and indeed would be a gesture welcomed throughout Latin America.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Some other States have announced their intention to ratify it shortly and I am happy to inform the Assembly that in Mexico and the last four of the countries just mentioned the Treaty is already in force. 20. With regard to the additional protocols to the Treaty, Additional Protocol I — open to extra-continental States which are responsible for certain territories in our region — was signed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Additional Protocol II — wherein nuclear Powers undertake to respect the status of denuclearization of Latin America — was signed by the United Kingdom and the United States. The Soviet Union, at the time of my visit to Moscow in May 1968 at the kind invitation of my colleague, Mr.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It will be recalled that the General Assembly [resolution 2286 (XXII)] welcomed that instrument “with special satisfaction” and proclaimed that it “constitutes an event of historic significance in the efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to promote international peace and security”. The General Assembly, furthermore, called upon all States to co-operate in order to ensure that the Treaty speedily obtained the widest possible application and the régime laid down in it enjoyed “the universal observance to which its lofty principles and noble aims entitle it". 19. So far, five ratifications, in addition to that of Mexico, have been received — from Brazil, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Honduras.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“race, it will be very difficult for the Treaty on Non-Proliferation to become a reality, despite the goodwill of the many countries, such as my own, which, regardless of the decisions taken by others, have unconditionally renounced the right ever to possess such weapons. 17. For this reason, Mexico, while not exaggerating what Latin America can do, accords priority interest to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, or the Treaty of Tlatelolco — named after the old quarter of my country’s capital city where it was opened for signature in February 1967 — which my delegation had the privilege of submitting to this Assembly last year. 18.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Furthermore—as I said when we were honoured by a visit from the Secretary-General, U Thant, to Mexico in August 1966 — by a fortunate paradox, such weapons, like poison gas during the Second World War, have become useless, for no State will dare to use them in the future, not only because it would be condemned by humanity but for another reason; after a non-nuclear war the vanquished States can make a spectacular recovery, and some have done so, but in a nuclear conflict no one knows whether there will even be a victor. 16. We must acknowledge that, if urgent negotiations are not begun with a view to reducing, or at least slowing down the nuclear arms.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Mexico, which has signed the Treaty and submitted it to its Senate for approval, considers that recent events, although they may have damped our earlier hopes of having entered a phase of lessening international tensions, do not justify abandoning or postponing the steps needed to bring the Treaty into force. The more acute the tensions become, the more urgent and imperative it is to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. 15. Nevertheless, we may affirm, as Mexico has affirmed already at the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament and at the Conference of Non-Nuclear-Weapon States, that it would be intolerable if the Treaty on Non-Proliferation served only to institutionalize and prolong indefinitely the present situation in which certain States have the monopoly of those evil weapons.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Again on the subject of the peaceful settlement of disputes, Mexico shares the view of the Secretary-General that States should endeavour to have wider recourse to the services of the International Court of Justice in dealing with problems which fall within its competence [A/7201/Add.1, para. 168]. 14. In a year in which the international situation has undeniably worsened gravely, perhaps the most positive and encouraging event has been the conclusion of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [General Assembly resolution 2373 (XXII), annex] after patient efforts, in which my country diligently took part, to reconcile often-opposing interests and to resolve situations of antagonism. The number of States which have signed the Treaty is considerable, but it is still far from becoming a working reality.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Thus the Security Council would proceed on the lines of constant bold experiment, outside which we can never hope to keep political solutions adjusted to the requirements of such a rapidly changing world. 12. The formula which my Government suggests does not entail any change in the provisions of the Charter; it is simply an appeal to the super-Powers to realize with healthy realism that in this latter part of the twentieth century no State, however powerful, can claim that all disputes should be settled in accordance with its views. I repeat: we do not claim — for it would be absurd to do so — that a super-Power should allow the Security Council to impose on it solutions detrimental to its supreme interests. That would unleash war, and we have agreed that the basic aspiration of the United Nations is to maintain peace. 13.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For that reason, having acknowledged that our Organization was created with a clear awareness of the special role to be played by the great Powers, I now draw attention to the necessity that, in matters relating to the settlement of disputes, the permanent members of the Security Council should make more use of abstention as a formula in the service of peace, in accordance with the interpretation given over the past twenty years to Article 27 (3) of the Charter. Abstention from voting on certain resolutions would leave the door open to many possibilities in whose favour the great Powers would not be in a position to vote on account of their commitments, or for reasons of prestige, or for any other reason other than the defence of their own supreme interests.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“However, it also believes that, with the changes made in the composition of the Security Council by the new text of Article 23 of the Charter, the Council can and should make a more effective contribution to understanding among the Member States, in the knowledge that, as Mr. Arenales, the President, said in his inaugural speech [1674th meeting, para. 56], the United Nations is not a super-State; that we do not wish it to be a super-State; and that consequently its weaknesses and limitations will, in the final analysis, always be the responsibility of its Member States. 11.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Furthermore the Geneva meeting which has just ended made it clear that a kind of impatient solidarity is developing among the non-nuclear States which — again regardless of ideological lines — may eventually divide the world into two heterogeneous blocs, one of States having nothing in common but the sad privilege of possessing nuclear weapons and the other of States having nothing in common but the mistrust which stems from the fear of having to accept whatever formulae may be agreed upon between the super-Powers, whether reasonable or not. 10. Mexico is conscious of its obligations to the Organization and acknowledges that the Security Council has a vital task to perform in maintaining international peace and security.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For several years now, the tensions between East and West have been accompanied — as the New Delhi Conference, to which I shall refer later, confirmed once again — by tensions between North and South, between the prosperous and the poor peoples: tensions that have little or nothing to do with ideological conflicts, although ideologies often take it upon themselves to make such clashes more serious and more acute.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The reaction which, transcending ideologies or political commitments, has been aroused whenever these principles have been flouted shows that those principles are becoming ever more deeply rooted in the soil from which, in the final analysis, the rules governing co-existence between nations draw their substance — the conscience of mankind. 8. At the stage now reached by the United Nations as a result of the liquidation of the old empires and the admission of many new States to membership in the Organization, everything points to the fact that understanding among the great Powers — to which the Charter of San Francisco, with unexceptionable realism, entrusted the main responsibility for the maintenance of peace, giving them special rights and responsibilities in the Security Council — is necessary but not sufficient to prevent war. 9.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“As the spokesman for a nation of no great economic or political power and still less military might, I declare here, in the highest forum of the international community, that we desire peace above all else but are convinced that, if such peace is to be stable, lasting and just, it must be based on respect for the rights of all peoples—especially the right to self-determination, which is the basis of the others. Self-determination requires, in turn, the observance by all States — big, medium and small — of the principle of non-intervention, which was defined so clearly, and so consistently with the problems of our time, in the historic Declaration made by this Assembly in December 1965 [resolution 2131 (XX)].”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“5. Finally — and this is the decisive argument in its favour — there is no better alternative which might warrant abandoning or weakening this Organization. 6. My Government believes that, of all the highly important objectives set by the San Francisco Charter, the most urgent is the maintenance of peace. If a new world conflagration were to break out, all the other objectives, even the most noble, would become unattainable. In this connexion, despite recent events, Mexico continues to believe that many circumstances combine to render increasingly improbable a nuclear confrontation between the Powers which possess those terrible weapons of mass destruction — weapons already condemned in a memorable resolution of this Assembly in 1961 [resolution 1653 (XVI)] — although it would be unduly optimistic to think that the danger has passed. 7.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“that, as a peace-keeping mechanism, it is far from being even moderately satisfactory, let alone ideal; it has not been able to prevent the outbreak of local conflicts in various parts of the world, and there are other conflicts which are outside its jurisdiction because they involve peoples or States that are not Members of the United Nations. On the other hand, there have been others — I cannot stop to discuss them in the brief statement I intend to make—in which the United Nations has exercised, and continues to exercise, a moderating and constructive influence. 4. Furthermore the United Nations is a forum — or rather a series of forums, since in addition to this Assembly there are specialized and regional bodies — where peoples who, a few quinquennia ago, could play only a passive role in international affairs may now have a hearing.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Manescu, the outgoing President who, with remarkable skill and especial care, led the General Assembly through the long and complicated session that ended a few days ago, and on whose profound knowledge of international affairs representatives were able to rely at all times. 3. This Assembly is beginning a new session at a time when there are contradictory signs on the international scene — a circumstance to be expected in a world in crisis. It is encouraging, therefore, to recognize — and I realize that this has been said many times before — that, whereas the League of Nations, twenty years after its foundation, was unable to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War, our Organization in drawing close to its quarter-century and, with all its flaws, is alive and still growing. It is true.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“1. First of all, Mr. President, it is my pleasant duty to convey to you on behalf of the President of my country his most affectionate congratulations. The General Assembly has had the wisdom to entrust the direction of its work to a diplomat of many eminent qualities, the Foreign Minister of a country — the Republic of Guatemala — which pursues with admirable persistence the highest aspiration of Latin America: to combine social and economic progress with the maintenance of democratic institutions and fundamental human rights. Furthermore, for Mexico, our community of origin and of blood and our geographical proximity make your election a special source of satisfaction. 2. I should also like to extend my congratulations to Mr.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“I shall conclude by repeating the wish expressed by the President of Mexico, Mr. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, in his statement to his people on the anniversary of the start of our struggle for freedom and independence in September 1810; after the panegyric on our heroes, which is a long-standing tradition with us, he also extolled peace and friendship among all the peoples of the earth.”
1965-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 20 (1965)
“It accordingly holds that its economic development must be accompanied by respect for human rights and for the fundamental freedoms. The provisions of the Mexican Constitution, which emerged from the revolution, leave no room for doubt. Time and again we have chosen the path of freedom and we do not accept that national progress justifies any deprivation of personal rights. 104. My Government hopes that, now that last year's serious constitutional crisis has been overcome the United Nations will exercise to the full its function as a forum in which the most serious international questions are raised and. discussed, and that its organs and specialized agencies may develop into a system of growing effectiveness, authority and prestige, directed towards the fulfilment of the noble purposes of the San Francisco Charter. 105.”
1965-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 20 (1965)
“We noted at the last session of the Trade and Development Board that there was a strong body of opinion in favour of establishing the headquarters of the Conference in the capital of a developing country and we have therefore made it known that we would be delighted if Mexico City were chosen, since it is fortunate enough to combine the facilities — in the important matter of communications, among others — of one of the world's major capitals with the social environment of a country which has for almost half a century been encouraging economic development in social justice. 103. Since its independence, Mexico has believed that its greatness is founded on the welfare of its citizens, on the peaceful development of its own personality and on its efforts to make freedom prevail throughout the world.”
1965-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 20 (1965)
“We must press the demand, made at Alta Gracia and approved at Geneva, that preferences should be granted for our exports of manufactures, a demand which is not incompatible with the further request that our primary commodities should be given preferential treatment, since we must not forget that the industrialized countries are the leading exporters of some of these same products. This was recommended by a group of United Nations experts which met here early in 1961. That recommendation deserves to be heeded. The industrialized nations should not begrudge the poor the primary commodity, market which is, in any event, essentially a very hard way of financing their development. 102.”
1965-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 20 (1965)