YouSaid · the spoken record

Roy Chaderton-Matos

lines on the record: 39
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2008-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
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

“Very soon next year, we hope to be able to say that the worst has past and that the perverse effects of the religion of the market will be replaced, God willing, on the global level, allowing us to move towards democracy, progress and social justice, ensuring peace among nations — among nations that are free and stand together, among nations that are united.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“That is incompatible with the defence, promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We prefer a Europe of light, integration and reconciliation to a Europe of shadows. We know that we are not at the end of history; we are not even at the beginning of the end of history. What we do know is that we are apparently at the close of a chapter of history, at the end of a neoliberal nightmare in which unbridled capitalism — as John Paul II described it — social violence and the persistent worldwide violation of all human rights prevailed. This afternoon, the House of Representatives of the United States of America took an historic decision whose effects will be felt throughout the world in the times to come.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We must remain vigilant to ensure that the Human Rights Council continues to operate on the basis of principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity without stigmatizing anyone and to promote constructive dialogue, without diversions about certification, cooperation without preconditions or vetoes, and respect for the particular circumstances of nations and regions, as well as for our diverse historical, cultural and religious pasts. We reject racist, xenophobic and discriminatory measures that clearly deny the human rights that should apply universally to all, including migrants. Criminalizing migrants and their families violates their fundamental rights. Measures such as the Return 25 08-53141 Directive approved by the European Parliament incite racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination and intolerance.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The reform process requires the adoption of measures to strengthen the authority of the General Assembly, including on matters of international peace and security, given that it is the principal deliberating, participatory and democratic body of the Organization. Venezuela supports the expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent membership of the Security Council, the abolishment of the antidemocratic post-war mechanism of the veto and the improvement of the Council’s working methods, so that it may be more transparent and accessible and so that never again will anyone resort to lying to the Council.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“That addiction to war is the only thing that can explain the fact that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, war-loving countries and alliances continued to chip away, day after day, at Russian democracy and to intrigue in the region against Moscow instead of abandoning their threats of war and trying to resolve the lack of trust that is the source of conflict and violence. It is a disgraceful situation that has not wanted for ignorant cowboys who think they are heroes. The Russian bear is awakening from its hibernation. How many human lives have we lost among Iraqis, Americans, Latin Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans? And how many lives could we save if the resources devoted to war and to the recovery of financial institutions were devoted instead to social investment?”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It has arrived at common positions on projects in the fields of energy, social affairs, finance, education, infrastructure, dispute resolution and defence, and has gone beyond mere talk to become part of daily life of the citizens of South America. The recent unanimous support of President Evo Morales and democracy in Bolivia is a good example of that. The President of the General Assembly, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, stated that more than a half of the peoples of the Earth languish in hunger and poverty while ever-increasing amounts of money are wasted on arms, wars, luxury items and totally superfluous and unnecessary goods.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which was established by Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominica, Honduras and Venezuela, is an initiative that brings together the abilities and strengths of its members to bring about structural change and the relationships necessary to achieve development and continue to exist as sovereign and just nations. Petrocaribe is an energy cooperation agreement proposed by the Government of Bolivia to resolve the asymmetries in the region between energy producers and consumers by means of a new, equitable and just system of trade between the countries of the Caribbean region. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is an ongoing political endeavour, which, in its short existence, has shown that it is politically effective and respects the sovereignty of peoples.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The number of people in extreme poverty has dropped in our country, and there has been an increase of 10.8 per cent in primary school attendance. Unemployment has dropped from 23 per cent to 7 per cent. In recent years, gross domestic product expenditures on health have increased by 57.1 per cent. We provide total coverage to those suffering from AIDS. The proportion of the population with access to drinking water has increased from 80 per cent in 1998 to 95 per cent in 2007. During the period from 1996 to 2007, infant mortality dropped from 23.4 to 13.4 per 1,000 live births. Venezuela has made major contributions to efforts for cooperation and complementarity between the countries of the South.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In order to build a new model for development on the basis of solidarity, social justice, equity, cooperation, respect for human rights and the participation of the people, Venezuela has a comprehensive social development policy based on the human being. The foundation of that policy is social missions undertaken through wide- ranging and free social and economic programmes to 08-53141 24 reach out to all sectors of society, with a particular emphasis on the most vulnerable, in order to guarantee the social and economic rights of our people in peace and democracy. With great satisfaction and humility, our country can share with the Assembly the progress we have achieved in implementing the Millennium Development Goals.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Close to 18 per cent more calories are produced per person than was the case in the 1960s, despite the increase in the total population. If sufficient food is produced in the world, how can we explain the fact that more than 850 million people now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, that 25,000 people die from hunger every day and that 18,000 of those are children? The Secretary-General has stated that development is in a state of emergency, and he continues to appeal for progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Venezuela promotes policies for social inclusion, public policies to ensure everyone’s rights.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his address to this Assembly at its 5th meeting, referred to the need for a new understanding on business ethics, with more compassion and less unconditional faith in the magic of the markets. Greed and consumerism have brought about climate change, the energy crisis, financial chaos and the food crisis. The world food crisis continues to expand. Food has become just a form of merchandise used to maximize profits, with the human right to food ignored. According to the statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization, global food production has consistently exceeded global population growth. That means that sufficient food is produced in the world to provide more than 2,800 calories every day to each of the world’s inhabitants.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In Ecuador, those groups will not accept the overwhelming popular support provided yesterday to President Correa’s draft constitution, so we will have to invite him to come in and join the axis of evil. In any case, there is not much to worry about when it comes to the leftist democracies. They are very modern, in the sense that they do not have religious or gender police, while on the other hand they are antiquated democracies, where those who gain the most votes come in first and are elected. The drama of poverty, social exclusion and uneven distribution of income still tyrannizes our countries. The current model of development is not sustainable. It endangers life, the planet and peace. As long as there is still hunger, our democracies and our environment are threatened. The time for profound and demanding changes has come.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Concerted efforts to undermine legitimate institutions are being launched and consolidated under fundamentalist doctrines. New witch hunts identify that phenomenon, and the fundamentalists of the right are embarking on well-coordinated and well-financed ventures while continuing to sign off on huge corporate deals. Such is the case with the Halliburton company, whose balance sheets are spattered with Arab and American blood. All the while, Al Qaeda is bigger than ever, and the weapons of mass destruction have still not been found. Homegrown right-wing and racist forces, emboldened by foreign support, do not recognize the legitimacy of new or renewed institutions and cause political and social instability and separatism. Look at Bolivia.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“That reminds me to some extent of Henry Ford, when he spoke of his great success in selling the Model T. He said “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”. Something similar is happening with the super-Power and its partners on our continent. Anyone who wins free and transparent elections monitored by credible international observers is accepted, provided that person is right-wing. Dissent is not accepted by some people in the global village. The new movements, which are supported by the majority of those who are excluded, are not welcome. The magnates of private media are themselves a threat to democracy and freedom, aligning themselves with the interests they serve, while poisoning the collective psyche of the more timid groups in society.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Nevertheless, they were welcomed into the so-called democratic club, since they adhered to unspoken patterns of political behaviour dictated by the global metropolis. 23 08-53141 It is a fact that today in Latin America elections are more participatory, more transparent and freer than ever. Nevertheless, the results are not welcomed when the winners have previously been labelled as villains by the imperial super-Power. The spectre of progressive democracy is lying in wait for the continent of social injustice. People are deciding their own destiny, as they should. But they are making this choice with a clear preference for leftist movements that offer a response to their circumstances. That does not suit the far right, which is no lover of democracy, as much as it claims to be.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Appreciation of and respect for those who are different is a guarantee of the fulfilment of the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. Democracy and peace should stem from creativity and the confidence generated by the variety of ideas, colours, interests and proposals. Progressive democracy has burgeoned in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly within the past 10 years, just as the continent has been undergoing profound social change. Long ago, during the sixties and seventies, the magic solution to attain the complete democracy and social progress that some preached was through free and transparent elections, although in certain select circumstances the elections were neither very democratic nor very transparent.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“On their televisions we do not see people of mixed races, nor indigenous people, nor Afro-Latin Americans unless they are playing the role of the servants. Hence the racist hatred against the indigenous majority in Bolivia. Racism is the most perverse form of discrimination. In the worst dictatorships and under persecution, it is possible to hide one’s thoughts, faith and political affiliation. But what one can never hide is the colour of one’s skin. Democracy, international social justice and peace cannot survive under the schemes of unilateralism and the muscular exercises of hegemonic powers. Dissent should not be punished but rather recognized as an expression of democratic and pacifist values.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The instruments of that campaign have a name: the Fox network in the United States, the Grupo de Diarios de América, the Inter American Press Association, the neocolonialist group Promotora de Informaciones, S.A., the El Pais daily, the Cadena de Ondas Populares de España (COPE) radio network of the blessed Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Spain, the El Mercurio daily in Chile, the El Universal daily in Mexico, the pro-coup Venezuelan television station Globovision, and many other lackeys of the international far right. That brings to mind a topic that no one talks about. Some people think that Nelson Mandela did away with apartheid. In the United States, the people we see on the television screens are like the people we see in the streets. Not so in Latin America, in Venezuela and in multi-ethnic Latin American countries.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“As a diplomat in those terrible days, I assumed that there would be complaints and condemnations from friendly Governments with good human-rights track records. Nothing of the sort happened. Venezuela was the pet project of Latin American democracies and, at the same time, a neoliberal laboratory whose failure had to be kept secret. The media accomplices of yesterday that kept these crimes secret are the same that today slander the democratic, peaceful, socialist revolutionary Venezuelan process led by President Hugo Chávez. In Venezuela we practice extreme democracy: extreme freedom of expression, extreme participation, extreme challenge to the neoliberal monster and extreme commitment to social justice, hence the international media campaign to attempt to slander and stifle democracy in Venezuela.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Since memory is fragile and the neoliberal global dictatorship uses private communications media to hide its crimes, allow me to recount a terrible event that occurred in the country that was the first lab rat for the most radical formula from Wall Street and the International Monetary Fund. I am speaking of my country, Venezuela. In only two days, in February 1989, a spontaneous people’s rebellion was mercilessly crushed. It was a protest against the application, without anaesthesia, of the magic formulas that the great financial centres imposed on us. Several non-governmental human rights organizations at the time registered thousands of deaths, but the official statistics recognized only 259 dead, without mentioning those who were injured or material damage — only 259 dead in two days.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“At the time of the French Revolution someone said “Freedom, how many crimes are committed in your name?” These days we could say “Free market, 08-53141 22 how much poverty, how much violence, how much torture, how many wars, how many invasions, how much oppression, how much social injustice is committed in your name?” We are, therefore, sympathetic with President Nicolas Sarkozy’s peace initiatives and his appropriate ideas about a regulated capitalism and a summit of countries affected by the financial crisis. Accustomed as we were to suffering the perverse effects of the brutal application of neoliberal policies, today we see the pain, anguish and anger of millions of our brothers in the United States. They have been swindled by upper-class criminals, an experience that we Venezuelans know well.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“A few years ago, a well-known academic, captivated by his own materialistic image, announced the end of history, claiming that we had reached not the fountain of eternal youth but the secret to eternal prosperity. Today, prompted by the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we qualify that thought as a curse that reflects the insensitivity of the most egotistical and corrupt.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“For Venezuelans, Latin Americans and Caribbeans, it is an honour, Sir, to have you as President of the General Assembly at this session. No one is a more authentic Christian than a progressive Christian. It is a risky position and one which requires sacrifice for a person like yourself, whose life has been a testament to his lofty values. Indeed, this criterion is valid for Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, animists, Hindus, atheists, and so on if their lives are a testament to their respective ethical obligations. There is another religion whose adherents and priests preach from their temples. It is the religion of neoliberalism, whose god is the market.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In a climate made cold by indifference and occasionally poisoned by hatred, how can one hope for the dawn of an era of peace, which only feelings of solidarity and of love can usher in?” That is how all Members of the Organization should concentrate our efforts to find the necessary means that will enable us to ensure peace and democracy at home and in the international community, availing ourselves of the best antidote to violence: social justice.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The fund is designed to be a consistent and innovative source for financing non- refundable resources coming from the reduction of military expenditures and money confiscated as a result of narco-trafficking and corruption. It will be an effective formula of international assistance to generate opportunities for economic and social progress in countries excluded from traditional financing schemes. Converging proposals make us optimistic in the light of this type of initiative. I conclude with a quotation from His Holiness John Paul II in 1994: “The world longs for peace and has a desperate need of peace. Yet wars, conflicts, increasing violence and situations of social unrest and endemic poverty continue to reap innocent victims and to cause divisions between individuals and peoples. At times peace appears a truly unattainable goal!”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The developing world is suffering from hunger, poverty and exclusion caused by an unjust economic system enveloped in the practices of savage neo-liberalism and in the globalized economy with an unfair scheme of commercial trade that generates unemployment, exploitation, inequality and resentment. It is a system that attacks the dignity of the human person. Its leaders are not accustomed to speaking of social justice in their statements. One initiative that the President of Venezuela has undertaken to fight poverty is the creation of an international humanitarian fund that we proposed at the International Conference on Financing for Development, held at Monterrey; at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held at Johannesburg; and once again in the General Assembly.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Four days ago, on behalf of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I deposited the ratification instruments of the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts. Yesterday, the Venezuelan Parliament made the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism a law of the Republic. We hope that the ratification procedure will be completed within the Organization of American States as soon as possible. Nevertheless, we must continue the frontal assault on the most widespread and destructive forms of terrorism: poverty and social exclusion.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“A year ago in this Hall, we condemned the abominable terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, in which we lost thousands of citizens of the United States and of other countries. That sudden holocaust was perhaps the product of religious fundamentalism, but it is unjust to single out the believers of one faith for acts of extremist minorities when other minorities of believers have also committed crimes against humanity in the name of the Lord. Terrorism destroys human lives, both of innocents and of combatants; it torments family members, friends and peoples. There is no good terrorism, not in the name of an ethnicity or of a nationality; not in the name of justice or of freedom; not in the name of God.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Sometimes, war turns into a death trap that causes harsher suffering than the suffering that, in theory, it intends to alleviate. Sometimes, it brings other wars, more violence and more terrorism. Use of force by the State should not be undertaken at the discretion of those who happen to be interested at the time. The responsibility of the Organization’s Members is collective, as the international security that we want to protect and guarantee must be. We all desire a better world for future generations, and why not for ourselves? We are all protagonists in this world drama; hegemonies appear archaic and authoritarian. Our objective is a strengthened, universal and democratic Organization.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“In that conviction, we assumed the responsibility of chairing the Group of 77 last year and the Group of 15, whose summit meeting we will hold next year in my country. There are mechanisms through which the developing world is expressing its multilateral voice and its aspirations to the universal common good and to international social justice. 37 Historical developments since 1945 require that we have a more democratic and more representative Security Council. We must strengthen the General Assembly given its democratic and participatory nature. We want the Economic and Social Council to be the powerful organ that it has not been allowed to be. The Charter of the United Nations cannot be tailored to suit unilateral conveniences. War is not a romantic adventure that brings us to a happy ending in which the superheroes defeat the villains.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“This year, our activities in the General Assembly are overclouded by the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, where so many faithful servants of the Organization lost their lives, by the aftermath of the war and the tense situation existing in the Middle East and by the alarming world poverty indices, a scenario that leads us to profound reflection and demands that we strengthen the Organization’s capacity to respond. Venezuela’s action has been aimed at restoring and promoting multilateralism as a means and a blueprint for the shaping of a more democratic world. Unilateralism is monochromatic, worn out, oppressive and authoritarian; multilateralism is polychromatic, animated, tolerant and democratic.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“We want also peace for our sister Colombia and in Northern Ireland, in the Balkans, between Jews and Palestinians and throughout the world. Peace is also the aspiration of the Members of the United Nations, but there will not be lasting peace without social justice; there will not be stable democracies without social justice; and freedom will be a fraud without social justice. We congratulate the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on his balanced and firm guidance of the Organization at the very difficult time that the world is passing through and on his wise and heartfelt message to this democratic Assembly.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“We will welcome witnesses to come to Venezuela and watch our television, read our newspapers, interview the owners of the private media, listen to commentators and news anchors, and draw their own conclusions. We need them to familiarize themselves with the most hidden threat against democracy: the media dictatorship, a mirror of the culture of violence and mediocrity. Our process of social change in peace and democracy was interrupted by an assault against legality by the media and their hypnotized followers. In scarcely three days, during their ephemeral de facto Government, all democratic institutions were abolished, before people and soldiers in the streets restored normalcy. Today, we aspire to peace and reconciliation among Venezuelans. In our democracy, there is room and hope for everyone.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“One cannot condemn such abuses too strongly by solemnly recalling once again that the economy is at the service of man.” Entrepreneurs who took no risks, protected by a colluding Government under a captive market, who did not compete and who evaded taxation promoted a conspiracy against the legitimate Government of Venezuela, allied with international sectors that had been past beneficiaries. Now, therefore, our democracy, threatened unsuccessfully by certain Venezuelan media magnates, invites members of the international community to see for themselves in Venezuela the strength of our society and the immense civil liberties available in our country, including the broadest freedom of expression in our entire hemisphere.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The provisions of a Constitution approved by the people in a referendum that expands the basis of democracy in a social State founded on law, and which is truly our country plan for all, have generated violent and anti-democratic opposition. Opening the way to participatory democracy and to an economy that is free, yet not anarchic, and that protects private freedoms without bowing to the almighty market, has stirred up the most egoistic and insensitive sector of our country and of the international community — the neoliberals. On this subject, His Holiness Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Populorum Progressio, of March 1967, said “This unchecked liberalism leads to dictatorship rightly denounced by Pius XI as producing ‘the international imperialism of money’.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“These same values inspire us in Venezuela, a country that prided itself on being the richest and most democratic nation in Latin America, but that squandered its privileged historical opportunities and fell into a process of ethnical and social decay that has brought us close to the abyss. As a result, we had to assume a profound process of transformation towards peace and democracy. The sectors affected by the democratic transformation have resorted to force to frustrate this commitment of the majority. They have resorted to military coup, oil sabotage, financial panic and media terrorism. Thank God that they failed, but they still caused much damage.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Even before that, at the end of the Second World War, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who, from Budapest, opened the way to freedom for Jews who were being persecuted by Nazi barbarity, disappeared without a trace. It seems that nothing has changed. Social injustice goes on forever. Conflicts repeat themselves. The protagonists of historic change are physically eliminated or morally destroyed. The advocacy of violence is dragging us towards terrorism and war. Inspired by the values of social justice, democracy and peace, on behalf of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Fr'as, I wish to reaffirm our support for the United Nations from a position that is critical yet unambiguous and totally consistent with its loftiest goals.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Years earlier, another Swede — Olaf Palme — died, a man of peace and good will, to whom the international community bade farewell with the song of Chilean Violeta Parra, Gracias a la vida, as a tribute to his struggles on behalf of the persecuted, the disenfranchised and the impoverished. At the beginning of the 1960s, while on a peace mission, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, also from Sweden, died in what was apparently an accident, amid the tangled, political turbulence in a Congo assailed by its enemies at home, as well as international factors that were depriving its sovereign leadership of vital oxygen. Still earlier, Count Folke Bernadotte — also Swedish — was a victim of terrorism while on a peace mission for the United Nations in Jerusalem.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“I begin this speech with mixed emotions — happiness over the election of our friend Julian Hunte — Minister of our sister country in the Caribbean, Saint Lucia — as President of this body; and pain, because our United Nations lost one of its best people, as did Brazil, an exemplary member of one of the world’s soundest diplomatic systems. Sergio Vieira de Mello died for peace and human rights, causes that illuminated his life as a diplomat and a Brazilian. There are other unfortunate examples from other times. We lost Anna Lindh, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, and daughter of the one of the countries most closely linked to social justice, who was educated in the Nordic tradition of social advancement and commitment to peace and democracy.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)