Republic of Nicaragua

Statement by H.E Samuel Santos Lopez,

Minister of Foreign Affairs

General debate.

New York, 29 September 2009

(Check against delivery)

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Mr. President:

Thirty years after the triumph of the Popular Sandinista Revolution and the start
of a process of popular and participatory democracy, on behalf of the President
of Nicaragua, Commander of the Revolution Daniel Ortega Saavedra, I salute
and congratulate you on your appointment as President of this Assembly, and
please allow me to address it.

Nicaragua is a country impoverished by historical circumstances not alien to the

history and circumstances of the countries of our Latin American and Caribbean
region, and even other countries around the world; a history repeated over time
and space as we will outline later. Despite that, Nicaragua remains a land rich in
beauty and natural resources. It is a nation symbolic of reconciliation and
national and international unity.

Although it may be little known, our country is one of the safest in this continent.
Nicaragua permanently and decisively combats organized crime and common
crime in exemplary fashion, and with the recognition of international bodies and
authorities. It does so, not only with coercive and punitive measures, but more
significantly by building an alternative model of development that transforms the
structures of poverty and marginalization that are the breeding ground of public
safety problems. Our model is based on democratic reform, expressed in the
popular will which we call "Citizen Power".

By means of the campaign "From Marti to Fidel", illiteracy has been reduced to
3.16%. We have made progress in preventive medicine and have successfully
controlled pandemics such as the AH1N1 virus. In our country, mortality from this
disease is the lowest in America. These achievements have been made possible
by the generous solidarity of the fraternal people and government of Cuba that
has been consistent and has continued the internationalist calling of Comandante
Fidel Castro Ruz.

The government has opened the door to production credit. The FAO selected our
school nutrition program as one of the top four in the world. In that spirit,
President Daniel Ortega has proposed the adoption of a Central American
Agriculture Policy to transform the region into a food production zone, and in that
spirit we welcome and support the World Summit on Food Security set to take
place in November of this year.

Thanks to the solidarity of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela implemented

by its President, Comandante Hugo Chavez, today we have a reserve of
electrical power of 42.6 percent, although two years ago it was negative by 3.29
percent. Meanwhile, we continue to make efforts to promote the use of
alternative renewable energy sources such as wind, geothermal and solar
sources, and more recently the use of biomass, and also support initiatives
aimed at developing civilian nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
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Clean drinking water has been made available to 217,000 families. We have
launched programs such as Zero Hunger and Zero Usury, which were
highlighted in a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Food
Security. In order to address the everyday lies of certain media in Nicaragua, in a
paid advertisement, the FAO recently had to publish the positive results of the
programs against hunger and extreme poverty which it coordinates with the
Nicaraguan Government.

Food security cannot continue to be subjected to the greediness of a few, there is

enough food to nourish double the world population, but every minute, around
the world thousands die. While in some countries automobiles are fed, millions of
boys and girls die with an empty stomach. This, Mr. President, is simple criminal.

We also express our profound rejection of the discrimination and persecution of

immigrants and support without reservations full respect of their human rights.

Dear friends: Nicaragua is the enemy of terrorism in any of its forms, including
state terrorism. It is for this and many other reasons that we oppose the criminal
embargo against the heroic people of Cuba who have witnessed the birth of
almost six generations during the existence of the embargo. How many more
generations must survive it? How many more resolutions on this topic must this
Assembly adopt? There are already seventeen, Mr. President.

It is also of interest to this Assembly, or indeed should be, that while a criminal
murderer of Cuban athletes enjoys total liberty, five antiterrorist Cubans are
imprisoned under inhumane conditions for the sole crime of being none other
than antiterrorists.

Today's Nicaragua is an active militant in favor of solidarity, as well as a militant

supporter of gratitude. Therefore, we appreciate the disinterested collaboration of
sister nations that contribute to the economic and social development of our
people. Therefore, we also embrace the just cause of Puerto Rico's
independence, and support the return of the Malvinas Islands to the hands of its
rightful owner, the Argentine people, and in the same manner we join the
struggle of the Sahrawi people as well as the struggle of the Cypriot people's.
We also make a call to Israel that it withdraw from the Syrian, Lebanese and
Palestinian territories. We stand unconditionally by the side of the Palestinian
people in their daily fight for their own Sovereign State, which is why we
advocate a peaceful, just and permanent solution that guarantees peace in that
region. And one year after their independence we congratulate the peoples of
Abkhasia and Southern Ossetia, and inform that we have already established
diplomatic relations with Abkhasia.

We support the new and positive focus Taiwan has adopted in its relations with
the People's Republic of China, as well as its participation in United Nations
specialized organs and agencies.
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We condemn the coup in Honduras and, from this moment we assert our
definitive decision not to recognize the results of any electoral farce in that
country. With this coup they sought to kill the democratic hopes and initiatives of
the Honduran people, just as they sought to thwart the fraternal process that is
the ALBA. Nonetheless, a change in Honduras that surpasses a formal and
hypocritical democracy will be inevitable.

The time has come, Mr. President, to make the General Assembly a harbinger
where substantive decisions are taken, which cannot be substituted. We cannot
continue to have a Security Council with an abusive veto privilege.

The time has also come for cooperation without humiliating preconditions, for the
construction of the most beautiful dream of Bolivar and Sandino, the dawn of a
realistic and coherent solidarity. I speak of the Bolivarian Alternative for the
Peoples of our Americas, integrated by the peoples of Antigua & Barbuda,
Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines,
Venezuela, as well as the Honduras of the resistance. The "ALBA" is the basis
for the horizontal and inclusive cooperation between our peoples. Its membership
increases day by day.

Mr. President,

I cannot but mention, with profound concern, that today we have met under the
same or worse world economic circumstances as a year ago, when the worse
world economic depression ever suffered was added to the existing food, energy
and environmental crises.

Unfortunately, these world crises come up against decreased official

development assistance, which is still made conditional by the international
financial institutions, and also against the reluctance of the developed countries
to replace the present model with one that is more just and more respectful of
Mother Nature. The United Nations Conference on the World Financial and
Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development announced that the G-192, as it
was baptized by my brother Father Miguel d'Escoto, does have something to say
regarding world economic matters. It is within the most representative institution
that economic policies affecting millions should be decided, and not within
groups, such as the G-8 and the G-20, that are promoters of the model of
domination by the few over the majority, a model which is characterized by
exclusion. In that regard, we welcome the Special Open-ended Working Group
which will follow up on the outcome of this Conference.

For some years now, climate change has become not a threat to the future, but a
present that is threatening. We believe that the Conference on Climate Change
which will take place in Copenhagen on 7 to 18 December 2009, should no
longer be a debate on the need to act, but rather that the developed countries
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should fulfill their historic responsibility, under the Kyoto Protocol, and cease their
attempts to break down the principle of common but differentiated responsibility.

It is time for attitudes and actions to reflect a true commitment to counteracting

the harmful effects of global warming. We firmly believe that it is the exclusive
responsibility of the General Assembly - and in no case, the responsibility of the
Security Council - to seek the necessary consensus and commitments in order
that we. move forward in this struggle, which is a struggle for the survival of ALL
humanity.

Dear friends, it is not possible to democratize selfishness, exclusion, and the

manipulation of the truth. It is not possible to put a kind face on perversion, on
arrogance. That is the essence of the prevailing economic system: the
exploitation of one human by another, the subjugation of nations, the hoarding of
wealth by the few. This is why we are in crisis, not due to a lack of resources, but
because of the concentration of resources in a few hands, because of the disdain
for our environment, because of the replacement of values, because of human
arrogance toward other species and worst of all, disdain toward human life itself.

Friends: we are optimistic. It becomes necessary to replace and find alternatives

to the current socio-economic and political model which leads to unjustified
interventions such as that in Iraq and Afghanistan and the one now being
committed against our region with the establishment of military bases in
Colombia under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.

It draws our attention intensely that despite the 7 billion 558 million dollars
invested, drug-trafficking from Colombia increases evermore. In 1999, at the
beginning stage of "Plan Colombia" the amount of drug-trafficking to the United
States and Europe was an annual 600 metric tons. In 2009, this trafficking has
doubled to 1,450 metric tons. In other words, the strategy of militarizing Colombia
has failed, and the numbers I have cited are absolute proof of this.

The true objective of installing these "seven daggers in Latin America", as they
are called by Comandante Fidel Castro, is to salvage the death-bound economic
and political system with which capitalism flaunts its power, through hemispheric
control of water, oil and biodiversity.

We trust in the strengthening of energetic and progressive positions in the

defense of peace and respect for the sovereignty of the countries of our region.
We are sure that this will ultimately serve to further advance the Latin American
unity dreamt by Bolivar, Morazan, Marti and Sandino.

Today, Fidel Castro and revolutionary Cuba's solidarity has been greatly
multiplied and is more prevalent than ever. The wide world of Latin America has
ceased to be foreign, and as Miguel d'Escoto would say during his particularly
outstanding Presidency of the General Assembly, "The current scenario is not
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that of a tragedy but of a crisis. A crisis purifies, present pain is not a death
omen, but the omen of a new birth."

Finally, I wish to inform the General Assembly that Nicaragua, which is respectful
of international law, has abided by the ruling of the International Court of Justice
in its decision of 13 July 2009, and has issued a Presidential Decree to regulate
navigation in the Rio San Juan (San Juan River), whose full, absolute and
unquestionable sovereignty belongs to Nicaragua as was recognized by the
ruling.

Greetings to all of you on behalf of our President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and all
Nicaraguans who sing to Dario and who proudly carry on Sandino's legacy, in
order to defend ourselves with peace and dignity. Nicaragua, Mr. President and
dear friends, feels proud of its devotion to peace, honor, solidarity, and the
relentless struggle against injustice.

Thank you very much.