Gobierno de Reconciliación y Unidad Nacional
Unida Nicaragua Triunfa
INTERVENTION BY THE DELEGATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF RECONCILIATION AND NATIONAL UNITY
OF THE REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA IN THE 51st GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE OAS
SECOND PLENARY SESSION - CENTRAL REMARKS
GUATEMALA, HYBRID FORMAT
NOVEMBER 11th, 2021
Honorable Foreign Ministers and Delegates to the 51st General Assembly of the OAS.
Honorable Authorities of States and Governments of Our America.
President of this General Assembly of the OAS,
Mr. Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General,
Yesterday, on the occasion of the Dialogue of Heads of Delegation, prior to this 51st Regular Period of Sessions of the OAS General Assembly, several Observers and Delegates from the Member States presented their criteria regarding the main themes that would be addressed by this organization.
Certainly, the devastating effects of the COVID19 Pandemic, both with respect to the Loss of Life and the damages to the Health of those affected by this disease, as well as the estimates of material damage, have left no margin of doubt regarding the severity that this crisis has produced upon the citizens of the world. Other speakers were more emphatic in recognizing that it is the poor who are severely affected, not only in the immediate present, but in the medium and long term, since the weak socioeconomic structures are more exposed to the collateral effects of the pandemic, we are referring to the loss of employment, the closure of companies, the effects on local production, the social shortages and the languid response of multilateral organizations to undertake comprehensive actions.
Other issues such as the hoarding of vaccines and marketing criteria, as well as financial barriers, were barely touched upon, but there is no room for doubt that this issue should be debated frankly and with a proactive spirit, so that this General Assembly of the OAS, can lead its discussions around these fundamental issues, which involve all of us.
In that Spirit, our Country aims to participate in constructive manner and to contribute to and support multilateral actions that can result in decisive support for our Peoples.
This 51st General Assembly of the OAS, hosted by the Honorable People of Guatemala, has a very deep and guiding concept as its motto: "For a Renewed America." It promptly raises the challenge that we fully share and that should lead us to discussion and decision-making, that will serve as a guide to address our own realities. So let us briefly reflect on this concept.
Renewal must refer to the urgency of leading our Peoples to improve what exists, to create what is necessary and to make overcome that what is holding us back. In this sense, we must renew our Health models, allocating more resources and benefiting those that are most in need; providing the public system with the necessary equipment and infrastructure to make it truly free, universal and of the highest quality, building national reference hospitals, specialized hospitals with multidisciplinary coverage, as well as primary hospitals distributed in the depths of our territories, also guaranteeing that the effects of recurrent pandemics, or endemic diseases, are treated with efficiency and social massiveness.
With this mystique, Nicaragua has been very diligent, given that in a period of 14 years it has quadrupled the number of National Hospitals and has built more than 160 primary hospitals, without neglecting the permanent health mobilization required to carry out vaccination campaigns or primary health care actions. In Health, therefore, renewal refers to guaranteeing Life itself.
In Education, renewal means ensuring the foundations of social development. It is not only the guarantee of a Primary and Secondary Level Education, but also the opening of technical and university careers, the expansion of school enrollment, and the democratization of access to education, with programs such as the university in the rural areas and the open online university. Renewing in Education implies ensuring the future.
Renewing the productive infrastructure which is essential in Nicaragua. Prioritizing the construction of highways, bridges and roads that connect the most remote communities, is not only complementary for the communities that will be provided with the means to move their production, but also to engage with the transformations that are occurring throughout the country. For the communities of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, it represents the fulfillment of a dream of more than 200 years. And we are
not only referring to highways and roads, but also to electricity, telecommunications, drinking water and sanitation, all of which have contributed to improving the living conditions of the Nicaraguan Families.
Renewing our social security, welfare and family relations schemes is only possible without the scourge of criminal gangs that put Peace at risk or of extortion groups that affect the natural development of family businesses and their dynamic entrepreneurship. Gang wars, the fight for territories and their close connection with drug trafficking and organized crime in their different expressions, is only possible if society is articulated in defense of itself. Until now, the regional bodies speak very clearly of the efforts and positive results of Nicaragua in this matter.
A renewed Nicaragua, in a region that calls us to constantly reinvent ourselves, supposes a dynamic and sustained effort, with an open-mind, to discuss with all sectors, with all those who promote the well-being of our Country, with all those who bet that our Nicaragua will exceed, every day, its own standards of living. For this reason, the opening of all productive, social and political processes leads us to hold debates in all institutional settings; at the community level and in each Indigenous or Afro-descendant territory; in the framework of the municipal councils or in the plenary session of the Autonomous Regional Councils of our Caribbean Coast; no sector is left without participating and without contributing to the solution of the problems that arise. For Nicaragua, consultation is a daily task and a necessary condition to reach consensus and to ensure the most sustainable responses. Each sector proposes and recommends, and the institutions evaluate and decide together, producing changes in benefit of the population.
As we pointed out yesterday, Nicaragua has just concluded a very special electoral process. In the midst of economic, media and organizational interventions and in the face of cruel threats and destabilizing actions, almost 3 million Nicaraguans went to the polls to exercise their right to vote; to propose and decide, to renew the hope of continuing to prosper in Peace and Dignity.
For this reason, Nicaragua deserves respect, not sanctions or threats, not blockades or bellicose attitudes. Nicaraguans saw their neighbors voting alongside them, they saw themselves electing their authorities. Social networks, which for some may be a sin and an instrument of evil, served this time to show an incontestable truth: Nicaragua Voted and chose in Peace. Is it a sin to believe that the exercise of the right to vote is a civic option to transform a country? Nicaraguans do not think so.
Finally, we wager that each Member State of this organization reflect on its national reality and the urgency of renewal. We cannot be indolent when faced with the demands of our societies that demand attitudes of solidarity from us, instead of actions of interference by one State towards others. We cannot sustain a Vision of the 1960’s to articulate the action of this Organization, because certainly, we neither renew nor transform it, we keep it imprisoned in that perverse immobilization and instrumentalization, in that decadent Ministry of Colonies.
We must renew the practices of this organization, without forgetting, for a single moment, the Principles of Respect for National Sovereignty, Freedom of Self-determination and Non-interference in the Internal Affairs of the States.
On November 7, the People of Nicaragua renewed the mandate of our Government to continue forging the Motherland, to continue promoting Wellbeing and Good Living and above all, they renewed their aspiration to continue building Peace.
Thank you very much Mr. President.