STATEMENT BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR H.E. RAFAEL CORREA - 7th SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS PANAMA, APRIL 11, 2015 PROSPERITY WITH EQUITY Dear Heads of State and Government of the Americas: My fraternal greetings and my sincere thanks to the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, to his assistants and to the people of this beautiful country of the waist of our Americas for their warm welcome. I want to welcome the new General Secretary of the OAS, Luis Almagro, recently elected during the meeting of the General Assembly in Washington, who has before him a difficult but inevitable challenge: to radically transform this institution. We send our message of solidarity to the people of Chile and to their President, Michelle Bachelet, who are courageously overcoming the dreadful effects of the recent floods in their country. All our support to president Santos and his unwavering political will to continue along the road towards definitive peace in Colombia. However, peace is not just the absence of war. The insulting opulence of a few in Latin America, living side by side with the most unbearable poverty, are also bullets fired on a daily basis against human dignity. For this reason, I believe that the motto of this Summit should be, instead of "Prosperity with equity," "Equity for Prosperity".
CUBA Today we are witnessing a historical event. In a clear triumph of dignity, sovereignty and solidarity among our peoples, we are welcoming our sister Republic of Cuba as a full member of this forum, from which it should have never been excluded. However, our joy cannot be complete. We still need to extirpate the inhuman and unprecedented blockage against Cuba, as there are no rules in the international system that warrant its enforcement, even more so in times of peace. The return of the occupied territory of Guantรกnamo to Cuba is also still pending. We are talking about 112 years of illegality! VENEZUELA Colleagues: During the cold war, the region suffered the bloodiest of dictatorships; then, indeed, there was no respect at all for the freedom of the press, for human rights, for democracy itself. We must recall that, for instance, the 1976 OAS Assembly held in Santiago de Chile was chaired by the Foreign Minister of Augusto Pinochet. The invasive and interfering actions carried out during those years were justified by the fight against communism. Now the argument is the "defense of Human Rights". The executive order issued by President Obama against Venezuela is a flagrant violation of International Law, and particularly of subsection e), Art. 3 of the OAS Charter. The response of the region has been overwhelming, rejecting the Executive Order and demanding its repeal. Our peoples will never again accept tutelage, interference or intervention. Their memory is scarred by the abuses and the violence of the past. Panama is a good example of this, with the invasion of December of 1989 -which caused thousands of fatalities-, to depose the bloody dictator that the invaders themselves had initially supported. However, illegal interventionist activities continue. A few weeks ago, officials of the Department of State requested the US Congress for funds, I quote, "to support freedom of the press, human rights and democracy in the Hemisphere, including in
Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua”. Are we really interested in these issues? Then well, if we are, let us address them in this forum. Let’s talk about human rights According to ECLAC, in the period 2007-2013 Ecuador was one of three Latin American countries with the highest rates of reduction of inequality. During our administration, from the historical 12.5 point reduction of poverty, only 5.4 points are the result of growth, and 7.1 the result of redistribution of wealth. In Ecuador, we do not have torture, the death penalty, or extra judiciary executions. With the legal reform approved by the citizens in the referendum of the year 2011, judges are now selected in public merit-based competitions, organized by an autonomous body of the Executive. Finally, Ecuador is one of only seven countries of the 35 of the continent that has signed all the Inter-American Human rights instruments. Many countries have not even ratified the Inter-American Convention on Human rights, or the San José Agreement. Reforms The reality is that we need not only a new human rights system, but also a new Inter-American system. We must understand that the Americas, North and South of the Rio Bravo, are different, and we must talk as blocks. The Organization of American States has been historically kept captive by the interests and views of North America. Its accumulated bias and atavisms have turned it into an inefficient and untrustworthy body in the new era that Latin America and the Caribbean are living in. Another example was the war of the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), during which the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty, the TIAR, was overtly trampled. This should have been enough for the OAS to disappear. Our embrace in solidarity to the
people of Argentina and their fight for the Malvinas, a shameless example of colonialism in the 21st century. Another example is the decades during which Cuba was absurdly excluded from the OAS, and the criminal blockade against it. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States -CELAC- must be the forum for debate between Latin American and Caribbean, and the OAS should become the forum where, as blocks, CELAC and North America address their agreements and their disagreements. Concerning the Inter-American system of human rights, we need more coherence: only the countries that have ratified the Inter-American Convention should be able to participate in its different bodies. For example, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has its headquarters in Washington, which has not ratified the San José Agreement, and –in addition, is unnecessary.
The Inter-American Court
headquartered in San José can and should play the role of promoting human rights and judging all violations against them, as is the case in the European system, where there is no commission, just a court. As we understand very well that, because of vested interests, what I proposed before will be very difficult to achieve, it is probably time to have a Latin American system of human rights. Everything is ready, because the countries that have ratified the Agreement of San José are those of Latin America, and therefore we are the only ones that acknowledge and submit to the Inter-American Court. And let’s talk about democracy Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, is the main author of one of the most beautiful documents in the history of mankind, the Declaration of Independence that, in its second paragraph, says: " All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Wonderful words, but Jefferson himself was the owner of hundreds of slaves. At that time, even for those extraordinary men it was unimaginable that black people could have rights.
Almost one century had to pass after the declaration of independence before slavery was abolished, and exactly one hundred years more for the elimination of racial segregation. Today,
the
Latin
American
elites
are
still
incapable
of
understanding
that
fundamental rights are for everyone. When these elites denounced that their human rights were being violated, it is because, for the first time, they are now in equal conditions under the Rule of Law. When they denounce dictatorships and authoritarianism, it is because they can no longer submit our governments to their whims and interests. And let us talk about the freedom of the press When the Latin American élites affirm that there is no freedom of the press, it is because their media no longer have impunity to manipulate the truth, or because we dare respond to them, to challenge their hegemony, to lay bare their lies. We should ask ourselves if a society can call itself truly free when the right to information and the social means of communication themselves are in the hands of private for profit businesses. Moreover, although this is a worldwide problem, in Latin America – given the media monopolies, the fact that they are owned by a few families, their severe ethical and professional deficiencies, and their blatant involvement in politics – the problem is much more serious. I believe that we all agree that a good press is vital for true democracy, but we must also agree that a bad press is mortal for that same democracy…
and the Latin
American press is bad, very bad! DIVISION Now we are being accused of dividing our countries. What a coincidence. They were saying the same about Abraham Lincoln, who is considered the best U.S. president in history. They called him a “tyrant”, “despot’,’ “fanatic”, “mad” because of his noble fight to abolish slavery. He caused a civil war, which if he had lost would have
led to the division of the country, and Lincoln probably would have been remembered as a criminal. You should read what the pro-slavery media were saying then. We should learn more about history. Dear friends: With the discovery of the new continent, North America and Latin America began their history practically at the same time. Have you ever wondered why Latin America is not the United States, the most powerful country in the planet, and viceversa? This is one of the great enigmas of development. The answers are multiple and complex, but without a doubt one of these answers is the elite class that dominated and still dominate our Americas. President Obama, I wish you could understand that by defending their interests or because of inadequate information, you support the elites that have caused us so much harm. "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". In Ecuador and in all of Latin America, we also uphold the same principles and we will make them a reality at any cost, and not only for the elites or at some point in the future, but right now... and for everyone! Prosperity with equity? I would rather say equity for prosperity, but also sovereignty and dignity. The time has come for the second and final independence of our Americas.