A/38/PV.48 General Assembly

My Government shares the grave concern of the international community over the continued deterioration of the situation in Central Amer- ica, which seriously threatens internation;11 peace and security. 2. The present tension and increase of military threats in Central America is seen by my Government as, first of all, a result of actions undertaken by the present Admin- istration ofthe United States. The United States is in fact engaged right now in an undeclared war against the Gov- ernment of Nicaragua and the people of that country. ~t the same time, it continues its military engagement ID the Salvadorian civil strife, taking part in direct oper- ations against forces of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN], and the Revolutionary DemocraticFront (FDR]. Cubais another object ofUnited States aggressive actions. No effort is being spared to isolate Cuba in the Western Hemisphere and to blame it for failures of the United States policy in the region. 3. The armed intervention ofthe United States in Gre- nada was yet another manifestation of the policy of strength pursued with total disregard for the norms of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, as well as for universally recognized rules of international behaviour. This inadmissible use of force has to be seen as one of the links in a long chain of threats, intimidation, pressures and aggression against Latin American and Caribbean nations. 4. Speaking on the Grenadian issue in the Security Council on 26 October, Poland, as a member of that body responsible for maintaining international peace and secu- rity, condemned the armed intervention of the United States in the strongest terms.1 We demanded the imme- diate cessation of the invasion and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the island. This aggression has shown clearly that the objective of the present Unite!:! States Administration's policy is not to defend human rights or democracy, as it claims, but to subordinate other nations to American interests. 5. The .undeclared war against Nicaragua, orighlallV planned to be clandestine and covert, has now taken the fo~m of open operations aimed at destroying airports, bndges, energy sources and food supplies. It is being conducted and financed mainly through the lJnited States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA]. Former members of Somoza's National Guard are being trained in neighbour- ing Honduras by the CIA and the United States Army. NEW YORK They are provided with United States weapons and given instruction and advice by United States military experts. Sent across the border into Nicaragua, they have caused extensive damage to the economy and brought immeas- urable suffering to the people of the country. Joint United States-Honduras military exercises are conducted on an unprecedtmted scale in order to exert military pressure on the Government of Nicaragua. 6. The aim of these sinister activities ofthe United States Administration is clear. It is to destabilize and ultimately to overthrow the Sandinista Government and impose on Managua a regime of United States choosing, which would be made up of repudiated emigre Nicaraguans. It is an action to impose anti-communism on the Latin American countries in general and on neighbours of the United States in particular. The United States intervention in Nicaraguan domestic affairs constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and vir- tually every set of international laws in this respect. 7. By accusing Nicaragua of exporting revolution with the imaginary aim of expanding the Soviet and Cuban sphere ofinfluence in Central America, the United States Administration seeks in fact a justification for curbing all progressive changes that could occur as a result of the natural process of the emancipation of Latin American and Caribbean nations. 8. The civil war in El Salvador, as well as the defensive measures undertaken by the Government in Managua, are conveniently presented in Washington in terms of East-West confrontation. However, it is obvious that the fundamental causes of domestic conflicts lie in the unjust social, political and economic structure existing in some countries of the region, El Salvador in particular. Attempts to attribute the process of change in Central America to East-West confrontation constitute in fact overt efforts to distort the real picture of the situation prevailing in the region and to justify the American policy of intervention in domestic affairs therein. 9. The build-up of tension in the Central American region, and on the Nicaraguan-Honduran and Nicara- guan-Costa Rican fronti.ers in particular, has reached extremely dangerous dimensions. The aggressive state- ments in Washington ne increasing. There are open justifications for practising covert activities. This cannot be considered otherwise than as a call to introduce the law of the jungle into international law. 10. It was with equal concern that we noted the state- ment of the United States Under Secretary of Defense, Mr. Fred Ikle, that it will not be possible to speak of Central American stabilization as long as the Sandinist Government remains in power. So, byits own admission, it is ~ military solution in Central America and not a negotiated agreement that is being sought by the United States Administration. Hypocritical concern for democ- racy or human rights constitutes in reality only a smoke- screen for geopolitically and cold-war motivated agressive action. 11. The United States aggressive policy in the region is in fact a result of conservative and extremist trends in lish~d a basic frame of reference for the negotiating process through a set ofcommitments which would make it possible to ensure lasting peace. 31. In September, a Document of Objectives 3 was approved and later ratified, identifying the essential com- mon ground in the proposals presented 1,y the five Central American countries. The Document includes the commit- ment to begin immediate negotiations to prepare for the conclusion of agreements and to adopt the legal instru- ments needed to achieve the proposed objectives. 32. However, it is absolutely clear that a negotiated settlement of the conflicts in Central America requires a climate conducive to dialogue. As long as force is still used, attempts at destabilization are made and foreign intervention of the most overt forms of flagrant charac- ter is practised, the chances of establishing the political framework essential for peacemaking efforts will be slight. 33. This is why Mexico has insisted on the need for deeds to be in line with speeches and commitments. That is why the position adopted in this connection by the Member States of the United Nations is highly relevant and timely. In spite of the doubts harboured by some at "Nicaragua is asking that the question of Central America-threats to peace, sovereignty, the exercise by the Central American people of the right to self-deter- mination and peace initiatives-be considered as an urgent ~tem on the agenda of the current session of the General Assembly." [7th meeting, para. 134]. 42. Th'~ considerable differences between what was annouaced in plenary meeting by Mr. Ortega Saavedra and what was actually done by the N!caraguan delega- tion, can be seen in the deliberate omission of the words "threats to peace, sovereignty, the exercise by the Central American people of the right to self-determination". There was no explanation for that change, either in the General Committee on 4 October 1983, or in the Assem- bly when the inclusion of the item was approved, or this morning at the 47th meeting, when the Nicaraguan dele- gation spoke at the beginning of this debate. It is clear thatthe Nicaraguan delegationwas awarethat to announce a debate on threats to the sovereignty of Central Ameri- can States and to the exercise of the self-determination of the peoples of those States, would imply that they themselves would be opening the possibility for two essential issues of the Central American question to be discussed, issues that derive from the attitude of the Sandinista Government, that is, its disrespect for the sovereignty of the four other Central American countries and the insurmountable obstacles that have thus far prevented the Nicaraguan people from exercising their right of self-determination. That is why they decided to replace these specific concepts with a more general one, that of international security. Even though the latter might include those other issues, it would be possible for them to continue to manipulate elements that only meet their own Governmental interests and to exclude the interests of the other States, as well as the expression of free will by the Nicaraguan people. 43. Nicaragua's intentions in coming before this body, undermining the activities and the credibility of the cur- rent Latin American efforts at negotiation, are becoming clear. 44. On 10 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, Mr. paz Barnica, in his statement before this General Assembly, pointed out the causes and the dif- ferent attitudes concerning all the aspects of Central American problems and the regional mechanisms for peaceful settlement. I refer to that statement and to the verbatim record dated 12 October. None the less, we wish to remind members of the specific words of the Minister: "The Government of Nicaragua has requested the inclusion of an item on Central America in the agenda of the current session of the General Assembly. The request to bring that item to the United Nations for debate hampers the work for peace which the Central American countries have entrusted to the Contadora Group and places the consideration of the problems of the area outside the continental context and within the framework of East-West confrontation, with the becau~e of anti-human practices, the censorship of the press'ahd the restrictions on religious activities, all these thbigs have led to an internal conflict in Nicaragua that Admini~tfation concerning the initiation of negotiations to try 'and settle the problem of Central America, wrote in The New York Times of 21 October 1983 that 136. The international community should vigorously condemn the invasion by the United States ofother coun- tries, and its flagrant violation of the Charter of the United !'Iations and international law. The international community mu:.;t also affIrm the.right of peoples.to det~r­ mine their future and to establish the economIC, SOCIal and political regimes of their choice. What is happening today in Central America and the Caribbean region could be repeated tomorrow in any other country. The crimes perpetrated by the American Administration against the peoples of that region could also be perpetrated against all peoples. Therefore, the international community is today called upon to put an end to the flouting of the Charter by the American Administratiqn and firmly to face up to that aggressive policy agai~st peoples. 137. I reaffirm that we in the Jamaliiriya vigorously condemn the policy of aggression and interference pur- sued by the United States Administrat~oJa. We denounce the conspiratorial schemes aimed at Oestabilizing many parts of the world and. threatening ~heir security an~ independence. Once agaIn "le reaffimil our absolute sob- darity with the peoples of Central ~erica and ot~er regions of the world. We are confideqt t~at the struggling masses will be victorious, that the ac€s of aggressiCin and imperialist schemes are destined to failure, L.ld that the United States, regardless of its mi~t, its plots and ~be puppets it creates, will not be able to turn the clock back. The struggle of peoples will inevitably be crowned with . t I VIC ory. 1 138. As we discuss the situation itl Central America, we see that there is another part of the! world where a serious explosion threatens as a result of the aggressive policy

The French writer Georges Bernanos once wrote that: "The worst, the most corrupting of lies, are problems poorly stated". The purpose of those who brought the issue of Central America to the General Assembly today, who asked for this debat.e, is to enlist the United Nations in defining the problem in Central America in a manner that corrupts the truth. Their goal is to cloak their own aggressive and violent policies in a mantle of United Nations rhetoric about non-intervention and the non-use of force. Their goal, quite specifically, is to use the prin- ciples of the Charter of the United Nations to justify actions that, precisely, violate and subvert those principles of the United Nations Charter. 143. The representative of Nicaragua would like to have the United States endorse his own Government's perverse definition of the problem in Central Ameri~a. Accord~ng to this definition, Nicaragua is a peace-lOVIng State WIth no designs on its neighbours. It maintains fraternal relations with Cuba, the Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgaria, Liby~ and several other similarly inc1in~ pea~­ loving States, SImply for the purpose of prom~!m.gSOCIal justiCe, international peace and self-determInatIon. Of course, it also maintains a large military establishment, "four times as big and eight times as strong" as the late dictator Anastasio Somoza's Guardia Naciona~, as the present commander of Nicaragua's forces put it last year. But this, of course, is only for the purpose of self- defence, which presumably is required against Nicara- gua's neighbours. I 145. What we pave in the Government of Nicaragua's claims is a combination of bravado and paranoia, induced for the purpOSfl of justifying a tightening of internal repression 3Ild the further build-up of military force, with the ho,e dJubtless of increased Soviet bloc military aid. The United Nations is then enlisted to give the appearance of internationai legitimacy to these plans. 146. The mind-set of the Nicaraguan regime-this com- bination of bravado and paranoia-was perhaps exempli- fied best in a speech which Interior Minister Tomas Borge Martinez gave before members of the national fire- fighting system on October 29th of this year. Nicaragua would defeat the Unit.o.d States Army, said Tomas Borge Martinez, "even if they reduce our cities to ashes. If the United Slates had to call on elite forces to defeat Grenada" said Comandante Borge, in a reference to the rescue missidn by the United States and several Eastern Caribbean S·lates in Grenada several days earlier, then, he continued, against Nicaragua it would have to resort to "Batman'. Superman and Spiderman". 147. The s-hbstance of Nicaragua's case before this body has about is much relation to reality as do the childish fantasy figUres invoked by Mr. Borge. What is the reality? What is an accurate statement of the problem in Central America? 148. The reality is that the Sandinistas came to power in 1979 through armed struggle and thereafter proceeded to violate all of the promises they made to OAS and made to the Nicaraguan people regarding internal pluralism and democracy and peaceful relations with their neighbours. The Sandinista revolution~ then, has not only betrayed the promises made to OAS, the promises made to its own people, it has betrayed as well the values and traditions of its own namesake. Augusto Cesar Sandino was not a Marxist-Lenini:::!; as 1 have repeatedly reminded col- leagues in the United Nations, he supported nationalism and not the Soviet empire. On that basis, he would have criticized Cuba's submission to Moscow's so-called inter- nationalism; desired sovereignty for his country; and desired a free country. He was very harshly ciiticized by communists while he was still alive for bourgeois and counter-revolutionary tendencies. The communist attacks against Sandino began when he was in Mexico, because he refused to adjust his fight for "country and liberty" to the plans of the Mexican communists. For that reason, the Secretary-General of the Mexican Communist Party called him a traitor and denounced him upon his death. 149. It is precisely country and liberty that the so-called Sandinistas have betrayed in imposing a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship over the Nicaraguan people, in subordinating Nicaragua to Cuba-and in a larger sense to the objec- tives of.the Soviet Union and its global empire. Instead of the elections promised to the Nicaraguan people, the so-called Sandinistas provided subjugation and dicta- torship. Instead of self-government promised by the so-called Sandinistas, they provided a rigged Council of 154. That is not all. Once ~ transfer of power has been achieved and a dictatorship friendly to the Soviet Union has been established, ~he Soviets seek to guarantee its irreversibility by providing thousands and thousands of technicians, advisers, troops-"workers", such as we saw in Grenada-to prop up and guide the new Government. Thus the extraordinary array ofSoviet-bloc military and civilian personnel in Nicaragua, Angola, Benin, Ghana, the Congo, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cuba, Demo- cratic Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia and so fmih. In these countries one finds extraordinary international brigades accumulated from East Germany, from Czechoslovakia, from Bulgaria, from Libya-the same Governments we hear spp..aking to the problem here-from Viet Nam, from the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], from all parts of the Soviets' worla:-wide empire brought to bear on the weak institutions and the relatively helpless people who almost invariably desire above all to be left alone to solve their problems, enjoy their own national self-deter- mination and seek the development of their countries. 155. The Soviet Government and its allies do not-we should be clear-rely on the laws of history or the appeals of communism to bring about what they call revolution, or to ensure its irreversibility. They rely instead on the manipulation of values and the technology of violence. 156. Frankly, the United States has ~;rown weary-as I am certain this body has grown weary-of the repeti- tious appeals of Nicaragua to discuss the same subject here under the same circumstances, each time with no more evidence to support its fictitious charges than it had the time before. The United States has grown weary of Nicaragua's repeated efforts to come to this body seeking international approval for its right to engage in repression at home and subversion abroad and to pretend all the while that it is seeking peace. This Assembly knows by now, I should hope, a good deal about Nicaragua's peace- seek~ng in Central America. There has at least been an OPPOltUnity for our colleagues-in the United Nations to learn about that. Meanwhile, Nicaragua acts in Central America to subvert its neighbours) with terrorist train- ing camps, with arms depots, with arms shipments. On 21 September, for example, there was reported in the United States press the destruction by anti-Sandinista 171. There is no doubt that the discussion of this item is very timely. The situation in Central America, in the Caribbean and in other regions of the world is jeopard- izing international peace and security. Tbis is a constant threat that is causing a constant deterioration in the situation and escalating tension, and it presages the pro- liferation and expansion of conflict. The invasion of Grenada was a foretaste of what could happen in Central America. 172. There is a conflict that is reflected in a tragic and bloody fashion for the peoples of Central America. There is no doubt that this conflict results from the policies of hegemony and domination forcibly implemented by American imperialism. Those policies are a flagrant vio- lation of the principles that should have governed inter- national relations, most important among which is the principle of the non-use or threat of force, the principle of non-interference or intervention in the internal affairs ofother States and the principle of respect for the exercise by the peoples of their right to self-determination and to choose the social and political systems which best suit their conditions, the stage of their development, their culture and their history. Those American poU.:ies have undermined the right of States to equality, independ- ence and sovereignty. Today the Charter of the United Nations, the DeClaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States inaccordance with the Charterofthe ~nited Nations [resolution 2625 (XXJQ] and the Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States [resolution 36/103] all have become pieces of paper blown about by stormy winds. 173. The grave crisis jeopardizing the peace and security of Central America and destabilizing its peoples is due to the conflict between the forces ofprogress which achieved success and great accomplishments in liberating their societies'from exploitation, internal domination and for- eigndependency and ~he mean and bloody forces which spate DO effort to regaJD the lost advantages that they had Stat~ concerned to fmd a modus vivendithemselves, free from American intervention. We support the efforts of the Secretary-General in keeping with Security Council resolution 530 (1983). We also support the Nicaraguan proposals with a view to guaranteeing peace and security for the States of Central America, on the basis of the Document of Objectives. But the results of the contacts of the Secretary-General and the efforts of the Contadora Group depend basically on the renunciation by the United change~hetheme of the agenda item under examination and, indeed, present the United States with a mandate to destroy by armed force Nicaragua, Cuba and the other States which she mentioned in her speech, which was so full of hatre~, and at the same time destroy also those disobedient countries which did not support the aggres- sion.of the United States against Grenada. 206. Naturally, this will not happen. But we all have something to think about, including the neo-colonialist views on the national liberation movements expressed by Mrs. Kirkpatrick. The present American Administration has only one answer to the revolutionary movement for national liberation. If secret operations, plots, pOliti- cal assassinations, economic blockades and psychological tion in Central America by recalling a significant date in the annals of United States foreign policy. On 9 May 1983, the Representative of the United States solemnly declared before the Security Council that "the United States does not invade small countries on its borders. ... Our neighbours need have no such concerns." 7 Only a few months later, on 25 October to be exact, the United States Administration deployed sizeable armed forces on land, on the sea and in the air in order to invade and occupy Grenada, a neighbouring country thousands of times smaller and weaker than the United States of Amer- ica, both in terms of area and population and in terms of economic and military capability. 213. Once more the world is obliged to recognize that the American leaders' professions of good will are never reflected in their actions. For them, high-flown words about "theprotection ofAmerican citizens'1, "the defence of democratic institutions", "the defence of human rights"-'and so forth, together with the most absurd fab- rications and slanders against other countries;-repeated this afternoon in this Hall by the American representa- tive-are nothing but false pretexts intended to mislead democr~cycapable of arousing the spirit of the millions and mUrlons of disinherited throughout the world, and, secondly, because Cuba symbolizes the right-minded alliance of patriotic revolutionary heroism with selfless 1J July and the draft treaties put forward by Nicaragua with the aim of mutually guaranteeing security and non- intervention in the internal affairs of the countries con- cerned. These proposals reflect the good faith of the Government of Nicaragua and its desire to make a sub- stantive contribution to the restoration of peace and stability in that part of the world. 227. The General Assembly is considering the situation in Central America at a time when the aggressors have vetoed in the Security Council a draft resolution condem- ning the aggression in Grenada and have blocked the implementation of Security Council resolution 530 (1983), which appeals urgently to the interested States to resolve their differences through a frank and constructive dia- logue. Moreover, all the signs are that they are feverishly preparing for a fresh military adventure, this time against Nicaragua. Faced with this extremely dangerous situation, the international community must take urgent, concrete and energetic measures to condemn the aggressors and to stay their criminal hands, to support the constructive proposals that I have just mentioned, which came from Nicaragua and the Contadora Group, and to encourage dialogue on a basis of equality in the search for a com- prehensive political solution to the problems of Central America and the Caribbean. 228. The Vietnamese delegation is ready to offer Its firm support to a draft resolution in the Gener!1l Assembly to that end. 229. Mr. FISCHER (Austria): Over recent years Aus- tria has observed developments in the Central American region with ever-increasing concern, as numerous viola- tions of human rights, growing interference by extra- regional forces, acts of violence and the use of force have contributed to escalating the tensions that persist in the area. 230. In his note to the Security Council on ths situation in Central America, the Secr~tary-Generalexpressed the opinion that in view of its nature and possible ramifi- cations the situation currently prevailing in the Central Group'~ meeting with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Gosta Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, held in Panama in September. Taking as a frame of reference and as its inspiration the Cancun nes~ of former colonies and throw off the fetters of neo- colonialist dependence on world imperialism, primarily by strengthening their economies. 247. The viable national economies which are least dependent on the world market, which is controlled by transnational corporations, and objectively are included in the process c f;ntegration within the framework of the given region are necessary for improving those countries' ability to defend their national cultural heritage and their cultures against destruction and colonization, thereby enabling the peoples of those countries to make their own individual contribution to the achievement of universal progress as equal partners. 248. For these reasons, Czechoslovakia not only pro- vides full moral support to the endeavours of those countries for emancipation, but also offers and makes available to those countries, in accordance with their desires, the technology that would help them make use of their own resources and assistance in training their technical personnel at the levels desired. This position of principle in Czechoslovakian foreign policy is not merely suited to the moment; it is a long-t~rm and unswerving course that has been set forth in a number oftreaties and other instruments of a legal character concluded with the separate Governmentb of a given region. Therefore we categorically reject the statements of the Government of the United States of America ~o the effect that the present highly tense and dangerous situation in Central America has been provoked by the "expansion of communism". On the contrary, we fully support the position of the overwhelming majority ofthe world community, a posi- tion adopted by a number of Governments, regardless of their political persuasion, including public opinion and the voices of realistic political figures in the United States itself, according to which the reason for the tension in Central America is the desire of the United States Gov- ernment to maintain by all means available the outmoded relations of subordination of the countries of that region to its own economic and political strategic interests. 249. The United States Government is maintaining an undeclared war against Nicaragua "in defence of democ- racy". Yet the Fascist terror of the dictator Sonmza d!d not prevent the granting of unlimited assistance to Nica- ragua so long as that country playe.d the role ofa police- man defending the interests of the United States in the region. The reason for the change in its attitude to that country is that Nicaragua decided freely and in the light of its own historical experience to choose its own social structure. The Government of the United States, striving to prevent this, has let loose its special services created in this region, enabling it to promote dictators to leading positions in the political systems of the neighbouring countrics, so that on the basis of manufactured contradic- tions they can stir up old conflicts and unleash new ones. NOTES