Honduras

Today marks one year since my appearance before this assembly, serving as the first woman president of the Republic of Honduras, who emerged from the resistance in the streets, fighting against the coup d'état that overthrew Manuel Zelaya Rosales, democratically elected president.

The progress and results of my government have already been recognized by the international community and financial institutions: greater economic growth, the rescue of public finances with the cancellation of corrupt trust funds, a single treasury account, fiscal discipline, timely payment of the burdensome debt, and a reduction in inflation and country risk.

Together with the National Congress, we cancelled the secrets law, an instrument of corruption of the previous regime; we cancelled the ZEDE law that divided the territory into 17 pieces to hand them over to 25 economic groups.

On security matters, we have already achieved a significant reduction in extortion, homicides, and violence with the "Solution Against Crime" program, and the intervention in penal centers and the state of emergency.

It is also important to highlight, so that my gratuitous adversaries take note, that I ordered the largest increase in the budget for social sectors, for poverty reduction, education, and health: the school snack for all boys and girls in primary schools.

Likewise, we returned to the historic free enrollment program, fuel subsidies and free energy for the poorest, and massive bonuses for agricultural production, the repair of 12,000 abandoned schools, productive roads in all municipalities of Honduras, repair of the road network, and the process of building eight new hospitals.

In 2022, the former president of Honduras was accused by the US of conspiring and organizing, for more than a decade, the trafficking of thousands of tons of drugs, leading a criminal organization that included different figures from the underworld, state authorities such as mayors, ministers, congressmen, generals, and police chiefs. Some have already been convicted.

These plunderers who hijacked the state are today conspiring against my government, organized in an alliance of corrupt politicians and supposed civil society, with the aim of stopping the proposals for structural change that the people ordered me at the ballot box.

They are the same ones who assassinated Morazán and today oppose the approval of the tax justice law, they boycott the election of the new attorney general to perpetuate the impunity they are accustomed to, and hinder the arrival of the International Commission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras "CICIH."

It is impossible to understand the magnitude of the tragedy suffered by the majority of the Honduran people and the constant caravans of migrants arriving in the US, if we deny the thirteen years of dictatorship overseen by the international community, which multiplied the public debt sixfold, and reached the highest poverty rate in the history of Honduras: 74%.

The Honduran people, in their noble aspiration for justice, have given me a resounding mandate: to fight and dismantle the narco-state and the public-private corruption that plundered and destroyed institutions, adulterated the popular will with repeated electoral fraud, and imposed state terrorism with death squads.

Popular support has been demonstrated with the recent mobilizations of popular resistance nationwide, with hundreds of thousands of grateful men and women who have expressed their support for our struggle for the return to the rule of law and the restoration of dignity to the Honduran people and to the presidency of the Republic.

This Monday, September 18, upon my arrival in New York, after my participation in the G77+China summit in Havana, Cuba, fulfilling the commitment set out in my government plan and in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed with the UN in 2022: I have delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations the official proposal for an Agreement for the establishment of the International Commission Against Corruption and Impunity for Honduras, CICIH, impartial, autonomous, and independent, with the capacity to investigate and prosecute cases of high-impact corruption networks and financial crimes.

This is the only way to purge a State where public institutions, the pirates of the political class, and public-private associations have been infiltrated by organized crime.

Next year I will assume the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and of the Central American Integration System (SICA). This encompasses the entire great homeland, the one dreamed of by the liberators and by those of us who fight for the unity of South America, the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico.

Today I propose to open spaces for dialogue among ourselves, to formulate proposals that resolve the challenges facing our region. We are not only one of the most unequal and poorest regions, but also one with the lowest economic growth and the greatest technological lag in facing the threats to which we are subjected.

Only by supporting one another will we manage to move forward.

We must not forget our brothers and sisters in Haiti. The humanitarian crisis of an oppressed and revolutionary nation deserves all our support and solidarity. At the III European Union-CELAC Summit, held last July, I clearly laid out Honduras's views on international issues, which, as I have stated here, require an urgent solution.

And regarding SICA, Central America, it is appropriate to express the importance of strengthening the integration process, which has developed languidly over the past 30 years, and therefore we must show genuine political will that allows us to advance the customs union, social and environmental policies, and the safe transit of people and their goods.

Today, great economic interests are clashing in the war in Ukraine; in the end, it is always the poorest countries and peoples on earth who are most affected, beaten down by inflation, food shortages, and high fuel prices.

The military-industrial complex consumes most of the budgets of developed countries, with trillions and trillions of dollars, yet this contrasts with the indifference and incapacity to contribute to humanity and the defense of nature.

The Bretton Woods world is hitting rock bottom; now we must recognize that, at the current pace, we will not achieve the sustainable development goals and the financing needed for climate adaptation.

It is not a matter of taking measures, but of proposing changes to the economic system that require a profound commitment to humanity and nature.

There is no such invisible hand, there is no trickle-down effect; practice teaches us that the application of global capitalism and the neoliberal model only generates misery, inequality, and a demented individualism of consumer societies, in the face of the great deprivation of billions of human beings.

Excellencies:

The war in Ukraine must come to an end; all of humanity is obliged to find a way to achieve peace. We cannot live under the permanent threat of a conflict that could put an end to our planet.

It is important to put an end to the practice of sanctions, piracy, and confiscation of one nation's assets by another. We cannot speak of a civilized world when we live exposed to having our assets embargoed and our reserves frozen in foreign banks. As is currently happening to Venezuela, whose assets were confiscated, violating all norms of international law.

This United Nations Assembly annually demands an end to the blockade against Cuba, as it is an arbitrary, obsolete measure contrary to international law, which violates the principle of respect for the self-determination of peoples and condemns to sacrifice a noble people that, despite the limitations imposed upon it, continues to contribute acts of solidarity to the world.

We condemn the long and cruel blockade against Cuba and against Venezuela; likewise, we demand the removal of Cuba from the list of countries classified as terrorist states, as this is a manipulated, false, and arbitrary measure. Unjust measures and sanctions against Nicaragua must also be eliminated, as they are barriers that prevent us from normalizing our relations with this brother country.

I believe in a multipolar world, where exchange and cooperation for development are based on the principles of independence, sovereignty, and non-interference. Based on these principles, a couple of months ago I officially opened relations with the People's Republic of China, and we have likewise pursued closer ties with financial institutions and new initiatives for us, such as the Andean Development Corporation, CAF, of which we are now a member, and efforts with the New Development Bank of the BRICS.

I wish to reiterate, as I did at the CELAC-European Union Summit, my vehement call for the freedom of Julian Assange, a faithful defender of free expression, a sacred principle that we must all defend.

In defense of the indigenous peoples who fight for the land and the rivers, I feel proud as a woman to convey the message of our compañera and martyr Berta Cáceres:

"Wake up, humanity, there is no more time."

Thank you very much.