On the first day of the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly, the Secretary-General, António Guterres spoke about the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the economic crisis. Meanwhile, Petro called for ending the drug war, Boric called for strengthening democracy and Bolsonaro used the speech to criticize Lula.
The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, opened this Tuesday the annual meeting of leaders in the General Assembly, number seventy-seven, with a harsh warning about the situation of a world that is increasingly fractured, unequal and incapable of resolving the great problems that affect everyone. “The world is in danger and paralyzed”Guterres told the heads of state and government gathered in New York, from whom he demanded cooperation and urgent measures to stop the effects of wars, against the food crisis and against climate change.
The head of the United Nations insisted that the great world challenges cannot be solved alone or with alliances of countries, but that a great world coalition is necessary. “We have a winter of global unrest on the horizon. There is an intense cost-of-living crisis. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding. Our planet is burning. People are suffering and the most vulnerable are hurting the most. “warning.
Bolsonaro campaigning at the UN
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, did not miss an opportunity to shoot against the opposition and stated before the UN General Assembly that during his government he faced the “systematic corruption” of the left, in a clear allusion to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As president of Brazil, and following the tradition of the UN, he was the first of the heads of state and government to speak before the General Assembly and he did so with an indirect attack on Lula, who leads all the polls ahead of the elections of October 2.
“We are facing systematic corruption,” Bolsonaro declared before the General Assembly, adding that between 2003 and 1016, when the left governed the country, billions of dollars were stolen and that the person responsible for this was convicted, although he ruled that this is the Brazil of the past. In a clear electoral tone, Bolsonaro made a kind of balance of his administration, which began in 2019, and underlined the topics of his campaign and the defense of conservative values, which Brazil promotes in all forums, such as the defense of the family, the right to life from conception and the rejection of gender ideology.
At the international level, he referred to the consequences that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had in the world and was opposed to all kinds of sanctions as a formula to end the conflict. “The war in Ukraine has been going on for seven months and generating apprehension around the world, it has aggravated the global energy crisis and led some countries to revert to dirty sources of energy, which puts the objectives of sustainable development in check”said.
In this framework, he maintained that Brazil has endeavored to promote a dialogue between all the actors in conflict, affirmed that the solution will only be reached through negotiation and asked the United Nations not to miss the opportunity to rescue peace.
Bolsonaro traveled to New York from London, where he attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and caused controversy by holding several campaign meetings with Brazilian supporters, amid British mourning. According to his official agenda, before returning to Brazil, he has scheduled a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and another with the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso.
Colombia against the war on drugs
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, denounced in his first intervention before the United Nations the failure of the anti-drug war and the destruction of thousands of lives and the Amazon jungle by the strategy of persecution.
“Deadly consumption has increased, from soft drugs to harder ones, there has been a genocide on my continent and in my country, millions of people have been sentenced to prison”, said the first leftist president of Colombia. In a speech addressed to consumer countries, Petro called for an end to the irrational war on drugs.
The president emphasized that the strategy that has been used for four decades to end the lucrative business only leaves hundreds of thousands dead in North America and overcrowded prisons in the rest of the continent. “If we don’t correct the course and this war goes on for another 40 years, the United States will see 2,800,000 young people die of overdoses and a million more Latin Americans will die murdered”held.
Since his inauguration on August 7, Petro has insisted on a focus on preventing consumption in developed economies instead of persecuting growers of coca leaves, the base of cocaine, considered the weakest link in the drug trafficking chain.
According to the UN, in Colombia there are at least 142,000 hectares of drug crops, a large part of them planted in the Amazon jungle. The fires to open fields for coca and other purposes destroy one of the richest ecosystems in the world and key to the absorption of CO2. Petro pointed out that the Amazon is being a victim of the addiction of the powers for coca, money, and for natural resources such as coal and oil.
“The jungle is burning, gentlemen (…) destroying the jungle, the Amazon, has become the slogan followed by states and businessmen”said the president, who came to power waving environmentalist flags. “They decided to make an enemy of an Amazon jungle plant, extradite and imprison its growers, I invite you to stop the war and stop the climate disaster”he added.
Chile calls for democracy
The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, made an appeal on Tuesday to strengthen democratic systems and said that the problems that afflict the different societies are solved with more democracy and not with less.
“The way to face the problems that afflict our societies is paved with more democracy and not less, encouraging participation and not restricting it, promoting dialogue and never censoring it and, above all, respecting those who think differently”, indicated the president. “I rebel against the abyss that some seek to dig in the face of the legitimate diversity of opinions. From Chile we declare our will as builders of points in the face of these gaps that prevent us from meeting as diverse societies,” he added.
The ruler recalled that Chile opted for democracy to solve the social outbreak of 2019, the largest wave of protests since the end of the military dictatorship, with thirty deaths, thousands of injuries and accusations against the security forces for violations of the human rights.
Boric thus reviewed the three years that Chile lived since the riots and recalled that on September 4 an overwhelming majority of Chileans, 62 percent, rejected in a plebiscite the proposal for a new Constitution drawn up by a progressive convention elected after the proposals. “Some have wanted to see the result of the plebiscite as a defeat for my government. A government can never feel defeated when the people speak out”he highlighted.