The United Nations (UN) is en route to its renovation because its current structure doesn’t respond to worldwide reality, declared to the ABI the president of this organization, Miguel D’Escoto.
He remarked that he intends to “direct a management of renovation in the UN that doesn’t consist just of short- term remedies or reforms, but of facing a new vision for its existence with a mound of member countries that adopt solidary attitudes and not those of permanent confrontation”.
“In the UN we have very influential and powerful members that have never believed in the rule of law, in international relations; they always believed in the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest and they still believe that compliance with commitments is for the weak. The powerful believe that they can do what they feel like with impunity and that has to change”, he affirmed.
He said that there is an obligation to march forward with a different vision for international organizations that promote solidarity and brotherhood, with values and principles that were dismissed by the conventionality of visions that sought only the interest of the powerful.
“We should move forward with that vision of culture, of solidarity, without imperialist dreams or practices. This is in contrast with the UN Charter as is the capitalism that promotes following egoism”, he declared.
He expressed that, for example, 30 years ago the rich countries took on a commitment to contribute to the eradication of world poverty: they promised to give 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of their economies to help development.
“It’s like saying that from the table of abundance, crumbs were going to fall that would help fight against poverty, but they haven’t even been able to give these crumbs. The United States hasn’t even complied with 0.2 percent of its GDP, even though it’s a country that spends trillions of dollars on genocidal wars with the purpose of accumulating natural resources from a country such as Iraq”, he specified.
D’Escoto was in Bolivia to hand President Evo Morales a parchment in which he was declared by the international organization “World Hero of Mother Earth” in virtue of his struggle for defending natural resources in favour of humanity.
With this Morales joins two other world heroes declared so by the UN: Fidel Castro from Cuba and Julius Nyrere from Tanzania who assumed the distinction “Heroes of Solidarity and Social Justice”, respectively.
D’Escoto is a Catholic priest and follower of liberation theology and non-violent resistance. He is a Doctor in Communications graduated from the University of Colombia; he was a ministerial level adviser in international relations for the Nicaraguan government.
Likewise, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sandinista government between 1979 and 1990 and he fostered the creation of a series of humanistic organizations such as the Preocupados por la Salud y la Nutrición de los Nicaragüenses Pobres (Concerned for the Health and Nutrition of the Nicaraguan Poor).
In his political life he is characterized by his defense of the current Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, and for his vigorous criticism of United States’ governments, in particular those led by Presidents Ronald Reagan y George W. Bush.
In the 1970s, D’Escoto joined the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front – FSLN). He was reprimanded by Pope John Paul II for getting involved in politics.
*By Adalid Cabrera Lemuz*
*(Translated by Rupert James Spedding)*
