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179 2243rd meeting-25 September ]974

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stuffs and increases in the costs of services necessary to produce and market food. To that must be added the growing seriousness of the situation of the ". workers, the sharpening of tensions and difficulties in society, and the growing, widespread inflation, with all the social problems that it entails. 227. The situation hecomes a tragedy when one appreciates the fact that the sectors most directly affected are not the affiuent, hut rather the less advantaged, sectors in all political systems: small landowners, small farmers and those who rent land, the rural landless, the unemployed of the cities and the countryside, and generally those with the least buying power in society, including a high percentage of infants and children. 228, Here again; my delegation hopes that this session of the General Assembly will put forward effective recommendations and that it will talk about the causes of the problem, about which something can be done. We must not content ourselves with merely saying that the artificial increase in the prices of raw materials has led to the higher prices of fertilizers which are necessary to produce food; we must also take a hard look at scientific research which is focused exclusively on these two choices; moreover, we must think about the decision-making process which has led to .that situation, and we must also consider the economic problems and the cultural climate that produced the -consumer habits that have created the problem. Just as the consideration of what may seem to be the cause of the problem leads to its underlying causes, so it might well be that remedies for these underlying causes may prove to be the best solution to the problem itself. 229. We are all well aware of the fact that the world has been living through a period of economic instability with serious repercussions. The persistence of under-development and the growing gap between the wealthy and poor countries are a noticeable result. The interminable escalation and succession of crises in the political, economic and social areas are symptoms. The energy crisis is one of the most dramatic, and it has indeed become the new villain on which the blame for all the ills of the latter part of the twentieth century has been heaped. 230. In discussing this crisis it is also necessaty to talk about all its components. On the one hand, it is not entirely true that the crisis is due to the fact thatthe oil-producing countries have created a hloc and have tried to impose their economic views by taking advantage of their monopoly on one raw material. On the other hand, it is not entirely true either that the main reason for the crisis is that the producing countries could no longer tolerate the constant deterioration in the prices of their basic raw materials in the face of the constantly increasing prices of products they were importing, and, therefore, had to take defensive action for which they are being hlamed today. 231. To our way of thinking, other equally irnportant aspects of the problem must be pondered. Throughout the decades, international co-operation has been such as to make petroleum a fundamental element of modern civilization, and the production of energy has been a sector requiring high concentrations of capital and technology. For some time now

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we have been laying the groundwork for a very expensive monopoly, neglecting the development of alternative forms of technology that might use traditional sources of energy, such as hydraulic energy, which would have prevented a concentration of power in one sector where monopoly was possible. 232. In our view, alternatives to be sought in the future must not create an undue dependence on certain sources of energy that can be monopolized, such as oil and nuclear power; we must not concentrate on sectors requiring excessive concentrations of capital or technology. The important thing, however, is that we take an overall approach to the problem of development. At the sixth special session of the General Assembly held this year, the groundwork was laid for a programme of international action, and consideration was given to the problems of development and international co-operation. We must realize that a major effort must be made to create a radically new economic order. 233. One of the corner-stones of such a new order, with which the Government of Mexico and the peopies of Latin America are so deservedly associated, should be the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, which must enshrine norms and principles ensuring and orienting this new universal economic order: the integrity and inviolability of the physical and cultural heritage of peoples, effective sovereignty over national resources and economic development leading to tangible benefits for the people of the world; the regulation of foreign investment, particularly the investments of transnational companies, which must he a. tool for co-operation and progress and not a means of domination; the banning of economic pressure as a political weapon to be used against the sovereignty of States; and the right of nationalization and expropriation of property existing on national territory, regardless of the nationality of the owner. 234. This is a difficult task. Let us have no illusions about what we can achieve at one session of the General Assembly. There have been few occasions in history so fraught with danger and challenges, but it is in the very nature of things that the United Nations should confront these situations, and no one expects it to act hastily. The interests at stake are great indeed, the consequences of failure are serious, and we must not act with undue haste. 235. A very telling example of all this is what happened at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. From the time it was convened we realized that the Caracas meeting would not be the end of the maller. We realized that it was not possible to reach decisions on substantive issues when practically 50 per cent of the participants had not taken part in the work of the Preparatory Cornrnittee, and the complexity of the task made it impossible for the Preparatory Committee to issue sufficient documentation and undertake the additional work of fully distributing it. However, there are those who clamour for speedy agreements and already speak in terms of the "Caracas failure". 236. I believe that it is appropriate to express here the gratitade of the Government of Nicaragua to the Government and the people of Venezuela for their invaluable efforts to create a propitious climate