Words of Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón, Andean Community Secretary General, at the formal session held in honor of the visit of the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, to the General Secretariat Headquarters

Lima, October 22, 2004

Mr. President:

You honor us with your visit to the home of Andean integration, an ever-present project in the collective memory of our nations, which has been enriched by Colombia’s inspiring participation at different stages of our history.

Along this line, I recall that it was in the town of Mompox, in northern Colombia, that the Liberator launched the campaign that was to lead to our nations’ emancipation. It was a Colombian, Francisco de Paula Santander, justly dubbed by posterity the “man of laws” who, through his dedication to the tasks of government in Santafé de Bogotá, cleared the way for Simón Bolívar, “the man of problems”, to devote his efforts, almost unceasingly, from Carabobo to Ayacucho, to laying the foundations for our common destiny as independent nations.

One hundred and forty years later, another illustrious Colombian, President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, was to contribute significantly, through his express will embodied in the Declaration of Bogotá, to uniting the efforts of our countries to give birth to an Andean Pact with implications for Latin America.

You, Mr. President, are part of that illustrious group of Colombian statesmen whose efforts have transcended the national borders of their country to act with the same motivations as those whose thinking tends to be in terms of history.

I have had the privilege of closely following your personal contribution to the new agenda for Andean and Latin American integration, first as Peru’s Foreign Minister and now as Secretary General of the Andean Community. At the Quirama Summit, anticipating the course of our present international negotiations, you pointed out that “the ideal situation would be for all of us to reach our destinations at the same time. But if that does not prove possible, at least let us arrive there respecting a political agreement among all of us, that will bind us more closely and give us more confidence,” you stated. This was attained in July of this year when, at the Quito Summit, the basic decision was taken to maintain the Community’s existing legal system, the autonomy of our integration process, and harmony among the Member countries, by authorizing trade negotiations with third countries at the same time.

On that same occasion, you invited the countries to endow our process with a wider vision: “An integration of brotherhood –you called it-- in which trade and the economy are just one of the chapters.” Thus, thanks to your personal vocation and commitment, the Andean social agenda emerged in Quirama, which has just materialized in the Comprehensive Social Development Plan, designed to boost, from the vantage point of the integration process, national programs to overcome the poverty, exclusion, and inequality from which the Andean peoples suffer.

Since then you have shown evidence of your intention to link your proposal for democratic security to a social investment strategy whose precise overall assessment I had the opportunity to hear you give just a few weeks ago in the city of Medellín. The recently approved Andean Common External Security Policy, as well as the reiterated intention of the Andean Presidents to form a subregional peace zone in order to make security into a public good that will uphold our development and integration efforts, draw on these same precepts.

With your ideas and your leadership, you have brought to fruition the multidimensional agenda that another illustrious Colombian, my predecessor and friend, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, fostered effectively and with great determination --an agenda that I have sought to build up by placing emphasis on the challenges created by globalization and the recovery, for our integration process, of the notion of development with an approach toward competitiveness and social inclusion.

We are now faced by the challenge of bringing this new phase of the integration process to maturity under the precepts of what you have aptly termed the “effective multilateralism” of our development priorities, and also of what you have called a “sustainable State” capable of underpinning social development policies in an environment of economic growth and the strengthening of democracy. This coming December seventh, in Cusco, the special Summit that you have encouraged so enthusiastically will offer you and the other Andean Presidents the exceptional opportunity to move in that direction and make our integration process a great social and political project, as well as an economic one.

We welcome you, Mr. President.

Thank-you.