Address by the Secretary General of the Andean Community, Freddy Ehlers, at the Official Ceremony of his Assumption of Office

Lima, February 22, 2007

I call on you to imagine, for a single instant, the moment when that young 35-year-old standing on the Orinoco River bank proposed the perfect government system:  that which produces the greatest amount of happiness possible, the greatest amount of social security, and the greatest amount of political stability.

Almost two centuries have passed since the Liberator alerted this, Our America, to the fact that our people are neither European, nor North American but, rather, more of a combination of Africa and America, than a European emanation.

Little heed did we pay to him who spoke of a new human race, what that great Mexican, Vasconcelos, was to define as the cosmic race.  That which, to Darcy Ribeyro, possessed all of the failings and all of the virtues of all mankind.   

We were strangers in our own land, gazing upon each other and judging ourselves with the very same eyes of the conqueror. 

Bolívar understands this better than anyone else. He spoke of his teacher as the most extraordinary man in the world at that time, Simón like himself and Rodríguez, to hide himself among all men.  He had taught him that a republic without republicans degenerates into a banana republic.  That in this new land, it was necessary to “invent,” or we would always be mistaken; as we did in ceasing to be unique.   

It would appear that at last we are beginning to understand him.  Leopoldo Zea has said it: man will not attain a higher level of development until he understands the universal proposal that all men are equal, precisely because we are different.   

Equality in diversity, to learn from the ants and from the condors. 

To understand that only by respecting the right of others, as Juárez warned us, will we be able to find our own.   

As the farsighted Liberator told us, we are going to embrace the same freedom with laws that are different and even governments that are unlike each other.  For him, each nation will be free in its own way and will enjoy its own sovereignty according to the will of its awareness.  And as if this were not enough, Bolivar has warned, as if he were among us today:  “Each State should adopt the regime it wishes and the rest of the States should respect this.”   

In a few short minutes, here in the city of Lima, an exercise in reflection will be started, to outline the future of Andean and South American integration.  Foreign Ministers and Ministers Plenipotentiary will bear the enormous responsibility for charting the course of integration for the twenty-first century.  Let us heed once again, I beg you, the Liberator who predicted that one day our Representatives would bind themselves together in such a way that they would no long appear to represent “Nations,” but “Brothers.”   

The truth is that we are all Bolivian, with a Colombian soul, an Ecuadorian spirit and Peruvian feelings.  We are all Venezuelans and Chileans, Argentineans, Paraguayans and Brazilians; we are all from Guyana, from Suriname, from Uruguay, or we are not from anywhere.   

A few short days ago, in Río de Janeiro, I was given the mandate by the Andean and South American Presidents to work unceasingly with the Secretariat of MERCOSUR in building that South American Community to which we all aspire.  But, to accomplish this goal, we must be generous, we must understand our neighbors, we must defend their interests and not only those of our own small nation.  Otherwise, we run the risk of once again sowing in the sea and reaping in the wind…

Here stand the Ambassadors of the European Union, so that we may tell them once again of our unwavering will to move toward an Association Agreement, based on mutual respect and our trust in being able to reach clear understandings on social policy, cooperation and trade.  Let is be clearly understood that our priority is to achieve the integral development of our nation.   

The fact is that neither Bolívar nor Martí could have imagined a world in which science and technology, harnessed to the greed of this post-modern society, would seriously endanger the continued existence of life on earth.  No man in his right mind can deny today that it is man himself who has plundered and polluted the environment to such an extent that, with global warming, life on earth as we know it today may come to an end.  There is no subject at this moment that is more pressing and urgent than that of climate change.  This General Secretariat proposes, Messrs. Ministers, that this be the subject of our special concern, so that we may design a different alternative for development that will lead us to form what President Correa calls the Great Sustainable South American Nation.

Here is the Chairman of the Andean Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, David Choquehuanca, who with millenary Aymara wisdom tells us that we must not seek to “live better,” as they teach us in the schools and universities, but to learn to “live well,” which is something different, for it is there, in that apparently subtle difference, that lies the difference between life and death. Evo Morales expresses this clearly when he states: Mankind, earth, planet or death.  For it is in this Andean and Amazon Community that part of the future of mankind will be written. 

Colombia, President Uribe told me only two days ago, is Andean and integrationist; it believes in our common destiny to work together, to help each other and to strengthen ourselves.  Let Hugo Chávez return, he told me.  With absolute clarity, the Colombian President spoke about the desire shared by all, that Venezuela always be Andean, Bolivarian and South American.  

And today, President Alan García, is a special day for Peru and for America because it was on a day like today, over a century ago, that Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, who made of a united America his revolutionary standard, was born.  Not only do we want our America to be united, but also for our America to be just, Víctor Raúl stated, and you, his favorite follower, have demonstrated with clear and profound actions, Peru’s unwavering will to achieve integration with a democracy that reflects the particular demands of our nations, shaped by geography, culture, climate and social situation, as  the biographer of that great teacher, Haya de la Torre, and your comrade in the political fray and mine in the Andean Parliament, my friend Luis Alva Castro stated, citing that great teacher.  

Our commercial, political, cultural and social integration with the countries of Asia-Pacific is another of the pressing tasks of our times.  In the next few months, we will be holding another CAN-China meeting to work out the basic lines of the agreements we have signed.  Chile’s incorporation into the CAN as an Associate Member and Mexico’s shortly, we hope, can do nothing less than build up the Andean Community’s negotiating capacity. 

With the United States, our most important trading partner, we hope to maintain the most cordial and open relations, based on mutual respect and the common interests that have united us over the years. 

I honor the Andean and South American woman.  From Michelle Bachelet, we have learned that we must say what we think and do what we say in order to raise politics to a new level of civic behavior and citizen participation.   

But here, in my own house, I wish to express my appreciation to the women Ministers who are writing a new history.  The passion in María Consuelo Araujo’s daily work.  María Fernanda Espinosa’s vision of sustainable integration and the professional and human capacity of Mercedes Aráoz.  We need all of these, they are essential to us.  I would like to announce that this General Secretariat has decided, with your generous support, to appoint, for the very first time, a woman Director General of the institution, the Peruvian economist Ana María Tenenbaum de Reategui.

And today, also for the first time in the 37-year history of the Andean Community, an indigenous woman will accompany us as an international official in the General Secretariat.  I welcome Pacha Cabascango of Ecuador and, through her, all of the indigenous peoples of our Indoamerica.   

Many ask what is integration good for? and we answer them: 

For creating more than 600 thousand new direct jobs since 1993;

For allowing any Andean citizen to travel to any part of the Andean Community using only his or her national identification document;

For boosting Colombian exports to the other Andean countries almost six-fold since 1992, from 400 million to 2 thousand million dollars,

Those of Bolivia, almost five-fold, from 86 million to 400 million,

Those of Peru, from 180 million to one thousand million,

And those of Ecuador, more than ten-fold, from 160 million to 1,600 million dollars. 

The exports among the CAN Member Countries, overall, rose from 800 million to 5 thousand million dollars.

For possessing one of the world’s most advanced Human Rights Charters;

For having common regulations and legal systems that give investors confidence in our countries;

For having an Andean Court of Justice that guarantees the commercial rights of not only States, but also of any citizen; 

For having our Andean Parliamentarians be elected by the direct vote of the population;

Integration is good for all of that, we answer.

Today the General Secretariat enters a new stage in its history and for that reason requires the fullest support from the governments of the Member Countries.  Our commitment is to transparency and mutual trust among all of the parties. May the best Andean professionals serve in this institution.  I am a journalist and I know no other language than that of ethics and truth, no matter how difficult it may be at times to attain them.  Please lay down the guidelines, Messrs. Foreign Ministers and Ministers Plenipotentiary, for continuing to strengthen this, the mostly strongly established integration institution of Latin America.

My greetings go to Enrique García, Executive President of the Andean Development Corporation, whose help today is more important than ever in preparing the outlines of this bank of the South and this sole currency that some day, sooner or later, will allow us to manage the great South American financial system jointly and with sovereignty. 

To Enrique Ayala, Rector of the Andean University in Ecuador, who has the immense task of bringing together with Luis Biggot and Héctor Navarro the clearest and most profound minds and hearts of this South American land to design and propose the course for us in these terrible and wonderful years of the twenty-first century. 

To Francisco Huerta, Executive Secretary of the Andrés Bello Convention, whose task is to make culture the cornerstone of our union. 

To Luís Fernando Duque, President of the Andean Parliament, and to Rubén Vélez, its Secretary General, and through them to all of the Andean Parliamentarians.  It is only by strengthening the Parliament that we can legitimize Andean and South American union.   

To Oscar Feo, Executive Secretary of the Hipólito Unanue Health Convention. What a huge task we have ahead of us to guarantee the right to health of all our citizens.   

To the illustrious Magistrate, Ricardo Vigil Toledo, President of the Court of Justice of the Andean Community, whom we implore to make justice the fundamental basis for trust and coexistence in the integration process. 

Luís Guillermo Plata, Plenipotenciary Representative of Colombia, and Fernando Arújo, designated Minister of Foreign Affairs of that same sister republic, have, like me, just assumed their high functions and all I can offer them is for us to move ahead in solidarity.   

To the Ministers Plenipotenciary of Bolivia and Ecuador, Aldo Ruiz and Fernando Yépez, go my greetings and commitment as a citizen.

But most especially, my appreciation today goes to all of the international and national personnel of this General Secretariat and to two close friends, leaders of this historic process, Joselo García Belaunde, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, and my predecessor, former Secretary General of the CAN, Allan Wagner, today Minister of Defense of Peru.  I will turn to you as often as you are willing to receive me for help and advice in this task started by you and which it is my duty today to continue. 

Perhaps someday, when this, our America, is a single nation, with a single flag, that of peace, a single constitution, a single currency, and a single army, some child will learn at school that around the year 2007 a group of men and women simply fulfilled their duties as citizens. 

Ladies and Gentleman, I come from the small country on the equator, where the son of a Peruvian Indian and a Quitenian mulata, Eugenio de Santacruz y Espejo, sounded the warning of all our forefathers that we can only be free if we are free together.  And I come from the land of the greatest of all Ecuadoreans, the General of free men, Eloy Alfaro, who learned to understand and love this land of ours in the Lima library under the guidance of Ricardo Palma. For that reason, my commitment is to history and my responsibility is to all of you.

As the first Ecuadorean to assume this responsibility, it is my duty to inform that great man who was Germánico Salgado that today we will continue to build his Andean dream with more determination than ever. 

Vera de Kohn, 94 years of age, and Juan Bastidas, who have arrived from Ecuador and Spain are my teachers and companions in that which is deepest to man, the spiritual revolution. 

Two men symbolize the South American dream; these giants met in Guayaquil and with an embrace sealed South America’s union.  But it was in Lima and in Peru that Argentinean and Venezuelan, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorean and Bolivian blood created the most beautiful love story in our land, sealed forever amid the Andes under the command of the Grand Marshal of Ayacucho, Antonio José de Sucre. And it is Neruda, the American Pablo, who today returns with his nation to the Andean Community, who tells us the history of Guayaquil and of the early times.   

For Neruda tells us that:

Junto a Bolívar una mano blanca
lo esperaba, lo despedía,
acumulaba su acicate ardiente,
extendía el lino en el tálamo.
San Martín era fiel a su pradera.
Su sueño era un galope,
una red de correas y peligros.
Su libertad era una pampa unánime.
Un orden cereal fue su victoria.

Bolívar construía un sueño,
una ignorada dimensión, un fuego
de velocidad duradera,
tan incomunicable, que lo hacía
prisionero, entregado a su sustancia.

San Martín regreso de aquella noche
hacia las soledades, hacia el trigo.
Bolívar siguió solo.

I would like to thank Beatriz for her love for Martí, the martyr of Cuba’s independence, of our identity and of this our America, for whom --let us listen to him carefully-- at this time of man’s reencounter with nature --let us listen to him carefully-- because as Martí said, “all of the glory in this world fits within a single kernel of corn.”    

It would not be fair of me to embark on this shared task without thanking Malu, my son Raúl, Carolina and Fernando, children of a Peruvian mother and an Ecuadorean father and direct descendents, through their grandfather, Jorge Morelli Pando, of José María Pando, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Secretary of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, when he called the Amphictyonic Congress of Panama, which laid the foundations for the Andean, South American and Latin American Community.  I will never be capable of betraying the dream of integration, or of mistaking the course, which is guarded by all of the forefathers and liberators who gave birth to us.  

Ladies and gentlemen.