Address by the President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, at the Thirteenth Andean Presidential Council
(Unofficial version, transcript of the speech)

Valencia, Venezuela June 23, 2001

There can be no doubt that Andean integration is more than just a series of figures and statistics, duties and tariffs. Andean integration is above all the anguish, hopes, and aspirations of the 110 million inhabitants of our Community. Andean integration is not a ploy of our leaders of 32 years ago, but the continuation of an unprecedented historical event that links us together with unbreakable bonds. There are very few countries in the world, fellow Presidents, that have as closely-knit and interconnected a history of independence as that which gave birth to our nations.

Today, in this charming city of Valencia, in this evocative State of Carabobo, at this crossroads of our cherished Venezuela, we celebrate the 180^th anniversary of a battle that symbolized the courage and the possibilities of our united nations; it was Bolívar who was our shared liberator and the forger of this chapter of America’s liberation. He had already triumphed in Boyacá and won the freedom of the Granadians; he had already spurred in Angostura the creation of a single liberated nation; he had already proclaimed in Bogotá the fulfillment of his life’s cherished integration, which was none other than the formation of the free and independent Republic of Colombia, among the sister nations. It was now time to consolidate this liberating dream in his beloved Venezuela, and it was in the Carabobo savannah where his aspiration was gloriously achieved. He had already foreseen this in the letters he wrote to Santander ten days before the battle: "Expect the victory we are going to obtain in Carabobo." So it was that with his planning genius, with the bravery of the Lion of Apure, General José Antonio Páez, with the courageous participation of Bogotan Colonel Ambrosio Plaza, General Manuel Cedeño, Colonel Rangel, and the British Battalion under the command of Colonel Farriar, the largest and handsomest Liberating Army ever to bear arms in a Colombian battlefield –in Bolívar’s words— this feat was performed and the defeated adversary was chased from the field.

It was a triumph of the brave that left as its unfortunate aftermath the tragic losses of Plaza, Cedeño, and Farriar, among the two hundred odd dead and wounded. But their sacrifice was not in vain, for free and proud Venezuela was erected on their heroic blood, the new horsemen and infantrymen marched forth to Pichincha, Lake Maracaibo, Junín, and Ayacucho to conclude the epic campaign to free the five countries that today, proudly boasting their past, comprise the Andean Community. Who can doubt the reasons for our union today? Who can deny today that behind our Community stand, beyond trade and economic aims, an entire people who share common roots and horizons?

Dear friends, Colombia is a nation that believes fervently in the benefits of integration, that has worked unflaggingly for the successful future of the Andean Community, and that is deeply committed to the process that links us together today. I state this straightforwardly, because it is an irrefutable fact that also commits our efforts on both the national and international fronts. As our political constitution so aptly puts it, the Colombian State promotes economic, social, and political integration with other nations, particularly the Latin American countries.

But beyond what the law orders, integration for us is a lifetime vocation, a vocation inspired in the Bolivarian ideal, a vocation I learned from my father, former President Misael Pastrana Borrero, whose responsibility it was to give legal force to the law that incorporated the Cartagena Agreement into our domestic legislation, and a vocation that was born of our own experience in confirming that the strength of the Latin American countries, and in particular the Andean countries, lies in the uniting of their efforts, their potentials, and their complementary advantages.

We have a history of more than three decades dedicated to this common effort that we cannot just throw out. On the contrary, our duty today is to add to the accomplishments of the last decade of the twentieth century, when we breathed new life into the Community and in Trujillo designed a complete and worthy system of integration.

This system will be valid and operative only so long as the Member Countries themselves make it so. The responsibility for the success or frustration of its development lies with the five Member States, and particularly their leaders, who should view integration not as a process that moves ahead by inertia, but as an essential objective whose fulfillment will produce more benefits than problems, and which we must watch over and encourage.

We must note with satisfaction the vigorous trade enjoyed by the Community today. While our interregional trade 10 years ago amounted to barely 1 billion 797 million dollars, last year we reached a figure of 5 billion 166 million dollars, 31% more than in the difficult year of 1999.

In fact, during the first five months of this year we have been growing at a rate of 19.5%. If this trend holds for the rest of the year, we will reach a high of over 6 billion dollars, setting a new record for our integration history. But it is not merely a matter of trade for its own sake; in our case, an increase in intracommunity trade involves above all a diversification of our economies and the creation of a large number of new jobs in our countries.

When we speak about breaking the 6 billion dollar barrier in purchases and sales between the Subregion’s countries, what we are really saying is that we are creating or maintaining about 700 thousand jobs –in other words, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Bolivian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, and Colombian families, whose income and, above all, quality of life is improving. Behind integration stand the people and it is they who benefit the most from it.

Now, then, if we are achieving these encouraging results in our trade just as each of our countries is emerging from difficult periods of recession, how much more is it possible for us to grow now that our economies are in full recovery? How much more could we advance if we were to truly commit ourselves to honor the commitments adopted in Cartagena and Lima and those we adopt here in Valencia?

Today we are laying the groundwork so that in the near future we can fulfill goals as important as the adoption of the Andean passport for our citizens, whose sole requirement for traveling freely through our countries will be to hold national identification documents. Imagine how this will revolutionize our way of thinking, feeling, and acting! Imagine how this will multiply our possibilities for trade and investment, for getting to know each other better, for being able to jointly identify excellent opportunities!

We are not building a Community so that our people will adjust to it. Precisely the contrary, our challenge should be to continue creating and consolidating the communities of the people themselves. This is a gradual process of construction, something like putting up a building where we cannot anticipate how many upper stories there will be without first having strengthened its foundations. Only then will we be able to patiently build each new floor, one-by-one, until we reach the pinnacle of our efforts. Only as we further this process gradually and through the efforts of each and every one of us will it become irreversible. We must not forget the example of the European Union, which started more than half a century ago as a coal and steel agreement and then year-by-year shaped an integration structure that is today one of the world’s most advanced bodies.

In June of last year in Lima, we heads of state of the Andean countries assumed commitments to move ahead with the construction of a common market among the countries of the region, which would enter into force in the course of the year 2005. Nevertheless, in order for our integration structure to rest on solid foundations, we must be aware that we must first concentrate on completing processes that are still pending, the Free Trade Zone and the Customs Union, which in theory should be fully operational today. To call our integration into question or to fall back in its course will only reduce our possibilities for growth, create further unemployment, and marginalize us internationally.

In order to move ahead with our integration, we must plan to carry out over the rest of this year an agenda in which priority is placed on matters that are essential for consolidating the enlarged market and clearing the way for the future and the common market by creating greater confidence on the part of our own people and others in the soundness of our process. It is therefore urgently important for us to define a joint Agenda that we should start addressing as soon as possible. We already know what the priority issues are: the common external tariff, an area in which Peru’s prompt incorporation is necessary if it is to become fully effective; a common agricultural policy; a state procurements system; the freeing of the trade in services; and our joint foreign relations. In order to effectively consolidate Subregional integration, we must commit ourselves to remedy our failures to comply with the Cartagena Agreement and, at the same time, strengthen our supranational institutions and give them more relevance. By taking these actions and acting on the concrete issues that I have enumerated, we will enjoy more credibility vis-à-vis third parties, a necessary condition for guaranteeing the legal security we must offer to attract new foreign direct investment to our countries.

It is especially important for our utmost economic development to foster Subregional industrial projects that will make the most of our economic complementarity, consolidate the advances we have made in our integration, and broaden the Andean supply that can be exported to foreign markets. It is, therefore, a matter of priority for our governments to incentivize Andean investment in the Subregion, while maintaining legal security and the conditions in effect at the time of their establishment, guaranteeing the continuance of production through timely provisioning, and ensuring that the rights of investors are given full legal protection. In this way, we will be able to assure our enterprises that they will enjoy national treatment, without any discrimination whatsoever, as stipulated in the Cartagena Agreement.

What we were able to obtain in Cartagena and last April in Quebec is very important, fellow Presidents, when we agreed on a joint stand for the Community in requesting the extension and broadening of the Andean Tariff Preferences Act, the ATPA, and Venezuela’s incorporation into that mechanism. As we did at that time, we are joining efforts to secure the extension, this very year, without any conditions, of the Andean GSP, under which the countries of the European Union grant tariff preferences to our products. It is extremely satisfying, as well, to note how we are speaking with a single voice in the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the FTAA.

My dear Andean colleagues:

Our integration exists for the benefit of our own people. Therein lies the importance of successfully carrying out the Andean Social Agenda. The decisions to boost the creation of Border Integration Zones and of Binational Border Service Centers in our countries, and the Protocol of Replacement of the Simón Rodríguez Convention, for the study and coordinating of socio-labor issues, are all steps toward our peoples’ improved social development.

In this same connection, it is of primary importance for the ministers who are responsible for social issues in each of our countries –education, health, housing, and employment, among other things— to have a mechanism for exchanging experiences and coordinating joint efforts to improve the quality of life of our most vulnerable population groups.

We must not forget the issue of Human Rights. All of our countries are parties to the Inter-American Human Rights Convention and must make its protection a matter of State. How pleased I am that representatives from the Offices of the Ombudsmen, the Attorney Generals’ Offices and the other bodies responsible for this crucial issue will be getting together to study the best way of promoting and defending those rights!

As for the control of the worldwide drug problem, which has so affected our region -- perhaps the principal victim of that scourge--, it is a matter of great satisfaction that at this Meeting we be approving an Andean Cooperation Plan to control drugs and related offenses, that will approach as a single comprehensive problem the production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs, asset laundering, the diversion and smuggling of chemical precursor substances, and illegal arms trafficking. This is a Plan drawn up by our own Community, which will serve as a basic contribution toward developing a hemispheric strategy and is also the basic political support for the trade preferences that our countries enjoy today.

We will do our utmost to ensure that over the next few days the Andean Executive Committee provided for in the Plan is set up and that steps are taken to carry out the Program of Action and the respective Operational Plans that will contribute to the effectiveness of the effort to control this worldwide scourge from a coordinated regional approach through the effective exercise of shared responsibility.

Dear friends:

It is clear that our integration is not a paper structure, but a process that is operating and producing positive benefits for our nations. Just as our forces joined together in Carabobo 180 years ago to defeat a common enemy and defend our freedom, we must now continue along this path of union and cooperation, which is the only valid course for fulfilling our aspirations for development, peace, and social justice.

Like Páez, like Plaza, like the great Bolívar, like the brave lancers of Rondón, let us move forward together, united behind the glorious banner of our integration. The common victory of our people depends upon us. Thank you very much.