Address by the President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, at the headquarters of the Andean Community General Secretariat
Lima, May 7, 2001

Colombia is a nation that believes firmly in the benefits of integration, that has worked tirelessly for the future of the Andean Community, and that is fully committed to the process that unites us today.

I state this straightforwardly because it is an irrefutable fact that also commits our efforts in the national and international spheres. As our national constitution so aptly establishes, the Colombian State actively seeks economic, social, and political integration with the other countries, particularly those of Latin America.

But above and beyond what the law orders, integration, for us, is a living vocation: a vocation inspired in the Bolivarian ideal whose dream of unity was stamped on the Amphictyonic Congress of Panama and the "Gran Colombia;" a vocation that I also learned from my father, former President Misael Pastrana Borrero, who was responsible for sanctioning the law that incorporated the Cartagena Agreement into our domestic legislation; and a vocation that was born of my own experience, in which I have been able to confirm that the force of the Latin American countries –and more particularly of the Andean countries-- lies in the union of their efforts, potentials, and complementary advantages.

More than three decades have been spent putting together a common undertaking that we cannot just scrap. On the contrary, our duty today is to build on the accomplishments of the last decade of the twentieth century, when we breathed new life into the Community and in Trujillo designed a complete "Andean Integration System."

We now have regional institutions in which we can take pride –even if compared with the development of other integration groups--, led by the Presidential Council; with important decision-making bodies like the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Commission; administrative bodies such as the General Secretariat; legal bodies like the Andean Court of Justice; and deliberating bodies such as the Andean Parliament.

But this System can only have the validity and operativeness that the member countries give to it. Its successful development or its failure will depend solely upon the 5 member countries and, more particularly, on their leaders, who must look upon integration not as a process that is moving ahead by inertia, but as an essential objective that produces more benefits than problems and that we must care for and encourage.

The message that we must send the world, which views the Andean integration process with interest and is ready to take decisions for investment in our countries, is that we have a well-established, reliable integration system, with clearly-defined playing rules and serious commitments, endowed with legal security and stability.

It is therefore essential that we strengthen the System’s bodies by guaranteeing their fully operational status and respect for their institutional nature and, in particular, by complying with the decisions handed down by the Andean Court of Justice.

Overcoming the lack of compliance that violates the Cartagena Agreement is crucial if the credibility of the Andean Community is to be restored in our own eyes and those of others. It is our duty to abide by the regional legislative system and to work toward its improvement!

It is also our responsibility to work together resolutely to obtain the renewal by the United States of the Andean Tariff Preferences Agreement –the ATPA— and by the European Union of the Andean Generalized System of Preferences –the Andean GSP--, both due to expire at the end of this year.

The common position we forged in Cartagena on the extension and expansion of the ATPA and presented to President Bush in Quebec, is just one more example of what we are capable of accomplishing when we work together.

But our integration is far more than just customs duties and tariffs. The integration that we seek for the Andean countries is the integration that we agreed upon in Cartagena and ratified in Lima, with a Common Foreign Policy and with a living and dynamic Social Agenda.

Of equal interest is the Integral Andean Strategy to Control the World Drug Problem that we intend to set in motion at the highest level to jointly combat the scourge of drug trafficking in its broadest sense, which encompasses related offenses like the diversion and smuggling of chemical inputs, traffic in illegal arms, and asset laundering.

Many are the challenges that integration faces and I can think of no better place that this one, the seat of its General Secretariat and where Sebastián Alegrett, a Venezuelan with an Andean heart, works tirelessly and with the enthusiasm of a true integrationist to set this promising mission on firm foundations, to highlight my commitment and the commitment of Colombia to its greatest success.

As I stated here in Lima last year, to cite an excellent poet and friend, Gonzalo Arango: "One hand plus another hand is not two hands, but joined hands."

Thank you very much.