NEW YORK.- Standing for the first time before world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly, President Alberto Fernandez He gave his most important annual message in the global arena a strong political imprint by giving a stellar place to the assassination attempt against the vice president, Cristina Kirchnerand affirm, as soon as he opened his speech, that the attack sought to alter the Argentine democratic construction of the last four decades.
Throughout his message, Alberto Fernández reviewed the problems of the world and the country, and at the start he condemned, when speaking of the failed assassination attempt on the vice president, to “the fascist violence that disguises itself as republicanism”. In addition to the political message, the speech touched on the central issues of Argentine foreign policy. Fernández spoke about democracy, foreign debt, the scourge of the coronavirus pandemic, food and energy security, climate change, the fight against poverty and social inequality, the defense of human rights – there were no mentions of violations in Nicaragua, Cuba or Venezuela, but if a request to lift the “blockades” to the last two -, condemned terrorism and reiterated the claim against Iran for the attack on the AMIAand to the United Kingdom for the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands.
The President called for the cessation of hostilities in the war in Ukraine –This time he did not use the word “invasion”, but rather “military advance” when referring to Russia’s aggression– and sought to place Argentina as a future strategic supplier on two fronts where needs prevail: energy and food. But of all the topics that she covered in her speech, the one chosen for her opening was Cristina Kirchner, and her failed attempt to assassinate her.
“In Argentina, the attempt to assassinate the vice president not only affected public tranquility. He also sought to alter a virtuous collective construction that next year will be four decades old. In 1983 we recovered democracy, and we began a long historical cycle in which different political forces alternated in the government”, said the president.
“We Argentines built the “Never Again” agreement to state terrorism and political violence. We value democracy as a model of social development that requires respect for the other in diversity. I am sure that fascist violence masquerading as republicanism will not succeed in changing this broad consensus to which the vast majority of Argentine society adheres,” he added.
Alberto Fernández’s speech before the United Nations was the most important on the foreign policy of the country and the place of Argentina in the world, but, like other leaders, the President used it to send messages to both the domestic audience and the international audience, and review a few topics – the condemnation of terrorism and the claim against Iran for the AMIA, or the claim for the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands – which are always present. Fernández offered two salient issues: the attack on Cristina Kirchner, and the new space that Argentina can occupy in the world given the consequences of the war in Ukraine. He touched it up for the last time in the morning. He read it from the podium, without changing a thing. He was heard in the room by his closest ring of trust: the foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, the ambassador, Jorge Argüello; Juliot Vitobello and Gabriela Cerruti, Anibal Fernández, and the ambassador to the UN, María del Carmen Squeff.
The warnings for political violence and extremism occupied a stellar place. The President said that taking advantage of the uneasiness generated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, “extremist and violent discourses proliferated and found fertile ground to sow anti-political sentiment in our societies”, and said that remaining silent could create a crisis in the rule of law.
“Those who seek to weaken and erode democracies have specific interests that lead them to promote extreme polarization. Let us not resignedly accept this situation. Let’s generate a strong global rejection of those who promote division in our communities, ”he said.
Referring to the war in Ukraine, he called for “recovering the empire of peace”, and promised that Argentina “will fulfill its role as a reliable producer and exporter of food” and to meet the challenge of achieving energy security and confronting climate change and the transition to a green economy by providing the world with natural gas, lithium and clean energy, a role that the White House views with enormous interest, and that the country, still, it cannot comply due to lack of investment.
“We have always advocated the peaceful resolution of disputes. It is imperative that all unleashed hostilities cease. For this reason, we need to work together to impose dialogue and restore peace in the dispute that began with the military advance of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine,” said the president.
The mandatary reiterated his call to seek a new capitalism by affirming that “the economic and financial practices that the developed world demands of the world that is trying to develop” should be abandoned, and that by adding later that stretching the present will only increase poverty and marginality.
Later, he defined the place that Argentina could occupy in the world: “We work to ensure that this path of environmental sustainability and food and energy security is possible. But all efforts will be in vain if we do not travel that path within a framework of more equitable economic and social development”.
The President condemned terrorism, again asked Tehran to cooperate with the Justice to clarify the attack on the AMIA and reiterated his willingness to return to the negotiating table with the United Kingdom to discuss the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, a stalemated conflict. At the end, he returned to the theme of inequality, one of his favorites.
“We live in a world where injustices and inequalities increase. At the same time, the risks for democracies are growing, peace is breaking down and uncertainty is increasing. We have an urgent ethical duty. Is now. We must work and implement effective global agreements that eradicate hunger, that drastically reduce inequalities, that ensure democratic stability, peace and coexistence”, he said at the end.