Pacheco Honored in U.S., Addresses United Nations

PRESIDENT Abel Pacheco made hisrounds in the United States this week:receiving an award in Florida, speakingbefore the United Nations in New York andattending yesterday’s inauguration of formerPresident Miguel Ángel Rodríguez assecretary general of the Organization ofAmerican States (OAS) in WashingtonD.C.During his speech before the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations onTuesday, President Abel Pacheco spoke infavor of strengthening the organizationand making its Security Council moredemocratic.“It’s important to give a voice to allmember states that represent all the peoplesof the world,” Pacheco said duringthe inauguration of the 59th GeneralAssembly.“Maintaining prerogatives for somestates, in a demerit to the majority of theorganization’s members, is not just undemocratic,but also contrary to the principleof legal equality among states, which formspart of the San Francisco Charter (theUnited Nations’ founding text),” he said.Pacheco asked world leaders to worktogether to create a fair and just form ofglobalization, and he also criticized militaryspending.U.S. President George W. Bush alsospoke before the General AssemblyTuesday and encouraged support for aCosta Rica-sponsored comprehensive banon human cloning, to be voted on byassembly members later this year.Earlier in his U.S. trip, Pacheco washonored by the Central AmericanChamber of Commerce in Miami for hispolicies aimed at reducing poverty.During his speech, Pacheco saidCentral American countries must find away to reactivate their economies and generatenew wealth that can be distributedamong the population. One of the ways toachieve this, he said, is through the CentralAmerican Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA)with the United States.When questioned that night by internationalpress about the stability of CostaRica, in light of the resignation of ninehigh-level government officials and the corruptionscandal involving former PresidentRafael Ángel Calderón and other officials,Pacheco continued his stance that the countryis not becoming unstable.–Rebecca Kimitch