At UN headquarters, this Tuesday, September 20, was the first day of speeches by heads of state and government at the podium, as part of the organization's 77th General Assembly. America…

Petro and Boric, the new left-wing South American presidents before the UN

Colombian President Gustavo Petro addresses the United Nations for the first time during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. Getty Images via AFP - MICHAEL Mr. SANTIAGO

Text by: RFI Follow

4 mins

At UN headquarters, this Tuesday, September 20, was the first day of speeches by heads of state and government at the podium, as part of the organization's 77th General Assembly.

South America presents this year two new faces from the left: Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, and Gabriel Boric, his counterpart in Chile.

They spoke before the United Nations for the first time.

Advertising

War in Ukraine, climatic disasters, food insecurity... UN Secretary General António Guterres took charge of taking stock of the situation on Tuesday, September 20, at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. , At New York.

And let the national leaders speak.

Gustavo Petro represents Colombia.

He was elected last June, in Bogotá, where he had previously been mayor, becoming his country's first left-wing president.

This Tuesday, on the first day of the 2022 United Nations GA, it was her first intervention, and she made an impression.

#PedroGustavo shows up for the first time at the #UN and the new president of #Colombia improvises a historic, poetic and lyrical speech à la #Allende or #Neruda, to recall the vital aspect of the Amazon and deplore the destruction of the sacred plant of the Incas: Coca https://t.co/6XZ3ZgQG85

— FX Freland (@FXFreland) September 20, 2022

An intervention to speak out against the war launched against cocaine, which is destroying the Amazon at the very moment when the world wants to save it, as Gustavo Petro himself exposed on the podium.

To eradicate the coca plant, we use the poison, glyphosate, which is found in the water.

Farmers are arrested, put in jail.

“Destroy the plant that kills”, say the people of the north.

But the plant is only a plant, one more in the millions that perish when the jungle is burned.

Destroying the Amazon jungle has become the order of States, regardless of the cries of scientists, for whom it is one of the great climatic pillars.

A vehement intervention, sometimes, also noted our special envoy to the headquarters of the United Nations in New York,

Christophe Paget

For power relations in the world, the jungle and its inhabitants are responsible for the evils that threaten us.

My country does not interest you, except for its coal and oil.

You use us to excuse the emptiness, the loneliness of your own societies that drive you to live in drug bubbles.

We help you hide problems you don't want to face.

It is easier to declare war on the jungle, on its plants, on its populations

", then developed the Colombian head of state.

I ask you here, on behalf of wounded Latin America, to put an end to this senseless war on drugs.

We must not launch a war, but build a better society, more united, where the intensity of life saves from addiction and new forms of slavery.

On the big topic in 2022, the war in Ukraine and its consequences, the Colombian president advocated, like others, negotiation, with his own terms.

Do not pressure us to align ourselves on the battlefields (...) Let the Slavic peoples talk to each other.

►Read also: At the UN, Emmanuel Macron calls for a stand against Russia

Boric: “End all abuse”

The young Chilean President Gabriel Boric, 36, took his first steps at the UN too, on Tuesday.

Without complex, he urged "

to take the necessary actions, and not just declarations, to stop Russia's unjust war against Ukraine and to end all abuses by the powerful all over the world

"Some wanted to see the NO to the new Chilean Constitution as a defeat.

I want to tell the United Nations that a government can never feel defeated when the people speak out."@GabrielBoric, the President of Chile, was for this Carta Magna.#UNGA https://t.co/3yLRmcBC66

— Laurie Fachaux (@Lauriefachaux) September 20, 2022

The head of state, elected in Santiago in December 2021, called for "

not to normalize the permanent violations of human rights against the Palestinian people

", for which he called for a full state, all guaranteeing "

Israel's legitimate right to live within secure and internationally recognized borders

►Read again: UN General Assembly: Vladimir Putin, the great absentee

A strong advocate for parity in politics, he also called for efforts to end violence against women and highlighted the death of Mahsa Amini last Friday "

at the hands of the police

" in Iran.

Nowhere in the world should having ideas different from those of the government in place lead to persecution or human rights violations.

The President of Chile also referred to the situation in Central America, following the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, for which he urged nations to "

continue working to contribute to the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua

Or the exodus of millions of Venezuelans generated by the "

protracted political crisis

" of the government of Nicolás Maduro.

►On the same subject: What to remember from the first day of the UN General Assembly

Petro and Boric, the new left-wing South American presidents before the UN

Petro and Boric, the new left-wing South American presidents before the UN

Boric: “End all abuse”

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest