Macri defends multilateralism before world leaders at UN
President reiterates Malvinas sovereignty demand, calls on international community to tackle ongoing crisis in Venezuela and help Argentina bring perpetrators of AMIA bombing to justice.
President Mauricio Macri offered a stirring defence of multilateralism and his government at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, as he delivered what could be his last address as head of state to world leaders.
Following on from predominantly nationalist speeches from Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and US leader Donald Trump earlier in the day, Macri highlighted Argentina’s return to the international community under his leadership with a tacit criticism of the previous government led by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“Since I assumed [office], in 2015, we decided to leave behind a stage of confrontation with the world. In the midst of a complex world, we decided to assume the responsibility of making a contribution to multilateralism and the search for consensus,” Macri said as he opened his speech.
“In the face of tendencies of fragmentation, I think it is best tomo ve forwardwith more cooperation, more multilateralism,” he ad ded.“T he world is much more an opportunity than a threat.”
Macri also referenced Argentina’s economic difficulties, assuring the audience that his “pr ior it y ” was to “bring relief” to Argentines.
The president reserved his most outspoken section for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, branding the Venezuelan president’s government “a dictatorship” that affects “the stability and governance of the region.”
The Juntos por el Cambio leader called on “the international community to use all the tools available to reverse this situation and make Venezuela free again.”
He warned that the situation in Venezuela was “very serious,” describing it as an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Prior to his address, Macri had met with former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who now serves as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights. The duo discussed Venezuela at length, officials said.
Yesterday the UN Human Rights Council voted to send a team of investigators to probe alleged violations, including extrajudicial executions and torture, in crisis-wracked Venezuela.
A resolution tabled by more than a dozen countries from Latin America, including Argentina, and elsewhere was adopted by the 47-member council with 19 votes in favour, seven opposed and 21 abstaining. It called for the UN’s top rights body to “dispatch urgently an independent international fact-finding mission” to Venezuela.
The mission, the text said, should “investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment” in Venezuela since 2014.
MALVINAS CLAIM, AMIA BOMBING
Macri also reiterated Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the disputed Malvinas (Falkland) Islands during his speech and spoke of the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of the terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, 25 years after the attack took place.
The AMIA bombing, which took place on July 18, 1994, killed at least 85 people, with
another 300 injured.
“Twenty-five years after the most brutal terrorist attack on our territory, we again urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate with the Argentine judicial authorities to advance the investiga ti onoft he attackont he AMIA [Jewish community centre,” he declared.
“And we reiterate our request for cooperation from friendly countries, to prevent the accused from being received or protected by diplomatic immunity,” he ad ded,aref eren ce to Tehran’ s continued shielding of the alleged perpetrators, as identified by Argentine investigators.
No-one has been tried or convicted for the bombing, while the judge who led the case investigating the bombing has been imprisoned for using state
money to bribe false witnesses, in order to accuse police officers of being part of a local connection to the attack.
Including a reference to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Macri said that Argentina “wants all the people involved in the attacks to appear before Argentine courts, so they can be tried and eventually convicted.
“We continue to fight impunity,” he told the room.
Reiterating Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Malvinas Islands, a fact enshrined in the Co ns ti tu ti on,thep reside nt once again urgedt he U ni tedKingdom toco mmittof in dinga“p eace fu landdefi ni ti ve” solution to the conflict.