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President of the General
Assembly,
Legislators,
Mr.
Chief Justice and Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Presidents
and Chiefs of State of fellow nations
Chiefs
and members of international delegations honoring us with
your presence,
Commanders
in Chief of the Armed Forces
National
and departmental authorities.
Fellow
citizens residing in the country and abroad who are
following this ceremony in the media,
Ladies
and Gentlemen:
According
to the people’s pronouncement in the elections of this
past October 31 and in compliance with the regulations set
forth in the Constitution of the Republic, I have sworn
allegiance to the Constitution before the General Assembly
as it corresponds to the individual elected to exercise the
Presidency of the Republic for the period commencing today.
This
ceremony is not merely protocol. On the contrary, the pledge
of allegiance to the Constitution not only represents the
highest honor a citizen may wish for in a democratic
society, but also implies the greatest commitment from the
individual whom the citizens have trusted with
government’s responsibilities.
You
can be sure I shall be faithful and thoroughly consistent
with this pledge.
Ladies
and Gentlemen:
This
is the first time I have spoken in this house and it will
probably be the last.
Please
allow me then to share some ideas which when expressed here
and under these circumstances acquire special significance.
First,
I have not come here alone. I have reached the Presidency of
the Republic together with hundreds of thousands of fellow
citizens who this past October 31 voted and supported, in a
sovereign and democratic way, a project for a better nation
for all Uruguayan men and women.
Secondly,
we have come a long way.
We
are inspired and driven by the principles of freedom,
solidarity and equality of opportunity for all Uruguayans;
principles that were so constant in the ideology of our
father Artigas and still so valid today.
Freedom,
..... because
freedom is a force which does not guarantee human happiness,
but ensures the human condition. Freedom to be happy, to be
independent and have private interests; freedom to
collaborate on the construction of a world where nobody is
swindled out of the opportunity and the occasion to be
happy. Without freedom, equality is a caricature and life
does not have any sense.
Solidarity,
because it is the best component of the human
condition; solidarity makes us perceive another individual
as our equal and all as we ourselves.
Equality
before the law, but also before the life. Equality as a
basic right and an ethical command.
I
would also like to say that although we have come a long
way, we wish to go much farther.
Nations
are not built by sheltering in the past, nor are they built
by resigning to
the present nor by abandoning the future. What makes this
complex but beautiful human creation that is the democratic
society so thrilling is that it will never be perfect, but
it is always perfectible.
We
are not the owners of the past of our country, but we are
not detached from it either. The political force that
honored me with the candidature to the position I assume
today has roots that go back a century or more, and its
course of action, as well as the those of the other parties,
has been a contribution to the construction of today’s
Uruguay, which is nothing but the Uruguay that Uruguayan men
and women have been able to construct for generations.
History
does not have an end; however, because history is built with
everyday options, I also wish to say that we have the clear
intention to go
along this long path stretching before us together with all
the women and men of this country.
Because
just as nations are built with the help of all, significant
changes also have to involve all.
The
administration that is taking office today has clear
identity signs and its course of action will certainly be
coherent with the values, principles and proposals that
inspire it, because, among other reasons, this is the
citizens’ will expressed this past October 31.
However,
likewise, this administration shall be the administration of
all Uruguayans.
All
Uruguayan men and women beyond race, age, place of
residence, ideological identification, religion, political
affiliation or social condition.
In
that respect, please allow me to reiterate in this
opportunity the special significance of the agreements on
economic issues, foreign affairs and education between the
new administration commencing today and the political
parties invested this past February 16 in this venue, house
of the National Parliament.
It
would be naive to expect miraculous effects from these
agreements. However, it would be ignorant to deny the
significance of the same since they reflect the will and
political pledge to the Republic of those who signed them.
Allow
me say too that notwithstanding the importance of said
agreements, the administration taking office today considers
that the changes that Uruguay claims and deserves not only
require political support, but also social support. And this
administration will act accordingly.
Behind, definitely behind in the past, that is the place for
illuminated and substantially distant administrations; today
the men and women of this country assume the inalienable
right and the inexcusable responsibility to be the authors
of their own destiny…
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am not insensible of the world, regional and national
contexts in which I assume the responsibility of this
administration that Uruguayan citizens have trusted upon me.
I am also fully aware of the difficulties, the challenges,
the possibilities and the expectations existing in this
context.
I believe that with this reality, in these circumstances and
out of elemental respect to the Uruguayan people, to you and
to myself, encyclopedic stories, ecumenical analyses and
ambiguous promises are needless.
Nevertheless, for this same reason and following my oath of
allegiance to the constitution, I consider necessary to
reiterate my commitment to work.
My commitment to working to the full extent of my aptitudes,
authority and possibilities in the construction of a
national project of productive and sustainable development.
My commitment to working tirelessly for the Social,
Productive, Innovative, Democratic and Regionally Integrated
Uruguay that compose, as the sides of a polyhedron, a unique
strategy of nation for all Uruguayans.
My commitment to empowering the Legislative Power residing
in this house as the representation of the will of citizens,
as the control body, as a space for debate, but also for
democratic agreements indispensable to construct a nation.
My commitment to respecting and supporting the Judicial
Power in its condition of independent governmental power
and, at the same time, guaranteeing its economic/financial
independence.
My commitment to empowering departmental administrations
both in their citizen representation and their
responsibilities with those citizens.
My commitment to fighting corruption relentlessly as well as
any other actions disregarding the State.
My commitment to structuring policies that offer decent work
to our people.
And in close connection with the aforesaid, my commitment to
promoting educational, scientific and technological policies
that can train our men and women, and especially the young
generations, for this decent job, which in the end is the
best social policy and economic policy a nation can have.
My commitment to promoting an active policy in the field of
Human Rights.
We have to admit that today, 20 years after recovering the
democratic institution, there are still dark patches in the
field of human rights.
We also have to admit that for everybody’s own good it is
necessary and possible to clarify these areas within the
framework of the legislation in force, so that peace can
definitely settle in the heart of all Uruguayans and our
collective memory can incorporate yesterday’s tragedies
with their stories of commitment, sacrifice and catastrophe
as indelible lessons for tomorrow. And with the truth we
shall seek to regain peace for our society, as well as
justice and above all, that the horror of past times never
happens again. Never.
We should also admit that there is a lot to do in terms of
racial equality, gender equality, children’s rights, the
right to information, the right to culture, the right to a
safe environment … these are Human Rights too and they
have a strong bearing on the quality of democracy.
My commitment to listening to people, to maintaining
dialogs, to being accountable to them, to promoting
citizenship that enhances the political, civil and social
rights of Uruguayan men and women.
In summary; my commitment to working towards the changes
proposed during my election campaign which the citizens
supported with their vote.
Support which we must all respect and which I assume as an
order.
Behind, definitely behind in the past, have we left the time
of “presidential offices” that were oblivious to the
will and the needs of the individuals that bestowed
authority upon them.
We have promised changes and we will make changes. We will
begin with the administration itself, in its attitude, in
its actions, especially in what concerns austerity, respect,
open discussion, tolerance and daily work modality.
Changes that cannot be postponed; feasible changes,
responsible changes, progressive changes, changes among all
and for all, but especially for the benefit of those who
need them the most to reach levels of decent living.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Allow me now to make some specific references.
The first one, to the distinguished Chiefs of State,
representatives of governments, organizations of civil
society and personalities of brother and fellow nations
accompanying us today.
Thank you, thank you very much for your presence in a
country in which we hope you feel at home and thank you for
your company in such a significant day for Uruguay.
We value your attitude and we shall correspond by
structuring an independent foreign policy, a State policy,
based on:
·
The support for International
Law and especially total respect for the sovereignty of
other States, the defense and
promotion of Human Rights, the peaceful solution of
controversies, the principle of non intervention, the
peoples’ self-determination, the universal condition of
international relations, and the defense and promotion of
democracy.
·
The strong rejection to all
types of terrorism, violence and discrimination.
·
The commitment to MERCOSUR
and the priority character of the integration process as the
strategic political process in Uruguay’s international
agenda.
We have said it many times and we will say it once
again: this administration taking office today wants more
and better MERCOSUR.
A greater, stronger MERCOSUR with a new dimension,
which will in turn be a more solid platform to achieve
better international insertion both of the block itself as
well as all its members.
·
Notwithstanding the
aforesaid, we shall actively develop our relations with all
the other Latin-American countries – all of them, without
any exception, for we feel they are all equal brothers due
to our common Latin American condition-,
we shall contribute our conviction and our will to
provide new impulsion to Iberian American Summits, to the
fast and better materialization of the Association Treaty
with the European Union, to
improve relations with other regional blocks whether
existing or under construction as well as to the development
of the south – south cooperation.
Our integration to the world will not ignore the relation
with international financial organizations. Also in this
field, by complying with the obligations we have undertaken,
we shall promote a relation of mutual respect observing the
needs and the right of development of all the Uruguayan
society as a whole.
To summarize, the foreign policy of this administration
taking office today will nourish from the best traditions
that made Uruguay, in the past, a respected country in the
international community.
Respected not due to its dimensions or its strength, but for
its vanguard attitude and its coherence in the affirmation
of ethical legal and justice principles in the relations
among nations.
We shall rescue that legacy and shall prioritize the Untied
Nations as the environment to assert the force of
international law and multiteralism.
In this world lacerated by inequality and hunger, we pledge
all our efforts so that the Development Agenda, which holds
one of its main foundations in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, shall be pre-eminent, especially in relation to
a Security Agenda whose questionable results are clearly
visible…
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The second reference I would like to make is directed
towards three specific sectors of Uruguayan society: our
young generations, our women and our fellow citizens who
live abroad.
To our young generations, not only because they are our best
link to the future, but also – and principally – because
they are themselves. We do not have the ridiculous and
dangerous pretension of building the future in the name of
young generations, we do wish to build it with them; we want
to count on their hopes, their joy, and above all with their
rebelliousness and their commitment.
To the Uruguayan women, for whom the
“... no more
duties without rights and no more rights without duties…”
proclaimed by a worker called Mercedes in 1884, is still an
objective we share and assume.
And to our fellow citizens who live abroad because the
travelling homeland does travel, but above all it is our
homeland…
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Among the many peculiarities of the history of Latin
American nations, there is a specially tragic one : the
solitude in which so many precursors of our independence
died.
José Artigas was one of them. Betrayed and defeated in
1820, he lived in exile in our brother nation, the Republic
of Paraguay, until his death in 1850.
In a certain way, that exile was a long agony, a
crucifixion of 30 years that Artigas bore in silence,
without lamenting, without reproaching…
The story goes that somebody went to visit him attracted by
his past as Chief of the Oriental People and Protector of
Free Peoples. Upon his arrival, the old general asked with a
mixture of sadness and mischief: “…
So my name is still mentioned there ….?”
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I feel I cannot conclude this speech -
most probably the last one I shall make before you
and in this house - without answering our father’s
question.
¡Certainly, your
name “is still
mentioned” !!
And it is mentioned out loud.
The name of José
Artigas impels and convenes us.
His example inspires and
commits us.
And on behalf of said commitment, when expressing my pledge
of constitutional allegiance before you, as President of the
Republic, I serve this invitation to you from my feelings,
my convictions and my responsibilities, to work in the
construction of the Uruguay where being born will not be a
problem, where being young will not be suspicious, where
ageing will not be a sentence; the Uruguay where food,
education, health and decent work will be everybody’s
rights everyday; the
self confident Uruguay; the Uruguay that will recover its
capacity to dream and to make its dreams come true.
Thank you very much.
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