Bolivia’s President Evo Morales used his September 19 speech to the United Nations General Assembly to condemn terrorism, abusive market practices and wars in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Libya as well as the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
In his address to the 72nd UN General Assembly in New York, Morales also sent his solidarity to the people of Mexico after the 7.1 earthquake and Caribbean nations devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria.
The Bolivian leader attributed the strength of the hurricanes to climate change, which he said was a consequence of the capitalist model and excessive industrialisation.
“Hurricanes, pollution, extinction of species, droughts, all this is a product of the capitalist model and industrialisation,” he said.
Morales also criticised the attitude of the United States government to the Paris Climate Agreement, and called its decision to withdraw unjustifiable.
He said the US, as one of the world’s biggest polluters, was refusing to join the global effort to tackle climate change — and its government was a threat to Mother Earth.
In response to US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including his plans to build a US-Mexican border wall, Morales said: “Bolivia condemns the construction of walls and the laws that criminalise migration, instead of which we propose universal citizenship.
“Some governments, instead of contributing to the solution of the structural causes that cause this phenomenon, announce greater restrictions.”
Morales also denounced new US sanctions against Cuba and urged Washington to compensate Havana for the damage caused by the economic blockade.
He called for reflection on the inequality that mars the world.
Morales also condemned the development, manufacture and use of nuclear and chemical weapons, calling for restraint from any military intervention on the Korean peninsula and the resumption of negotiations to resolve the conflict in a peaceful way.
[Abridged from .]