Speech by Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro at the opening of the 74th United Nations General Assembly – New York, September 24, 2019 (photo: Alan Santos/PR)

Mr. President of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande,
Mr. Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres,
Heads of State, of Government and of Delegation,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I present to you a new Brazil, resurgent after being on the brink of socialism.

A Brazil being rebuilt on the aspirations and ideals of its people.

In my government, Brazil has been working to reconquer the world’s trust, reducing unemployment, violence, and risk to business through de-bureaucratization, de-regulation, and especially through example.

My country has been extremely close to socialism, which has put us in a situation of generalized corruption, grave economic recession, high criminality rates, and uninterrupted attacks to the family and religious values which make up our traditions.

In 2013, an agreement between the Workers’ Party government and the Cuban dictatorship brought to Brazil ten thousand doctors with no professional accreditation. They were prevented from bringing spouses and children, had 75% of their salaries confiscated by the regime, and were prevented from enjoying fundamental rights such as coming and going.

True slave labor, believe me…

Sanctioned by human rights entities in Brazil and the UN!

Even before I took office, nearly 90% of them left Brazil through a unilateral action of the Cuban regime. The ones who decided to stay shall submit themselves to medical qualification to practice their trade.

Thus, our country ceased contributing with the Cuban dictatorship, no longer sending 300 million dollars to Havana every year.

History shows us that, already in the 60s, Cuban agents were sent to several countries to collaborate with the implementation of dictatorships.

A few decades ago, they tried to change the Brazilian regime and those of other countries in Latin America.

They were defeated!

Brazilian civilians and military personnel were killed and many others had their reputations destroyed, but we won that war and safeguarded our freedom.

In Venezuela, these agents of the Cuban regime, brought in by Hugo Chávez, also arrived and today number approximately 60 thousand, who control and interfere in all areas of local society, especially, in Intelligence and Defense.

Venezuela, once a strong and democratic country, today experiences the cruelty of socialism.

Socialism is working in Venezuela!

Everyone is poor and there is no freedom!

Brazil is also feeling the impact of the Venezuelan dictatorship. A portion of the more than 4 million people who escaped from the country migrated into Brazil, escaping hunger and violence. We have done our part to help them through Operation Shelter, conducted by the Brazilian Army and praised worldwide.

We worked with other countries, among them the USA, so that democracy is re-established in Venezuela, but we also work hard so that other countries in South America do not experience this foul regime.

The São Paulo Forum, a criminal organization created in 1990 by Fidel Castro, Lula, and Hugo Chávez to disseminate and implement socialism in Latin America, is still alive and must be fought.

***

Ladies and gentlemen,

In the search for prosperity, we are adopting policies that bring us closer to other countries which have developed themselves and consolidated their democracies.

There can be no political freedom without there also being economic freedom. And vice-versa. The free market, concessions and privatization are already a reality in Brazil.

The economy is reacting by breaking the vices and bonds of nearly two decades of fiscal irresponsibility, political rigging and generalized corruption. Opening, competent management, and productivity gains are the immediate goals of our government.

We are opening the economy and integrating ourselves into the global value chains. In mere eight months, we have concluded the two largest trade deals in the history of the country, those closed between MERCOSUR and the European Union and between MERCOSUR and the European Free Trade Association, EFTA. We intend to advance several other agreements in the next months.

We are also ready to initiate our process for accession to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We are already far into the process, adopting the highest-level global practices in all areas, from financial regulation to environmental protection.

***

Miss Ysany Kalapalo, now we will talk about the Amazon.

Firstly, my government has a solemn commitment to the preservation of the environment and of sustainable development in benefit of Brazil and the world.

Brazil is one of the wealthiest countries in biodiversity and mineral riches.

Our Amazon is larger than the entirety of Western Europe and remains practically untouched. Proof that we are one of the countries which best protect the environment.

At this time of year, the dry weather and the winds favor spontaneous and criminal fires. It is worth stressing that there are also fires started by indigenous peoples and local populations as part of their respective cultures and form of subsistence.

Problems, any country has them. However, the sensationalist attacks we have suffered from a large portion of the international media due to the fires in the Amazon have awaken our patriotic feeling.

It is a fallacy to say that the Amazon is the heritage of humanity and a misconception, as scientists say, to say our forest is the lungs of the world.

Availing themselves of such fallacies, one or another country, instead of assisting, fell in with the press’s lies and behaved disrespectfully, with a colonialist spirit.

They questioned that which is most sacred to us: our sovereignty!

One of them, on occasion of the G7 Summit, dared to suggest applying sanctions to Brazil without even hearing us. I thank those who did not allow this absurd proposal to be taken forward.

Especially President Donald Trump, who synthesized very well the spirit that must prevail among UN countries: respect to the freedom and sovereignty of each of us.

Today, 14% of the Brazilian territory is marked as indigenous land, but it is necessary to understand that our native peoples are human beings, exactly like any one of us. They want and deserve to enjoy the same rights as all of us.

I want to make it clear: Brazil will not increase to 20% its lands marked as indigenous, as some heads of state would like for it to happen.

There are, in Brazil, 225 indigenous peoples, as well as references to 70 tribes living in isolated regions. Each people or tribe with their own chief, their own culture, their traditions, their customs, and mainly their view of the world.

The views of one indigenous leader do not represent those of all Brazilian Indians. Many times, some of these leaders, such as Cacique Raoni, are used as pawns by foreign governments in their informational war to advance their interests in the Amazon.

Unfortunately, some people, inside and outside Brazil, supported by NGOs, insist on treating and maintaining our indigenous peoples as true cave people.

Brazil now has a President who worries about those who were there before the arrival of the Portuguese. The indigenous peoples do not want to be poor land owners on top of rich lands. Especially the richest lands in the world. It is the case of the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol reservations. In these reservations, there is an abundance of gold, diamond, uranium, niobium, and rare earth elements, among others.

And these territories are huge. The Yanomami reservation alone accounts for approximately 95 thousand km2, equivalent to the size of Portugal or Hungary, although only 15 thousand indigenous people live in the area.

This shows that those who attack us are not concerned with the indigenous human being, but with the mineral riches and biodiversity that exist in these areas.

The United Nations Organization had a fundamental role in overcoming colonialism and cannot accept that this mentality returns to these rooms and halls under any pretext.

We cannot forget that the world must be fed. France and Germany, for instance, use more than 50% of their territories for agriculture, while Brazil uses merely 8% of its lands for the production of food – 61% of our territory is preserved.

Our policy is zero tolerance toward crime, and that includes environmental crimes.

I want to reaffirm my position that any initiative for assistance or support to the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest or any other biomes must be conducted in full respect to Brazilian sovereignty.

We also condemn the attempts at instrumentalizing the environmental matter or indigenous policies toward external political and economic interests, especially those disguised as good intentions.

We are ready to, in partnership and adding value, embrace in a sustainable manner all our potential.

Brazil reaffirms its uncompromising commitment to the highest standards in human rights, with the defense of democracy and freedom of speech, religion, and press. It is a commitment which goes hand in hand with the fight against corruption and crime, urgent demands of Brazilian society.

We will carry on contributing, inside and outside the United Nations, to building a world where there is no impunity, hiding place, or shelter to criminals and the corrupt.

During my government, Italian terrorist Cesare Batisti ran from Brazil, was captured in Bolivia and extradited to Italy. Other three Paraguayan and one Chilean terrorist who lived in Brazil as political refugees were also returned to their countries.

Terrorists under the guise of the politically persecuted will no longer find refuge in Brazil.

Not long ago, socialist presidents who preceded me diverted hundreds of billions of dollars buying out a part of the media and parliament, all toward a project of absolute power.

They were tried and punished thanks to the patriotism, perseverance and courage of a judge who is a symbol in my country, Dr. Sergio Moro, our current Minister of Justice and Public Security.

These presidents have also transferred a good portion of such resources to other countries, with the intention of promoting and implementing similar projects throughout the region. This fountain of resources has dried up.

These same rulers came here every year and made uncommitted speeches about themes which never addressed Brazil’s true interests nor contributed to global stability. Even so, they were applauded.

In my country, we had to do something about the nearly 70 thousand homicides and the innumerable violent crimes which ravaged the Brazilian population yearly. Life is the most basic of human rights. Our military police officers were the preferred target for criminals. In 2017 alone, approximately 400 military police officers were cruelly murdered. This is changing.

Measures were taken and we managed to reduce by 20% the number of homicides in the first six months of my government.

Seizures of cocaine and other drugs reached record highs.

Today Brazil is safer and more hospitable. We have just extended visa waiving to countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia, and Canada, and we are studying the adoption of similar measures toward China and India, among others.

With more security and with those exemptions, we would like it that all are able to get to know Brazil, especially our Amazon, with all its vastness and natural beauty.

It is not being devastated or consumed by fire, as the media untruthfully puts it. Each of you can verify what I am saying now.

Do not miss the opportunity to get to know Brazil, it is very different than what is plastered on many newspapers and televisions!

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Religious persecution is a scourge we must fight tirelessly.

In recent years, we have witnessed, in different regions, cowardly attacks victimizing the faithful congregated in churches, synagogues, and mosques.

Brazil fiercely condemns all these actions and is ready to collaborate with other countries toward the protection of those who are oppressed due to their faith.

The Brazilian people are especially concerned with the growing persecution, discrimination, and violence against missionaries and religious minorities in different regions of the world.

This is why we support the creation of the “International Day in Memory of the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief”.

On this date, we shall annually remember those who suffer the foul consequences of religious persecution.

It is inadmissible that, in the 21st century, with so many instruments, treaties and organisms aimed at safeguarding rights of all sorts, there are still millions of Christians and people from other religions who lose their lives or their freedom due to their faith.

Brazil’s devotion to the cause of peace is attested by its solid history of contributions to UN missions.

For 70 years, Brazil has effectively contributed to the UN peacekeeping operations.

We support all efforts for those missions to become more effective and bring real and concrete benefits to the countries which host them.

In the most varied circumstances – in Haiti, in the Democratic Republic of Congo –, Brazilian troops are renowned for the quality of their work and for the respect to the population, human rights, and the principles that guide peacekeeping operations.

I reaffirm our willingness to maintain a concrete contribution to UN missions, including in training and qualification of troops, an area in which our experience is well-recognized.

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Along this year, we have established an ample international agenda aiming to reclaim Brazil’s role in the global scenario and resume relations with important partners.

In January we were in Davos, where we presented our ambitious reform program for investors from all around the globe.

In March we visited Washington, where we announced an encompassing and daring partnership with the United States government in all areas, with special note to political coordination and economic and military cooperation.

Still in March, we were in Chile, where PROSUR was launched, an important initiative to ensure that South America is consolidated as a space for democracy and freedom.

We then visited Israel, where we identified innumerous opportunities for cooperation, especially in the areas of technology and security. I thank Israel for the support in the fight against the recent disasters which took place in my country.

We also visited one of our great partners in the Southern Cone, Argentina. With President Mauricio Macri and our partners in Uruguay and Paraguay, we pushed ideology away from MERCOSUR and conquered important trade victories by concluding negotiations which had been dragging for decades.

Still this year we will visit important Asian partners, both in the Far East and in the Middle East. These visits will fortify the friendship and the deepening relations with Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. We intend to follow that same path with the entire Arab world and Asia.

We also look forward to visiting our partners and friends in Africa, Oceania, and Europe.

As you can see, Brazil is a country open to the world, in search of partnerships with all who are interested in working toward prosperity, peace, and freedom.

***

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Brazil I represent is a country resurgent, reinvigorating partnerships and reconquering its confidence politically and economically.

We are prepared to take on the responsibilities attributed to us in the international system.

During the last decades, we have allowed ourselves to be seduced, unwittingly, by ideological systems of thought which sought not truth, but absolute power.

Ideology took root in the areas of culture, education, and media, dominating means of communication, universities, and schools.

Ideology invaded our homes to attack the cellula mater of any healthy society, family.

They also try to destroy our children’s innocence, perverting their most basic and elementary identity, the biological one.

The politically correct has come to dominate public debate, to cast out rationality and replace it with manipulation, with the repetition of clichés, and with slogans.

Ideology has invaded the very human soul to cast out from it God and the dignity which He invested upon us.

And, with such methods, this ideology has always left a trail of death, ignorance, and misery wherever it went.

I am living proof of that. I was cowardly stabbed by a leftist militant and I survived only by a miracle of God. Once more I thank God for my life.

The UN can help defeat the materialistic and ideological climate that puts in check some of the basic principles of human dignity. This organization was created to promote peace among sovereign nations and social progress with freedom, as per the preamble of its Charter.

On matters of climate, human rights, equality of rights and duties between men and women, and many others, we need nothing but this: to contemplate truth, according to John 8:32 – “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

All of our instruments, national and international, must ultimately be directed to this goal.

We are not here to erase nationalities and sovereignties in the name of an abstract “global interest”.

This is not the Global Interest organization.

It is the United Nations organization. And so it must remain!

With humility and trust in the freeing power of truth, you can be certain that you can count on this new Brazil I present here to you gentlemen and ladies.

I thank you all by the grace and glory of God!

Thank you very much.

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* Non-official translation. Source: Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs