UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

(17.9) This is why the Government of Guatemala, through the Ministry of Culture, has been making
indefatigable efforts to ensure that Guatemalans themselves know and appreciate our national cultures and make
use of our cultural and natural heritage in a sensible and rational way for purposes of sustainable development.
(17.10) Madam President, your Excellencies, fellow delegates, Guatemala has the enormous comparative
advantage of providing a home on a territory of no more than 109,000 square kilometres for at least
23 linguistically distinct cultures, which are the main asset of a multicoloured country, the heart and centre of the
Maya culture that we share with our neighbours Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. In other words,
Guatemala offers the spectacle, in all its magnificence, of cities and monuments of the indigenous pre-Columbian
cultures and the baroque and renaissance splendours of the colonial and national independence period, together
with living and authentic indigenous cultures which take pride in their past and their present, the whole set in a
superb natural environment which we are determined to preserve in its rich biodiversity.
(17.11) Like many developing countries, Guatemala has seen its cultural heritage depleted over the years, stolen
by unscrupulous dealers to be sold to equally unscrupulous and unethical collectors and museums, who acquire
objects for exhibition without deigning to acknowledge that by so doing they are encouraging and financing this
looting. As a result, our people are deprived of the knowledge of their past that they need in order to make sense of
their present and secure their future. Ripping from their context these objects that embody the world view and
religious beliefs, the science and technology and, ultimately, the defining features of vanished societies is like
stealing pages from the annals of our history and then claiming to read and interpret it. As Mr Federico Mayor put
it so well yesterday in his address of welcome to the President of Venezuela: “Wealth buys everything that has a
price, but usually knows nothing of its value”.
(17.12) We have therefore launched a complicated and costly crusade to reclaim and recover the cultural property
that has been stolen and illegally exported from Guatemala. In many cases we have succeeded and in others we are
continuing our efforts. Our aim is not just to bring our cultural property back, but to cut off the sources of financing
for such thefts and hence to halt the loss of the historical context of our cultures. A Maya dish or vase, for example,
exhibited in one of those museums that buy or receive donations of stolen property, or displayed on the shelves of a
collector, is evidence of the partial or total destruction of a Maya temple to get to the burial chamber which housed
it.
(17.13) Madam President, your Excellencies, fellow delegates, I wish to make an urgent appeal to the conscience
of those countries that have not yet signed the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property to sign and ratify it and, in addition, to
conclude bilateral or multilateral agreements for this purpose with countries which, like my own, are under
constant threat, since by so doing they would not only help to reinforce the identity of our peoples, but would
contribute to their sustainable development; such action may be regarded as a genuine and respectful gesture of
international cooperation. The fact is that, by protecting our historic sites and monuments, we can make rational
use of them for overall development purposes, thereby ensuring increased economic revenues which, combined
with other efforts in the field of education, health care and infrastructure, will contribute to our efforts to combat
poverty and marginalization in a large sector of our society which is rightly and urgently demanding a better quality
of life for its members and their descendants.
(17.14) I wish to acknowledge and welcome the valuable support provided by UNESCO and its various bodies in
this field, and also, on behalf of the Government and people of Guatemala, to express my appreciation for the
tributes that have been and are to be paid to our Nobel prizewinner for literature, Miguel Angel Asturias, upon the
centenary of his birth.
(17.15) Madam President, your Excellencies, fellow delegates, in conclusion, I feel certain that the work of this
General Conference and its commissions will be crowned with success and I look forward to a prosperous future
for UNESCO and its Members. My thanks for your kind attention.
18. The PRESIDENT:
I should like to thank most sincerely Dr Carlos Enrique Zea Flores for sharing with us his successes in
education and his worries in other fields. It is always good to hear about a far-away country. I now have the
pleasure and honour of calling His Excellency Mr Fernando Robleto Lang, Minister for Education, Culture and
Sports of Nicaragua.
19.1 Sr. ROBLETO LANG (Nicaragua):
Señora Presidente de la Conferencia General, señor Presidente del Consejo Ejecutivo, señor Director
General, honorables ministros y jefes de delegaciones, amigos todos: La cultura de paz, impulsada con pasión y
razón por la UNESCO, es también la cultura de la vida.
19.2 Nicaragua, que ama la paz porque ha vivido y sufrido la violencia y la muerte, valora de manera especial
esta iniciativa, esta misión lógica, este sello particular que el Director General ha sabido imprimir a su gestión y
que los Estados Miembros de la UNESCO hemos aceptado y apoyado con entusiasmo y esperanza.
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