UN General Assembly
1998

that are transmitted with vertiginous speed to all the world?s economic centres, we will have replaced the fear of nuclear war with the threat of an economic and social catastrophe. It is my view that in today?s globalized world, one of the primary commitments of the community of nations, working through and coordinated by the United Nations, is to strengthen its resolve to prevent and correct unacceptable imbalances, and to ensure the awareness and capacity of the international financial mechanisms for facing contingencies. In a few weeks, the people of Venezuela will go to the polls to elect their new leaders. For 40 consecutive years, at each constitutionally determined interval, the transfer of power stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic has been carried out. In shifting circumstances, the institution of democracy has remained stable in an atmosphere of full and absolute freedom. A difficult economic situation and the winds of change that are blowing throughout the world and are becoming stronger on the eve of a new millennium have focused Venezuela?s political debate on the idea of