UN General Assembly
1986

Now we must rebuild Guatemala. The facts I have just outlined show why we Guatemalans can say that the decision to rebuild Guatemala through democracy was a collective decision by an entire people, not the work of a successful group of revolutionaries or of a single political party. The task goes beyond the short term. It goes beyond the elections. The basic objective is to replace the repressed and anarchistic society we found with a free, pluralistic, institutionally orderly society, with a view to the welfare of all. In the early period of my administration I am faced with the task of leading the national reconstruction effort; the first problem confronting the nation is the natural impatience of some leading sectors of the country. We have many questions to answer. What should the pace of change be? Whom should change affect? In whose favor should it work? in order to answer those and other questions we have decided to use our imagination; we must find our own answers, because today traditional models are in crisis.