UN General Assembly
1959

125. We realize that such a stand may not always be in our best interests from a diplomatic standpoint. However, Venezuela, as a democratic country and a nation of which Simon Bolivar was both son and father, can take no other. Whenever matters of this kind are discussed, our position will be one of outspoken support for the national independence of peoples. We are convinced that the progress of peace will further the cause of the non-self-governing peoples. The liberation of the colonial peoples has clearly been, hampered by the prejudices that have clouded world public opinion as a result of the cold war. Both sides have tended to confuse nationalistic causes with political movements of the most varied complexion. The time has come to put an end to this confusion. The desire for nationhood is one of the deepest aspirations of the human spirit. The existence of an international legal order is not compatible with the survival of the colonial system. The world of the United Nations must be one in which no people is denied the full exercise of its sovereignty.