UN General Assembly
1968

158. Owing to the unexpected delay of some hours in the arrival of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of my country, I have the honour to come to the rostrum at this late hour in the afternoon and extend to you, Mr. President, on behalf of the Government of Ecuador, our greetings and warm congratulations on your election as President of the General Assembly for this session. The confidence that has been placed in you is certainly due to your personal qualities; but it is also placed in the people of Guatemala, which has left from the remote past, in the stones of its pyramids, evidence of one of the richest cultures in history; a people which fought in the recent past and is fighting in the present to consolidate its political freedom and economic independence, and which hopes to find in a prosperous future a destiny befitting dignified, dedicated and courageous peoples.