UN General Assembly
1999

The men of the Andes scrutinized the skies to decipher and predict the future. If they were looking at the skies today, they might not manage to understand the message written there. On the one hand, there is the promise of unlimited prosperity, with man in apparent control of nature and his environment, thanks to the outstanding strides made in knowledge, the tireless flow of data and financial resources, the almost genetic transformation of the means of transportation and communication, the growing empire of freedom and the reaffirmation of democratic values on a global scale. On the other hand, however, the new millennium is arriving with disquieting signs. Financial crises are increasingly frequent and ever more acute. The gaps between the haves and the have-nots are widening. Confusions, fear and uncertainty prevail over a large part of the planet. Thus must one see both sides of globalization: one of promise, the other of threat. The effects of the two aspects of the process are felt in Latin America with singular intensity. The crisis of the