UN General Assembly
1980

246. In spite of the statements frequently made in favour of disarmament, in order that the savings realized thereby might be devoted to the solution of the acute economic and social problems of certain sectors of Latin American society, it is not at all encouraging to note the enormous sums which the armies of certain Latin American nations invest in weapons and sophisticated military hardware, which far exceed the reasonable requirements for defence and the maintenance of domestic public order in each country. 247. As President Aristides Royo stated in announcing Panama's accession to the Charter of Conduct of Riobamba, the founding fathers of the Latin American Republics would be deeply discouraged were they to see that after one and a half centuries of independence the problems of poverty, disease, malnutrition, ignorance, and social and economic need—problems which they had attempted to eradicate in liberating our peoples—were still rampant in broad sectors of the population of the continent.