UN General Assembly
1959

109. Our answer must be an unqualified affirmative. We have already said any matter threatening world peace must be our concern, even if we are not involved in the conflict and are far removed from the scene of events. Thus we believe that the countries which form the Latin-American community have the right, like any other regional groups, to be informed and consulted on any issue likely to endanger world peace, such as, for instance, the vital question of disarmament. We do not wish to be assigned a passive role in the designs of others; we are and wish to be active participants in world affairs. We know the limitations of our powers and we know that individually not one of our Republics is comparable in stature to the great actors on the world stage; but the twenty nations of the Latin-American community, with their enormous expanses of territory, their vast potential riches and 200 million inhabitants represent a cultural and political unit entitled to have its say in world affairs. We do not aspire, of course, to the position of arbiters in those affairs, nor on the other hand do we wish to lag behind the march of events and to be informed of them after they have become accomplished facts.