New York, 23 September 2026 Secretary-General António Guterres Mr. President of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly Distinguished heads of state, heads of government and of delegations I have stood at this rostrum at different moments in my life as an official. First as Minister for Foreign Affairs, then as Executive Vice-President and now as Acting President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
At all of those moments, the great issues, aspirations and concerns of humanity have been grounds for reflection: peace, development, equality, the climate crisis, free trade, energy security; and more recently, Artificial Intelligence.
1 1 On these challenges Venezuela has maintained and continues to maintain very clear positions:
1. Its attachment to peace and rejection of violence, and to understanding and dialogue over conflict. We firmly believe in the power of understanding and dialogue.
Venezuela, which today knows what it is to lift up its children from among the rubble, extends its deepest solidarity to all peoples who suffer war, and reaffirms, without ambiguity, that peace — a just, lasting peace, with dignity for all parties — is not a naïve aspiration, but the only truly human way out.
2. Inclusive development with social justice to mitigate poverty and relieve the suffering of hundreds of millions of people concentrated principally in the global South.
We know that sanctions undermine economic and financial freedoms and delay human development.
3. We believe in respect for the rights of nature as the only way to consecrate human life.
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4. Likewise, the institutional failure of global trade is evident because no Nation can prosper under supranational schemes that do not promote national industry and reward delocalization;
5. On the other hand, international stability requires resolving the energy trilemma: simultaneously guaranteeing security of supply, affordable prices for development and environmental sustainability. Promoting forced decarbonization timetables is a direct threat to food security, employment, and production. We must avoid industrial collapse, productive breakdowns and unbearable energy costs.
Energy security is indispensable for the sustaining of the international economy and development. Without any doubt Venezuela plays and will play a very important role in this international formula.
I highlight the recent bilateral agreement between the United States and Venezuela as one of the largest ever signed and which will contribute to the energy balance of the hemisphere.
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6. A separate mention should be made of Artificial Intelligence, which represents a true technological revolution. We are in the presence of a milestone in the transformation of humanity, which, if well employed, will mean unprecedented development in health, the environment, productive processes and life in general. Governments, the technology sector, the scientific community have the immense responsibility not to divert the constructive and vital purpose of AI for the benefit of citizens, as well as not to deepen the digital divide and inequality in the world.
7. I cannot fail to mention in this forum, seat of international legality, our reaffirmation of the historic rights of Venezuela over the Guayana Esequiba, and the call on the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to return to negotiations as ordered by the Geneva Agreement. The agreements that endure longest are those that come from bilateral negotiations above and beyond external bodies.
For those who ask themselves on which side Venezuela stands, there are our positions and references. Our side is that of the 4 4 citizens of the world who seek their happiness, their development and their freedom.
Much is said about Venezuela. Many express opinions about Venezuela. Some try to interfere in the affairs of Venezuela.
I come to speak to you of a Venezuela whose national life has been affected by a crisis of political coexistence that disturbed national life and our interaction with the world.
Interests alien to the common good of Venezuelans were imposed.
In 2026, Venezuela has experienced two great and painful tests in its life as a nation: one derived from the strangling of domestic politics and the intensified confrontation with the United States of America. Another, arising from the fierceness of nature: the double earthquake of 24 June.
Despite these “blows of life so hard” as the poet César Vallejo would say, for Venezuelan men and women today “Venezuela is reborn”.
Venezuela Is Reborn summarizes the attitude that our people have adopted in the face of these two events.
5 5 The transformation of a political relationship grounded in dialogue, negotiation and diplomacy.
For that reason, today Venezuela aspires, with the United States, with its neighbors, with all the countries of our continent and with the international community, to rebuild and sustain relations of respect and equality.
I wish in this 81st Session of the UN General Assembly to thank President Donald Trump and his government for their willingness to resume the path of diplomatic relations and of cooperation with Venezuela. The last time two presidents of Venezuela and the United States met was in 2009.
Today we are working seriously to settle through dialogue the existing differences and to pave the way for energy relations, the promotion of security, the fight against transnational crime and economic cooperation for the benefit of both peoples and of our continent.
On the other hand, the material, moral and spiritual reconstruction of our homeland struck by a devastating natural tragedy.
I want to thank all the countries of America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, as well as the entire United Nations system that offered their solidarity and support to the Venezuelan people during the darkest hours caused by the double earthquake. In Venezuela we felt the true spirit that inspired the creation of this organization.
There are moments in the history of peoples when tragedy, paradoxically, becomes the breaking point toward something new. Not because pain is desirable, but because it forces us to look directly at what is essential and to leave behind what no longer serves us. Venezuela is living through one of those moments today.
I come to this Assembly as another daughter of Venezuela to present the aspirations of a country that seeks to build its own destiny after political conflicts that closed off spaces for the different currents to find a place to settle their differences and in the midst of a harsh economic blockade that wrecked the model of development based on inclusion and equality.
For too long we were a country divided into trenches, where the color of a party flag weighed more than the common surname that we all share: Venezuelans.
That stage must be brought to a close, in order to begin a new political era based on truth, justice and the ability to look forward together, and to find in respectful political dialogue a genuine space to settle the differences that we as Venezuelans have. Always seeking a horizon in favor of the country.
I am pleased to announce that Venezuela has begun a process of democratic transformation for its Rebirth.
An orderly, institutional and verifiable process, to build a country that is freer for all, more prosperous and more reconciled with itself. A process of political, economic and spiritual change, of structural reforms for the Rebirth of Venezuela. For the rebirth of our nation. For the rebirth of our people.
It is about building a country where no one has to prevail by disregarding the other, because all of us—especially the young people who are only just beginning their political socialization—are Venezuela.
We must aspire to a Venezuela whose political class is intimately committed to the national interests above all else, and is not held hostage by media algorithms.
I know Venezuela very well, and I thank God for the opportunity He has given me to know the institutional spaces in different sectors of public life. I know where the doors are that must be opened for the profound transformation of Venezuela, and for laying the new foundations for an economy at the service of national development, for full justice for all without distinction of social class or political affiliation, and for consolidating a system of justice and social equality as our Liberator Father Simón Bolívar conceived it in Angostura.
I want us to raise from the rubble of division the foundations of a new Republic, plural, profoundly spiritual and at peace with itself. But also at peace with a world that is unfortunately more polarized every day.
History has taught us that some of the strongest democratic transitions in the contemporary world were born not from rupture, but from transformation firmly led from within the institutions themselves.
That is the inspiration. Not the reproduction of someone else’s history, but learning from a universal idea: legality can be the path toward a better legality.
A nation is not reborn only by rebuilding buildings. It is reborn when it rebuilds confidence in its institutions.
That is why I wish to announce and reaffirm before you, with precision, the pillars of this process: First, an orderly legal reform. Venezuela has embarked upon a process of institutional review to strengthen the functioning of the State so that it can provide the legal certainty that not only investors need, but also our citizens, so that they do not feel run over by arbitrary power but instead that it is at their service.
Second, full political openness. Venezuela will guarantee real conditions for participation for all the country’s political forces. Democracy is not measured by the existence of elections, but by the quality of the competition that precedes them. An election must become a solution, not a generator of irreconcilable conflicts.
I want to say this very clearly. There will be elections in Venezuela.
We have already initiated a political dialogue with sectors of the opposition that will lead to a process on equal conditions for all. The Venezuelan people, with their ancestral wisdom, will determine the right moment, and their institutions will be prepared to guarantee that inclusive and transparent process.
A country that is not subject to economic restrictions of any kind so that its right to development is guaranteed.
The rest and the spasmodic reactions from within and from outside form part of the spectacle that Venezuelans no longer want to see.
Venezuela must abandon the path that allowed extremism and intolerance to prevail over democratic and peaceful coexistence.
And there I ask for international support, so that you may in good faith back the changes that Venezuela needs, with respect for the self-determination of my people. Venezuela wants to breathe freely, to exercise its rights as a sovereign nation, without any kind of interference. Venezuela wants and must be respected.
I come to assume, going forward, a historic responsibility: that of leading Venezuela from a stage of uncertainty and conflict toward a stage of full democracy, recognized by its own people and by the world. A new stage of well-being for the rebirth of Venezuela.
To my people I say: this is not the end of a speech, it is the beginning of a commitment. To the international community I say: Venezuela is ready to walk hand in hand with those who believe in respectful international engagement, without interference or prejudgment.
To the young people, who have grown up seeing a fractured country and who many times decided to leave in search of what they could not find here: I say to them that it is worth believing again. This is the time to build the country to which many will want to return, and not only the one from which many wanted to flee.
And to every Venezuelan who today, amid the material or human loss left by the earthquake, wonders whether it is worth remaining standing: I answer yes. That the strength of this people is not measured in easy moments, but precisely in moments like this. That from every catastrophe we have experienced as a nation, we have always emerged more united than we were before it happened.
Venezuelans: I do not promise you an easy path. The recovery of the country will take time; the reconstruction of the national soul will be our priority. We will walk united as one nation that decided, after pain, to choose hope.
12 12 May this political and geopolitical moment remain in history as the day on which we decided to rise up, all together, to build the rebirth of the Republic.
On 16 December it will be 200 years since the anguished call of the Liberator Simón Bolívar to the people of Venezuela to save it from dissolution, division and civil war. He said: "Venezuelans!.. You will be consulted so that you may say when, where and on what terms you wish to hold the Great National Convention. There the people will freely exercise their omnipotence, there they will decree their fundamental laws. Only the people know their own good and are masters of their fate; but not a powerful man, nor a party, nor a faction. No one but the people is sovereign."
Not a powerful man. Nor a party, nor a faction: let us all together bring our effort to bear for the rebirth of the prosperous Homeland that our daughters and our sons deserve May God bless Venezuela, and may the unity of its people be, from now on, our greatest banner. Let us go together to build the rebirth of Venezuela.
Thank you very much.
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