Heads Of Government

"Y finalmente recuerden: país rico no es aquel donde los pobres logran tener carro, sino donde los ricos toman el transporte publico."

"Gaza es simplemente un experimento de los megaricos, tratando de demostrarle a todo los pueblos del mundo cómo se le responde a una rebeldía de la humanidad. Piensan bombardearnos a todos."

"Cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whisky."

"Scientists have analyzed this. Cocaine is no worse than whiskey. [...] If you want peace, you have to dismantle the [drug trafficking industry]. It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine."

"[Fentanyl] is killing Americans and it is not made in Colombia. [...] Fentanyl was created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals."

"Colombia elects climate champions president Gustavo Petro and vice president Francia Márquez, pledging to put "the defense of life above the interests of economic capital.""

"Donald Trump, speaking about the Colombian president on Air Force One "[Colombia is] run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long"."

"I ask El Espinal mayors not to allow more events involving the death of people or animals [after the bullfighting stadium collapse]."

"You all insist that the market will save us from what the market itself has created. Humanity’s Frankenstein is allowing the market and greed to act without any planning, giving up our brains and reason, making human rationality kneel before greed."

"Hitler is knocking on the doors of the homes of the European and North American middle class and many have already let him in. The [climate] exodus will be responded to with a lot of violence, with barbarism itself, what we see in Gaza is the test of the future. Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler already entered their homes."

"We strive to build a prosperous society, which will be engaged in creative work, thanks to which citizens can have a decent rest, travel, and children have good health and receive a quality education."

"For me, peace in Kyrgyzstan, the country’s integrity, the unity of our people and calm in society are more important than anything else. Military personnel and law enforcement agencies are obliged to use weapons to protect the residence of the head of state. In this case, blood will be shed. It is inevitable. I urge both sides not to succumb to provocations."

"Education is not only our spiritual value but also a major resource for development. That is why the development of educational sphere is one of our government’s top priorities. Whether in mountainous or urban areas, providing citizens access to good education, healthcare and cultural systems has become one of our governments’ major tasks that we have been focused on."

"For us respecting the dignity of each individual, protecting the rights of children and women is tantamount to preserving the centuries-old historical heritage and spiritual values of our nation. That is exactly why we, the people of Kyrgyzstan, were the first in the Central Asian region in 1994 to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

"We are deeply convinced that it is the parliamentary democracy that corresponds to the nature of the development of our society."

"I am not clinging to power. I do not want to go down in the history of Kyrgyzstan as a president who allowed bloodshed and shooting on its people. I have taken the decision to resign."

"As a UN member state, the Kyrgyz Republic contributes to its development. Our global initiatives in the field of ecology, development of mountainous countries and preservation of historical heritage have been supported by the international community. The Kyrgyz Republic attaches special importance to strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation in Central Asia."

"We now have a real danger in the protection of critical infrastructure, which includes, for example, our nuclear power plants. This is not a question of Ukraine, right? And we see how the Russian Federation irresponsibly shelling such critical infrastructure, and even more so by announcing such shelling, saying that it will continue to destroy infrastructure, is doing so completely irresponsibly. And Europe and the whole world is silently watching it, in my opinion. But for some reason, the fear that Russia may threaten to start land or other operations prevails. And now we have a question to the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum – the United States and Great Britain – are these really the superpowers that promised to ensure security in this way?"

"Bandera became a hero for most of society, an image of nationalism. Politicians- manipulators who pull on embroidered shirts- proudly shout out his name, but it should be understood that this historical figure will never find a place in the Ukrainian pantheon of heroes."

"But if we had such a Putin, I would vote for him. He is doing well for Russia. He is acting in the interests of his country... That every president should defend his country in this way. That's natural!"

"Vitali Klitschko is a good mayor. I will never criticize any mayor because I was in their skin and I know how difficult it is today in local self-government to make and impress, so to speak, voters."

"Why can't Klitschko see the condition of the sidewalks and do nothing about it? Maybe he doesn't walk those sidewalks. If he had ever seen a mother with a wheelchair with a small child to walk on a broken sidewalk through the pits, then perhaps he would have understood both people and their troubles better."

"Each (social media) platform is very important to us now and we are using every opportunity to attract large companies to this horror happening now in Ukraine (due to Russia invasion). We are trying to bring the truth to the Russians and make them protest against the war."

"During the primaries, everyone liked my half-joke about 'investment nanny'. Both the president and the prime minister and the speaker have heard this. I said that for investors, I would not only be an "investment nanny", but an "investment" and "investment teacher". I will love them like a mother and control them like a mother-in-law. So, everything will be fine."

"We considerate it terrible that, because of the interests of economic and political elites, since the beginning of the legitimate presidency of Pedro Castillo, an environment of confrontation and hostility was maintained against him, leading him to take decisions that have served his adversaries to remove him."

"If the price of imported gas rises, we will shift to using non-gas fired electric plants to provide needed electricity."

"Such vision Commander Fidel Castro had! While the neoliberals [in Mexico] were preventing the training of doctors, in Cuba they were driving the training of doctors, and consolidating one of the best health systems in the world . . . Conservatives in Mexico and around the world can say whatever they want, but they will never, ever be able to counteract the teaching, the example of solidarity, of brotherhood that the revolutionary movement and its leaders have left Cuba."

"In our time, there is still a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, or a simulated and mediated democracy. That is to say, in some countries, the oligarchy reigns with the façade of democracy. For example, how can we talk about democracy if the elites dominate, and not the majorities? How can we talk about democracy if there is no separation of economic power and political power? How can we talk about democracy if, in recent times, there has been the most offensive concentration of wealth in a few hands in the history of the world? The fortune of a minority has increased without limits, without any moral concern, while there are a billion human beings who live on less than a dollar a day."

"People are tired of so much damn fraud."

"I did not see that op-ed, but I think that Jorge puts it very well there, that — you know, that this was something that Mexico agreed to. And to me, that was surprising, given the history of López Obrador and what I thought he would stand for and do once he was in office."

"what did the Washington Post say about all this? It compared López Obrador to Josef Stalin, literally, in print, saying that he had used Stalin’s methods of terrorizing the population in order to get in power. Huh? What? And the New York Times editorial was not much better. It accused him of gross, grave irresponsibility. The man is demanding a count of the vote to prove who won, since even with the first election commission, it was still only at 0.5 percent, less than 0.6 percent — less than 1 percent. I mean, it doesn’t take a whole lot of cheating to do that...I don’t think López Obrador is any raging radical. I mean, his politics are not super radical. I think he’s probably a populist, more accurately described, but he certainly is leaning to the left, and he’s certainly, I think, a better — [he] would take more steps to end the poverty and so forth in Mexico than Calderón would."

"There was a strange aftertaste to many of the calls for grand social reform in 2020. As the coronavirus crisis overtook us, the left wing on both sides of the Atlantic, at least that part that had been fired up Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, was going down to defeat. The promise of a radicalized and reenergized left, organized around the idea of the Green New Deal, seemed to dissipate amidst the pandemic. It fell to governments mainly of the center and the right to meet the crisis. They were a strange assortment. Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States experimented with denial. For them climate skepticism and virus skepticism went hand in hand. In Mexico, the notionally left-wing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador also pursued a maverick path, refusing to take drastic action. Nationalist strongmen like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey did not deny the virus, but relied on their patriotic appeal and bullying tactics to see them through. It was the managerial centrist types who were under most pressure. Figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the United States, or Sebastián Piñera in Chile, or Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, and their ilk in Europe. They accepted the science. Denial was not an option. They were desperate to demonstrate that they were better than the 'populists.' To meet the crisis, very middle-of-the-road politicians ended up doing very radical things. Most of it was improvisation and compromise, but insofar as they managed to put a programmatic gloss on their responses—whether in the form of the EU's Next Generation program or Biden's Build Back Better program in 2020—it came from the repertoire of green modernization, sustainable development, and the Green New Deal."

"Ukraine has already lost more than $560 billion as a result of Russia's monthlong war (as of March 2022). The $564.9 billion figure in losses includes $119 billion in destroyed infrastructure. Every day the numbers change and unfortunately they are increasing."

"Reducing energy dependence is also very important for us. Therefore, we will officially announce the start of a major program of thermal modernization by the end of the month (February 2022). At least 5,000 buildings will be modernized and renovated this year (2022). Our ambitious goal is 50,000 thermo-modernized buildings in the first years of the program implementation. The task is to reduce gas imports and channel the savings into more important projects for Ukrainians."

"We are going to have next Foreign Affairs meeting, Foreign Affairs ministers meeting, and we're going to discuss Iran. Our common position, how we approach Iran. It is clear the way Iran operates, I mean helping Russia in the war against Ukraine, but also their activities in the Middle East, that we have to have a much stronger stance when it comes to Iran. Because developing a nuclear weapon, it's extremely dangerous. And there is one of the points where we need to cooperate with the United States as well."

"There are strong supporters of Ukraine in, I mean, both sides of the aisle and have been very, very much understanding what is going on. I don't know their relationship with President Trump, but I have seen the strong will that there is. Maybe this critical raw materials deal that President Trump is doing with President Zelenskyy will increase the economic interest of United States in Ukraine. That will, in turn, also give, I mean, the interest- security interest, to protect those economic interests that you have in Ukraine. So, so maybe that is one of the tools."

"We have managed so far and- and, of course, it's getting harder all the time, but we have managed to keep this unity."

"So if we say that we create a parallel structure, then, you know, when, in terms of crisis, then who gives orders to whom? Because the armies are just the 32. So that's why I haven't supported a special European army. I'm just saying that all the armies that are there in Europe, but also in NATO, need to work together."

"There are several arguments, and some- some countries are not in favor because of the different risks. But I think, you know, in the end, everybody will come to the same conclusion. It shouldn't be our taxpayers that pay for the damages caused by Russia in Ukraine. It should be Russia who pays."

"Russia has been investing more than 9% of its GDP on military. In comparison, European countries are spending 2%. I think my own country is spending over 3%, but- but I think America is spending something around 3 or 4% of its GDP. So if you're investing so much on the military, you will want to use it again. And that's why it is very important how we- how we act here. In 2008, they attacked Georgia. Nothing happened. There was not the strong reaction from the West. In 2014, they annexed Crimea and attacked Ukraine. There was not the strong reaction. So, you know, there was a ceasefire, but ceasefire only gave them possibility to regroup and rearm. That's why it is extremely important that we don't make the same mistake again. If there is a pause, so they are able to get their forces to gather again, we will just see more wars. Everybody wants peace, but the peace has to be a lasting peace. And for lasting peace, it has to put- the pressure has to be put on Russia so that they don't do this again."

"I mean, NATO is a defense alliance, and- and it is comprised of 32 different armies of, of the NATO member states. So, NATO structure is the military structure, and in terms of war, very important is, who gives orders to whom? So if you have, you know, those through- 32 armies that cooperate together, and you have one structure, then it's clear who gives orders to whom."

"We don't want the trade war with United States. I think there are no winners in trade wars. And I mean, yesterday, I was here and watching the news as well, and you hear the news that consumer confidence in United States is dropping. And you know, if you have trade wars, it increases the prices, and in the end, the consumers will pay for this. So- so it is- it is not- I mean, there are no winners in trade wars, and we don't want to start one. But of course, we will also protect our interest if a trade war is started against us."

"I don't think that anybody wants the killing to stop more than the Ukrainians. And in order to achieve that, we should all put the pressure on Putin, because he can stop the killing by not bombing Ukraine and the Ukrainians so that they don't have to defend themselves. And that's why our plan, our policies, to really put the pressure on Russia. We shouldn't overestimate the power of Russia and underestimate our own power. We know that their economy is not doing well. I mean, their inflation is over 20%, their National Fund is almost completely depleted. They don't have the same revenues from gas and oil that they used to to fund the war machine. So actually, if we concentrate our efforts, we can put the pressure so that they would stop the war, not to offer them anything, you know, on a plate, in addition what they have already done."

"We have always been good allies. I mean, we have been working together and we have been friends and allies, what comes to the world in different parts of the world, what is happening. We have been cooperating, whether it comes to Ukraine, whether it comes to, also, Middle East. And we see- in the world, we see powers like Russia, North Korea, Iran, more covertly China, working together. And I think this is the moment where we have to work together as transatlantic partners."

"We are coordinating. And of course, the message is there are several layers. One is that the fight that Ukraine is having is not only about Ukraine sovereignty, but it's much, much broader. It's about freedom of the free world, really. It is about the world where international law applies and the world where might does not make right. It is clear that Russia attacked Ukraine. There is one aggressor and one victim. And we need to really make sure that Russia doesn't attack again. And for that, we need to concentrate our efforts. I mean putting politically and economically pressure on Russia to stop this war, but at the same time also help Ukraine to defend itself."

"it does matter who is responsible, so who is accountable for this as well. And why it also matters is that we have the United Nations Charter where we have agreed how countries are, you know, interacting with each other. And it says very clearly that you can't attack sovereignty, territorial integrity of another country, and if you do, there are consequences. And why is it important? It is important for small countries in the world for whom this is the only thing that protects them. If we don't really defend this principle, then we're going to see all these developments that we don't want to see. Because all the countries who are afraid of their neighbors will want to go for nuclear weapons, because this is the only thing that protects them. It's not the international law anymore. And all the countries who have appetite for the neighbors' territory will want to have a nuclear weapon, because it is the only thing by- you know, threatening to use this weapon, you can have what you- what you want, because this is what Russia is doing."

"I think Zelenskyy did well to say, "OK, I'm willing to meet Putin and let him come." I don't know if we are off the camera or on the camera here, but I'd like to express my opinion here. It's hard. I think it's a good move. It's a sit down. It should be between Zelenskyy and Putin. I don't think Putin dares."

"When they are saying that it is weaponised by Hamas, and only given to people that are close to Hamas, then the response would be [to] flood Gaza with humanitarian aid so that there would be no deficit and it can't be used. Like you say, it can, so we are also offering our help. We have the EUBAM Rafah border crossing mission. We are also ready to increase this, to help with the distribution of humanitarian aid, but we are not allowed to. So for me, it is an immense frustration that we can't really do anything. Of course, we will have a discussion about this agreement. I know what the end result is going to be, because I know the positions of the Member States. Even if we suspended this agreement, it wouldn't stop the killing, and that is the problem. That's really where the frustration comes, because we all see that this is untenable, the loss of life, the human suffering, and we really need to help them. We are, together with Arab countries, discussing what more we can do, but again we need our American friends on board and to understand that the situation is completely untenable."

"Well, yes, not so directly. It doesn't have a practical impact, but it- clearly, I mean, it is saying what kind of principles in the world we are supporting. And of course, we were co-sponsoring, together with the United States, the resolution to support Ukraine. And it was a surprise to us that U.S. suddenly changed the position. I must, you know, really point out that we had the resolution drafted together with the new administration, regarding the support for Ukraine. But when they met the Russians, something happened after that, because the behavior changed. So- so the question is, where do we go from here? Our will and- and wish is to work together with our transatlantic partners for the principles that United States has always stood for. I mean, I'm coming from the country that regained our independence in 1991. It was the time when, you know, Ronald Reagan was really pushing hard for, you know, fight for freedom, and- and we are so grateful for America for doing this. Because we got our independence and freedom back, and therefore also the prosperity and the well being of our people. So we are very grateful. And I'm not- and I don't want to- I don't want to see this- I don't want to let this go. I mean, that, America, you know, is- is not fighting for- for freedom and independence, and, you know, the principles, the basic principles, of the international law."

"Europe is a peace project. You know, it was created so that we wouldn't have wars between the members of European Union, and we haven't had. And, of course, also to do things together, cooperate more. You know, coming from a country that joined the European Union 20, 20 years ago. Then, we were actually, you know, pushed by the Americans, you know, you will not get into NATO, but, but Europe, the European Union, is something that you should join because it's, it's a good project also for the transatlantic relations. So I was quite surprised to hear a comment like that."