While on a tour of the north Windward area of mainland St. Vincent on Saturday morning March,2, 2024, Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres, spoke at a small ceremony at Orange Hill put together by the villagers of that tiny community who were displaced by the April 2021 eruptions La Soufriere Volcano. He told the small gathering of villagers, government and United Nations officials, among other persons, that he had “gained an enormous admiration for the courage, the resilience, and the solidarity of the people of St. Vincent”.

This admiration, he said, came after he listened to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves who had described to him “how terrible the impact was, the level of destruction and the huge quantity of cinders spreading everywhere and covering everything. The houses destroyed, people displaced, the forests in trouble, agriculture lost”.

This village comprises 27 houses donated by a Trinidad and Tobago company, the first houses constructed to accommodate displaced families in Sandy Bay.

Guterres, who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, before being appointed as United Nations Secretary-General, remarked “I’m used- I was High Commissioner for refugees-when there is a big displacement in the community or in a country you create camps put some tents, put people in tents and you provide them with assistance. There were no camps in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, why?”

“Because people would find shelter in the houses of their fellow citizens, members of the family, friends. I mean, there was an enormous mobilization of solidarity within this community that allowed for people not to be alarmed and to find the hope for the time in which that devastating volcano was still a major threat for the country, and then I have to say that coming a few years afterwards, I’m amazed at the level of reconstruction that I could witness,” the UN official said.

“I saw the bridges that are being built; what a wonderful scene. Where was the volcano? They say it’s below the clouds. I would not, never imagine that there was a volcano here seeing how the country has recovered and I want to strongly hope that today the government of the people are more accepting of that now. The United Nations played a small role in supporting the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Guterres was also high in praise for the role of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the affairs of the United Nations stating “I want to pay tribute to the role that St. Vincent and the Grenadines plays in the United Nations. Your distinguished Ambassador in the UN was in the Security Council, and I have to say that all the problems, all the wars that we couldn’t stop, all the conflicts that are not being solved, all the problems we had, come from the Big Five”.

“The voice of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is always a voice of harmony, of bringing people together, of really pushing for peace, for development, for equality in the world.

“So the UN is very grateful to the contribution that St. Vincent and the Grenadines does to the work of the UN. And whatever the UN was able to give you in support of your government and your country is minimal compared with the very important role that St. Vincent and the Grenadines play in the international community today and in the UN,” the Secretary-General added.

“There was a risk of a war between Guyana and Venezuela. What has happened? Prime Minister Gonsalves called the two heads of state. They came here, they made peace. This is the role that makes a country important. What makes a country important is not the number of people or the size of the country, it’s their contribution for the well-being of humankind. Their contribution for peace, for development, and for more justice and equality in the world.”

Speaking of the United Nations, Guterres told the gathering “There is one thing I want to explain to you about the United Nations. When I look at people, God has taught us that all women and men are equal… some are rich…some are poor… some are European…some are Caribbean… some are African”.

“In St. Vincent (and the Grenadines), there are different communities, indigenous communities, people that are upper descendants, people that came from Europe and God told us that all men and women are equal… before God the United Nations is similar,” he noted.

“I visited China and India; they have more or less 10,000 times more citizens than the Grenadines. But for the United Nations, and for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, all countries of the world are equal. All have the same rights, and the voice of each one of them must be understood and the positions of each country must be respected.”

Also speaking at the gathering were Parliamentary Representative for the constituency, Montgomery Daniel, and Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves.