Letter from the Constitutional President of the Republic of Ecuador, H.E. Dr. Osvaldo Hurtado: To messrs. Enrique V. Iglesias, executive secretary, ECLA, and carlos alzamora, permanent secretary, SELA

Now, as 1983 begins, there are few remaining doubts about the gravity of the international economic situation. Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the world known such a serious and prolonged crisis. Almost no society has managed to escape its pernicious effects, for the problems suffered by the countries of the developed North and the developing South, those of the socialist East and the West are all similar. The fact that this crisis affects all societies, whatever their ideological orientation, political system or economic model, is the best demonstration that we are in the presence of a universal phenomenon involving all nations.