Fwd: [cacklinggrackle] Hugo Chavez' UN address

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T. Lassiter Jones <ljonez23

Sep 20, 2006 9:15 PM

[cacklinggrackle] Hugo Chavez' UN address

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http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html

 

 

Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all

of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully,

to those who have not read this book, to read it.

 

Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world

intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books,

'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United

States.' " [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]

" It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening

in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now,

and the greatest threat looming over our planet.

 

The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk

the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about

this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the

world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our

heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of

time, " [flips through the pages, which are numerous] " I will just

leave it as a recommendation.

 

It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President]

you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in

Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this

book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their

threat is right in their own house.

 

The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

 

" And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here.

Right here. " [crosses himself] " And it smells of sulfur still today.

 

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of

the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came

here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the

world.

 

I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement

made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of

imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the

current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples

of the world.

 

An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even

propose a title: " The Devil's Recipe. "

 

As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is

doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we

cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be

consolidated.

 

The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this

imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.

 

They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their

democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would

say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and

firing weapons.

 

What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others

who are at the root of democracy.

 

What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?

 

The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here,

in this room, and I'm quoting, " Anywhere you look, you hear extremists

telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through

violence, terror and martyrdom. "

 

Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks

at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the

worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.

 

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are

extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over.

And people are standing up.

 

I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live

the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are

standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism,

who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of

nations.

 

Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the

empire, against the model of domination.

 

The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: " I have come

to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them

that my country wants peace. "

 

That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around

New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San

Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States,

what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.

 

But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United

States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of

exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

 

It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in

Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last

100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening

Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?

 

He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how

your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical

can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut

with millimetric precision?

 

This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot

from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.

 

This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and

Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what

happened. And now we hear, " We're suffering because we see homes

destroyed.'

 

The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to

the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents

with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see

that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon,

the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.

 

And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States

addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the

world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to

say?

 

And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the

oppressed people think. They would say, " Yankee imperialist, go home. "

I think that is what those people would say if they were given the

microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American

imperialists.

 

And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year

we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past

eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed --

fully, fully confirmed.

 

I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's

accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second

World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

 

Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other,

make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to

good speeches, like Abel's yesterday, or President Mullah's . Yes,

it's good for that.

 

And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the

president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.

 

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative

organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible

situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes,

here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

 

Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be

crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of

state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss

it.

 

The first is expansion, and Mullah talked about this yesterday right

here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent

categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given

access as new permanent members. That's step one.

 

Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts,

transparent decisions.

 

Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something

everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as

the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.

 

Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United

States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right

in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the

council was prevented.

 

Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and

the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.

 

Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of

farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have

just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights

violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of

the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic

pretensions.

 

Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within

the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it

that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.

 

Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the

search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to

denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the

planet.

 

This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought

a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.

 

Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government,

an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely

elected to a post in the Security Council.

 

The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It

calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.

 

And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced

their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one

and there's no need to announce things.

 

But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the

convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.

 

Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in

Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a

full member of Mercosur.

 

And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have

expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab

League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab

world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African

Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela

and countries such as Russia or China and many others.

 

I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our

people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on

the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's

thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the

world, and we will defend dignity and truth.

 

Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons

to be optimistic. A poet would have said " helplessly optimistic, "

because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and

the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see

that a new era is dawning.

 

As Silvio Rodriguez says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There

are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think

differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere

decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false

assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the

establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown,

this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?

 

What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is

breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin

America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.

 

We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness.

We have to build a new and better world.

 

Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The

U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in

Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and

elsewhere.

 

President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the

horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando

Letelier.

 

And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are

free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were

American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.

 

And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be

another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other

horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents

died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.

 

And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the

responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail

in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was

allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the

government.

 

And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S.

government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants

to.

 

And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating

terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting

for peace.

 

Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected

here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela

are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various

embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me

and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our

people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here

today.

 

But these people who led that coup are here today in this country

protected by the American government. And I accuse the American

government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical

discourse.

 

We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just

came from there happily.

 

And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit

of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome

document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.

 

But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after

open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state.

Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now

launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.

 

And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions,

my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend

momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to

prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.

 

And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for

the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very

efficiently.

 

Unfortunately they thought, " Oh, Fidel was going to die. " But they're

going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive,

he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the

nonaligned.

 

So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has

been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.

 

With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now

closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm

recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.

 

We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the

imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too

long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our

children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the

fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United

Nations.

 

And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United

Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed

Venezuela.

 

You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief

of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these

gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is

another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It

smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.

 

May God bless us all. Good day to you.