u go hugo

[Guest guest]

Rise Up Against the Empire

 

President Hugo Chavez, Address to the United Nations

 

09/19/06 " Information Clearing House " -- --

 

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 Sylvia 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.

 

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas