This address by Hugo Chavez
to the learned diplomats assembled at the UN is
especially relevant today in the background of
the Govt. of India attempt to get victimized to
the United States embrace of a nuclear agreement.
The argument raised by a person not less than
Dr. Man Mohan Singh the Prime minister of the
great Republic of India that India will be able
to produce 40,000 MV of nuclear generated electricity
by 2029 if we gladly accept the agreement make
us very sorry before the whole world. And the
quantum is a wild possibility; the really expected
quantum would be somewhere between 20,000 and
25,000MV. We beg with a bowl in our hands while
we have all the potential of rivers, coal, and
also thorium to a level, which would make the
other nations envy us. When we were denied cryogenic
device by Russia on the dictates of the United
States, our scientists were able to develop one
with our own resources. Had the rulers been a
little more patriotic than they are now (which
means if they were really patriotic at all!),
India would not have to succumb to US pressure.
Yesterday, India were in the very bad books of
the US; today India are in the very good books
and Mr. Man Mohan Singh says that it is for providing
us with nuclear generated electricity. Political
partisanism would give him support of a few; but
no Indian with self-respect and patriotism would
lend him support in this issue. Why should not
our Prime Minister learn a few lessons from history
and the experiences of the neighbors of the USA?
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.
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