* Rise Up Against the Empire: Address to the United Nations
* By HUGO CHAVEZ
* 20 September 2006
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_ (http://www.word-power.co.uk/catalogue/0141015055) : 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.
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