*September 20, 2006*
/Address to the United Nations/
Rise Up Against the Empire
By HUGO CHAVEZ
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.
<http://www.amazon.com/Hegemony-Survival-Americas-Dominance-American/dp/0805076883/counterpunchmaga>'"
[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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