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HUGO
CHAVEZ United Nations
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.'"
[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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