Venezuela, 2006

First

I very respectfully invite all those who have not done

so to read the book that I am holding, one of the most

recent by Noam Chomsky, who is among the most

prestigious American and world intellectuals. The

book, “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for

Global Dominance”, is an excellent work to help us

understand what happened in the world of the twentieth

century and what is happening now, which is the

greatest threat looming over our planet: the

hegemonistic claims of American imperialism, which

threaten the very survival of the human species. We

continue to warn about this danger and to appeal to the

people of the United States and the world to halt this

threat, which is like the sword of Damocles hanging

over our heads.

I had considered reading a chapter from the book,

but to save time I shall confine myself to a

recommendation. The book is very good, an easy read.

I am sure, Madam President, that you are familiar with

it. It is published in English, German, Russian and

Arabic. The first people who should read it are our

brothers and sisters in the United States, because the

threat is in their own house. The Devil is there; the

Devil himself is in the house.

The Devil came here yesterday, right here. It still

smells of sulphur today. Yesterday on this rostrum the

President of the United States, whom I refer to as the

Devil, talked as if he owned the world. It would be

appropriate to have a psychiatrist analyse yesterday’s

address by the President of the United States. As the

spokesman of imperialism he came to share his

prescriptions for preserving the current pattern of

domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of

the world. It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I

would even propose a title: “The Devil’s Recipe”.

As Chomsky says here clearly and in depth,

American imperialism is doing all it can to consolidate

its hegemonistic system of domination. We cannot

allow it to do that. We cannot allow the establishment

and consolidation of world dictatorship. The address of

the world tyrant, cynical and full of hypocrisy, shows

the imperialists’ intention to control everything. They

say that they want to impose a democratic model, but it

is the democratic model of their own conception: the

false democracy of elites, and furthermore an original

democratic model imposed by bombs, bombardments

and invasions. What a strange democracy! It would be

necessary to revise the ideas of Aristotle and the other

Greek pioneers of democracy in the face of this model,

imposed by marines, invasions, aggression and bombs.

The President of the United States told us

yesterday in this Hall, “everywhere you turn you hear

extremists who tell you that you can escape your

misery and retain your dignity through violence and

terror and martyrdom.” (see ). Wherever he

looks he sees extremists, and when he looks at your

colour, my brother, he thinks “You are an extremist”.

Mr. Evo Morales Aima, the worthy President of

Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The

imperialists see extremists everywhere.

No, it is not that we are extremists. What is

happening is that the world is waking up and people

everywhere are rising up. I tell the world dictator “I

have a feeling that the rest of your days will be a living

nightmare, because everywhere you will see us rising

up against American imperialism, demanding freedom,

equality of peoples and respect for the sovereignty of

nations.” Yes, we may be described as extremists, but

we are rising against the empire, against the model of

domination.

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The President also said, “I would like to speak

directly to the people across the … Middle East: my

country desires peace.” That is true. If we walk through

the streets of the Bronx, New York, Washington, San

Diego, California, San Antonio and San Francisco —

anywhere in the United States — and speak to

individual citizens, we shall find that the country does

want peace. The difference is that the Government of

the United States does not. It wants to impose its

system of exploitation and pillage and its hegemony

through war. If it wants peace, what is happening in

Iraq? What happened in Lebanon and Palestine? What

has happened over the past hundred years in Latin

America and in world? Now there are new threats

against Venezuela and Iran.

The President spoke to the people of Lebanon,

saying “Many of you have seen your homes and

communities caught in crossfire.” What cynicism!

What a capacity to lie shamelessly! Was it crossfire

when bombs were dropped on Beirut with millimetric

precision? He was thinking of a Western, where men

shoot from the hip and somebody gets caught in the

crossfire. This was imperialist fire, fascist fire, the fire

of an assassin, the genocidal firing of the empire and

Israel on the innocent people of Palestine and Lebanon.

That is the truth.

Now it is said that we are suffering because we

see homes destroyed. Early this morning I was looking

at some statements in preparing my remarks, and I

have brought with me a document in which I note that

the President of the United States came to talk to the

peoples. He said “To the people of Afghanistan”, “To

the people of Lebanon”, “To the people of Iran”. He

addressed them all directly. One wonders what those

peoples would tell him if they were given the

opportunity. What would they have to say? I know

what is in the soul of the peoples of the south, the

oppressed peoples. They would say “Yankee

imperialist, go home!” That would be the cry of the

peoples of the world if they could speak with one voice

to the American imperialists.

That is why last year when I came to this Hall, as

I have been doing for the past eight years, I said

something that has now been fully confirmed. Hardly

anybody here can defend the United Nations system.

Let us be honest and accept that the system born after

the Second World War has collapsed. It is worthless. It

is true that it serves to bring us together once a year to

meet, make statements, prepare long documents, reflect

and listen to good speeches like those yesterday by

President Evo and President Lula and the ones we have

just heard from the President of Sri Lanka and the

President of Chile. But the Assembly has been turned

into a merely deliberative organ, with no power to

make any impact on the terrible situation in the world.

That is why Venezuela once again proposes here

today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United

Nations. Last year we made four modest proposals that

we felt were crucially important for discussion by

heads of State and Government, ambassadors and

representatives.

The first — President Lula said this yesterday —

is the expansion of both the permanent and non-

permanent membership of the Security Council, with

developed and under-developed countries of the third

world as new permanent members. That is the first

step.

Secondly, there must be effective methods to

address and resolve world conflicts, with transparent

debate and decision-making.

Thirdly, it is essential that, as everyone demands,

there be an immediate end to the anti-democratic

mechanism of the veto that is exercised when decisions

are made in the Security Council. Let me give a recent

example. The immoral veto of the United States,

blocking a resolution, allowed the Israeli forces to

destroy Lebanon with impunity before our very eyes.

Fourthly, as we have always said, the role and

powers of the Secretary-General must be strengthened.

Yesterday the Secretary-General practically gave us his

farewell speech. He recognized that in the past 10

years serious world problems such as hunger, poverty,

violence and human rights violations had worsened and

become more complicated. That is a terrible

consequence of the collapse of the United Nations

system and American hegemonistic pretensions.

A few years ago Venezuela decided to wage this

battle within the United Nations, recognizing the

United Nations, as Members, and lending it our voice

and our thinking. Our voice is an independent one

representing dignity, the search for truth and the

reformulation of the international system, with

denunciation of persecution and of the aggression of

hegemonistic forces against peoples of the planet.

That is how Venezuela, the homeland of Bolivar,

came to put itself forward for a non-permanent seat on

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the Security Council. The United States Government

launched open, immoral aggression throughout the

world to try to prevent Venezuela being freely elected

to a seat on the Security Council. The empire is afraid

of the truth, of independent voices. It calls us

extremists, but it is the extremist.

I should like to thank all those countries that have

announced their support for Venezuela even though the

ballot is secret and there is no need to make an

announcement. I believe that the open attack by the

United States empire has increased the support of many

countries, and that support strengthens the morale of

Venezuela, our people and Government. Our brothers

in the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR),

for example, have expressed their support as a bloc.

With Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well

as many other Latin American countries, such as

Bolivia, Venezuela is now a full member of

MERCOSUR. The Caribbean Community has

expressed its support for Venezuela, as has the Arab

League. I am immensely grateful to our Arab and

Caribbean brothers. The African Union, almost all of

Africa, has expressed support for Venezuela, as have

countries such as Russia, China and many others.

On behalf of Venezuela and its people, and of the

truth, I thank them all most warmly. With a seat on the

Security Council, Venezuela will make not only its

voice but that of the third world and all peoples heard

throughout the world. We will defend dignity and truth.

Over and above all this, there are reasons to be

optimistic — a poet would say “hopelessly optimistic”.

Beyond the threats, the bombs, the wars, aggression,

preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples,

we can see that a new era is dawning. As Silvio

Rodriguez sings, “the era is giving birth to a heart”.

New trends are developing, alternative ways of

thinking, alternative movements. Young people think

differently. As has been shown in scarcely a decade,

the idea of the end of history has been shown to be

totally false, as has that of the Pax Americana and the

establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal model, which

creates poverty and is rejected.

Now we must define the future of the world. The

dawn is breaking all over: Latin America, Africa,

Europe and Oceania. I want to emphasize that

optimistic vision, so that we may strengthen our will

and our readiness to fight to save the world and build a

new and better world.

Venezuela joins that struggle, and that is why we

are threatened. The United States has already planned,

financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it

continues to support coup attempts and terrorism there.

President Michelle Bachelet Jeria reminded us a short

time ago of the horrendous assassination of the former

Chilean Foreign Minister, Orlando Letelier. I would

simply add that those who perpetrated that crime, in

which an American citizen also died, are free. And they

are Americans themselves, CIA terrorists.

We should also recall that in a few days there will

be another anniversary: 30 years will have passed since

another horrendous terrorist act, the destruction of an

airliner of Cubana de Aviación in which 73 innocent

people died. Where is the biggest terrorist of this

continent, who masterminded the blowing up of the

plane? He spent a few years in prison in Venezuela, but

thanks to the CIA and Venezuelan Government

officials at the time he was able to escape. Now he

lives in the United States, protected by the

Government. He confessed and was convicted of his

crime, but the United States Government has double

standards and protects terrorism when it wants to. I say

this to make the point that Venezuela is fully

committed to combating terrorism and violence, and

joins those peoples that are fighting for peace and a

world of equals.

I have just spoken of the Cuban airliner. Luis

Posada Carriles is the name of the terrorist concerned.

He is protected here, as are very corrupt people who

have fled Venezuela. A group of terrorists bombed

various embassies and assassinated people. During the

attempted coup they kidnapped me and were going to

shoot me. But God intervened, as did a group of loyal

soldiers and the people, who took to the streets. So by

a miracle I am here today. The leaders of that

attempted coup and those terrorist acts are living in this

country today, protected by the United States

Government. I accuse the American Government of

protecting terrorists and of holding a completely

cynical discourse.

I mentioned Cuba. I was very recently in Havana

for a few days, and I left it feeling happy because the

birth of a new era could be seen. The Non-Aligned

Movement summit adopted a historic final document.

Do not worry; I shall not read it out. It contains a set of

resolutions adopted after open and transparent debate.

More than 50 heads of State attended, and Havana was

the capital of the south for a week.

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We have now relaunched the Non-Aligned

Movement. If there is anything I could ask of all those

here, my partners and brothers and sisters, it is that

they lend their good will to strengthen the Non-

Aligned Movement, which is important for the birth of

the new era and the prevention of hegemony and

imperialism. The Assembly will know that we elected

President Fidel Castro Chairman of the Non-Aligned

Movement for the next three years, and we can trust

him to lead us very efficiently. Those who hoped that

Fidel would die were disappointed, and they will

continue to be disappointed, because he is back in his

olive-green fatigues and is now not only President of

Cuba but Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement. A

very strong movement has been born: that of the South.

We are men and women of the South.

With these documents, ideas, criticisms and

reflections, I am now closing my file and taking the

book with me. Do not forget that I recommend it very

warmly and very humbly to all those present. I have

tried to put forward ideas to save our planet, to save it

from the imperialist threat. I hope that in this century,

in the not too distant future, we shall see our children

and grandchildren living better, in a world of peace

based on the fundamental principles of the United

Nations — a renewed and relocated United Nations. I

believe that it must move to another country, to a city

of the South. That is what we in Venezuela have

proposed. The Assembly knows that my personal

doctor and chief of security had to stay on a locked

plane. Neither was allowed to come to the United

Nations. This abuse we regard as a personal insult by

the Devil. It smells of sulphur here, but God is with us,

and I embrace you all. May God bless us all.