Venezuela, 2011

It is almost the end of

the beginning of the annual debate in United Nations.

Having listened to and evaluated positions on different

world issues debated by the planet and all of humanity,

the delegation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,

the South American Bolivarian Republic, has received

for the purposes of sharing with the Governments and

the brotherly peoples of the world through the General

Assembly a letter from the president of our Republic,

Commander Hugo Chávez Frías. This letter contains a

series of comments and reflections that are necessary

and relevant for a democratic debate in our world and,

above all, for the process of the growing empowerment

of the peoples of the world and of transformation and

necessary re-establishment of the United Nations as a

multilateral system that has been with us for the last

six or seven decades.

By your leave, Sir, I will read out and distribute

to delegations the letter from Commander Hugo

Chávez:

“Caracas, 26 September 2011

“I am writing these words to the United

Nations General Assembly, that great forum

where representatives of all the peoples of the

world meet to express the reality of the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and to reaffirm

our unwavering commitment to justice, equality

and peace.

“Peace, peace, peace … let us not look for

peace in cemeteries, as Kant said with irony, but

rather through the most zealous respect for

international law. Unfortunately, the United

Nations, throughout its history, instead of adding

and multiplying efforts for peace among nations,

has ended up by supporting the most ruthless

injustices, sometimes by acts of commission,

sometimes by acts of omission.

“We need to recall the Preamble of the

Charter of the United Nations, which talks of

saving future generations from the scourge of

war. Those are just empty words; since 1945, the

number of wars has continued to grow

inexorably. Let us look once again at Libya in

ruins, covered in blood, because of the powerful

people in this world.

“I call on the Governments of the world to

consider that since 11 September 2001, a new

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imperialist war was started, an unprecedented,

permanent, perpetual war.

“We need to face the cruel reality of our

world. We must make a list of our concerns

stemming from the dangers and threats that are

stalking us. Why is the United States the only

country that sows military bases all over the

world? What is it so afraid of that it must set

aside staggering budgets for constantly increasing

its military strength? Why has it unleashed so

many wars, violating the sovereignty of other

countries, which have the same rights over their

futures? How can we can we use international

law to counter its senseless ambition to militarily

dominate the world in order to ensure access to

the energy sources it needs to sustain its

predatory consumerist model? Why does the

United Nations do nothing to stop Washington?

“If we answer all of these questions with

absolute sincerity, we would understand that the

empire has crowned itself judge of the world,

without anyone bestowing that responsibility on

it and even though, therefore, the imperialist war

is a threat to us all.

“Washington knows that a multipolar world

is already an irreversible reality. Its strategy

consists of halting the sustained rise of groups of

emerging countries at any price, by promoting its

major interests with its partners and followers in

order to direct multi-polarity along the path that

the empire wants. What is more, the goal is to

reconfigure the world so that it sustains Yankee

military hegemony. Humankind is facing a

genuine threat of permanent war. As the case of

Libya shows, the empire is ready, in any scenario,

to create the political conditions for going to war.

In the imperial worldview, Clausewitz’s famous

axiom is being reversed: politics is the

continuation of war by other means.

“What is behind this new Armageddon? It is

the absolute power of the military-financial

leadership, destroying the world in its

accumulation of more profits, a military-financial

leadership that is in fact subordinate to a group of

States. It should be borne in mind that war is

financial capital’s way of life: war that ruins most

people and makes a few unimaginably rich. At

this moment we have a profoundly serious threat

to global peace: the unleashing of a new cycle of

colonial wars, starting with Libya, with the

cynical goal of breathing new life into the global

capitalist system, whose current structural crisis

has still in no way curbed its destructive,

consumerist voraciousness. The case of Libya

should alert us to the desire to practice a new

imperial version of colonialism: military

interventionism endorsed by the anti-democratic

bodies of the United Nations and justified by

prefabricated lies.

“Humankind is on the brink of an

unimaginable catastrophe. The world is marching

inexorably towards devastating ecocide; the

terrifying consequences of global warming

proclaim it, but the ideology of the environmental

equivalents of Cortés and Pizarro, the early

Spanish colonizers who destroyed part of the

American continent — as the influential French

thinker Edgar Morin has said — drives them to

continue their depredations and destruction. The

energy and food crises worsen, while capitalism

still breaches every boundary with impunity.

“As we face this bleak prospect, our way is

lighted by the great American scientist and two-

time Nobel prize winner, Linus Pauling, who

said:

‘I believe that there is a greater power

in the world than the evil power of military

force, of nuclear bombs — there is the

power of good, of morality, of

humanitarianism. I believe in the power of

the human spirit’.

Then let us mobilize all the power of the human

spirit; it is time. We must unleash a great political

counter-offensive to prevent the powers of

darkness finding justification for going to war, so

they can unleash the generalized global war with

which they hope to save the West’s capital.

Venezuela calls for the establishment of a grand

alliance against war and for peace, with the

supreme goal of avoiding war at all costs. The

warmongers and, especially, the military-

financial leadership that sponsors and leads them

must be defeated politically. Let us build the

balanced universe envisioned by the liberator

Simón Bolivar, the balance that, as he said,

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cannot be found in war; the balance born out of

peace.

“Let us take note and remember: Venezuela,

along with the member countries of the

Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our

America, actively advocated for a peaceful and

negotiated solution to the Libyan conflict, as did

the African Union. Eventually, however, the logic

of war decreed by the Security Council and made

a reality by NATO, the armed wing of the Yankee

empire, was imposed, the logic of war whose

vanguard is the transnational media.

“Let us remember that the case of Libya

was brought before the Security Council on the

basis of intense propaganda on the part of the

media, which lied in saying that the Libyan Air

Force was bombing innocent civilians, not to

mention the grotesque media setting of Tripoli’s

Green Square. This premeditated campaign of lies

was used to justify hasty and irresponsible

decisions by the Security Council, paving the way

for NATO’s policy of military regime change in

Libya. It is worth asking: what became of the

no-fly zone established by Security Council

resolution 1973 (2011)? How could the more than

20,000 NATO missions flown against Libya,

many of them aimed at bombing the Libyan

people, not represent the denial of the no-fly

zone? Once the Libyan Air Force was completely

annihilated, the continued ‘humanitarian’

bombing showed that the West, through NATO, is

imposing its interests on North Africa, turning

Libya into a colonial protectorate.

“It is a joke to say that the United Nations

imposed an arms embargo on Libya, when NATO

itself brought in thousands of heavy weapons in

support of a violent insurrection against that

country’s legitimate Government. The embargo,

of course, was there only to prevent the Libyan

Government from defending its sovereignty,

exposing yet again the functioning of the cruel

international system, under which the law applies

only to the weak.

“What is the real reason for this military

intervention? To recolonize Libya so as to take

over its wealth. We have no doubt about that.

Everything else is subordinate to that goal. No

one colonizes innocently, as the great poet of

Martinique, Aimé Césaire, rightly said in his

extraordinary essay on colonialism. By the way,

the residence of Venezuela’s Ambassador in

Tripoli was invaded and looted while the United

Nations stayed mute, guarding a shameful

silence.

“We demand the immediate cessation of the

bombing on Libyan territory. We will also

continue demanding that international law be

respected in the case of this sister nation. We will

not remain silent in the face of evil intentions to

destroy the foundations that endow it with sense

and reason. We therefore put this question to the

Assembly: Why is the Libyan seat in the United

Nations granted to the so called National

Transitional Council while Palestine’s admission

is blocked by ignoring not only its legitimate

aspiration, but also the will of the majority of the

General Assembly? With all its strength and with

the moral authority granted it by the will of the

majority of the world’s peoples, Venezuela

hereby affirms its unconditional solidarity with

the Palestinian people and its unlimited support

for the Palestinian national cause, including, of

course, the immediate admission of Palestine to

the United Nations as a full Member State.

“And the same imperialist formula is being

repeated in the case of Syria. Had not some of the

Security Council’s permanent members stood

firm, it would all have ended with the Council

authorizing NATO to fire its missiles and send its

bombers against Syria. It is intolerable that the

Powers of this world wish to arrogate to

themselves the right to order legitimate,

sovereign rulers to resign on the spot. Having

succeeded in Libya, they wish to proceed in the

same way against Syria. Such are the current

asymmetries that exist on the international scene,

and such are the abuses done to independent

nations.

“It is not for us to pass judgement on

Syria’s domestic situation, first, because of the

inherent complexity of any national reality, and

secondly, because only the Syrian people can

solve their problems and decide their fate by the

right to self-determination of all peoples, an

inalienable right in every sense. But that does not

prevent us from believing that it is 100 times

better to bet on the success of the broad national

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dialogue for which President Basher Al-Assad

has called than to impose sanctions and howl like

hyenas for military intervention. We fully support

the efforts of President Al-Assad to preserve the

stability and unity of his country, which is being

besieged by the West.

“Now let us turn to the Horn of Africa,

where we will witness a heartbreaking example

of the United Nations’ historic failure. Most

serious news agencies report that 20,000 to

29,000 children under the age of five have died in

the last three months.

“The journalist Frida Modak, in her article

‘To Die In Somalia’ reveals the miserliness that

afflicts the major international organizations, first

among them the United Nations, a level of

poverty worse than that ravaging the vast region

of the Horn of Africa.

“In order to confront this situation, we need

$1.4 billion, not to solve the problem but to

address the emergency that Somalia, Kenya,

Djibouti and Ethiopia are going through.

According to all information received, the next

two months will be decisive if we are to prevent

the death of more than 12 million people. That

situation is most acute in Somalia.

“We must also ask ourselves how much

money is being spent on sophisticated weapons to

destroy Libya. Here is the answer of United

States Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who says,

‘This new war will cost us $500 million during its

first week alone. Obviously, we do not have

financing resources for that and we will end up

cutting off other important domestic programs’

funding’. According to Mr. Kucinich himself, the

amount spent in northern Africa during the first

three weeks to massacre the Libyan people could

have been used to help the entire Horn of Africa,

saving dozens of thousands of lives.

“The reasons behind the criminal military

engagement in Libya are not humanitarian at all.

They are based on the Malthusian postulate that

there are simply too many people in the world

and that they have to be eliminated by generating

more hunger, destruction and uncertainty, thereby

creating more financial profits.

“In this regard, it is frankly regrettable that

the opening address of the sixty-sixth session of

the General Assembly did not include an

immediate appeal to solve the humanitarian crisis

in the Horn of Africa, even as it asserted that the

time had come to act on Syria. What criminal

cynicism!

“We also call for an end to the shameful

criminal blockade against our sister republic of

Cuba, imposed by the United States empire for

more than 50 years with gruesome cruelty against

the heroic people of José Martí. By 2010, a total

of 19 separate votes in the General Assembly

articulated the universal demand that the United

States cease its economic and trade blockade

against Cuba.

“Since all arguments of international good

sense have been exhausted, we have no choice

but to believe that such aggravated cruelty

against the Cuban Revolution is the result of

imperial arrogance in the face of the dignity and

courage shown by the defiant Cuban people in

their sovereign decision to determine their own

fate and fight for their happiness.

“In Venezuela, we believe that the time has

come to demand that the United States not only

immediately and unconditionally end the criminal

blockade it has imposed against the Cuban

people, but that it also release the five Cuban

anti-terrorist fighters held hostage in the prisons

of the empire solely for seeking to prevent illegal

actions that terrorist groups are preparing against

Cuba, under the protection of the Government of

the United States.

“We wish to reiterate that it is impossible to

ignore the crisis in the United Nations. In 2005,

before this very General Assembly, we declared

that the model of the United Nations was

obsolete. Back then, we also said that it needed to

be rebuilt from the ground up, and that the

process could not be postponed.

“Since then, nothing has been done. The

political will of the most powerful has prevailed.

Of course, the United Nations, as it continues to

function, docilely serves their interests. If its

Secretary-General, along with the President of the

International Criminal Court, takes part in an act

of war, as is the case with Libya, then nothing can

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be expected from the current structure of this

Organization, and there is no longer time for

reform. The United Nations does not accept any

reform whatsoever. The illness within it is fatal.

“It is unbearable that there is a Security

Council that turns its back, whenever it wants to,

on the clamour of a majority of nations,

deliberately refusing to acknowledge the will of

the General Assembly. If the Security Council is a

kind of club with privileged members, what can

the General Assembly do? What is the scope of

its operation when its members violate

international law?

“Paraphrasing the liberator Simón Bolívar,

who was referring specifically, in 1818, to the

then newborn Yankee imperialism, we have had

enough of laws being applied by the weak and

abuses being committed by the strong. The

peoples of the South cannot be the ones to respect

international law, while the North violates,

destroys and plunders us.

“If we do not commit ourselves once and

for all to restructuring the United Nations, this

Organization will definitively lose its last shred

of credibility. Its crisis of legitimacy is

accelerating toward a final implosion. In fact, that

is what happened to its immediate predecessor:

the League of Nations.

“A crucial and decisive first step towards

restructuring the United Nations would be to

eliminate the category of permanent member

along with the right to veto in the Security

Council. Likewise, the decision-making power of

the General Assembly must be democratically

maximized. A comprehensive review of the

Charter of the United Nations is also urgently

required, with the aim of drafting a new Charter.

“The future of a peaceful, multipolar world

depends on the determination of the majority of

the world’s people to defend ourselves from the

new colonialism and to achieve a balance in the

universe that will be capable of neutralizing

imperialism and its arrogance.

“This broad, generous, respectful and

inclusive call is addressed to all the peoples of

the world, but most especially to the emerging

Powers of the South, which must courageously

rise to the role they are being asked to play.

“From Latin America and the Caribbean, a

powerful dynamic of regional alliances has

emerged that seeks to create a democratic space

that will be respectful of differences and eager to

emphasize solidarity and complementarity in

order to maximize that which unites us and

resolve politically whatever divides us.

“This new regionalism allows for diversity

and respects everyone’s rhythms. The Bolivarian

Alliance for the Peoples of Our America is

growing into an experimental vanguard of

progressive and anti-imperialist Governments,

seeking ways to break with the prevailing

international order and strengthening the people’s

capacity to confront the de facto Powers.

However, that does not prevent its members from

contributing decisively and enthusiastically to the

consolidation of the Union of South American

Nations, a political bloc that federates

12 sovereign States of South America into what

the liberator Simón Bolívar called ‘a Nation of

Republics’. Furthermore, the 33 countries that

comprise Latin America and the Caribbean are

currently preparing to take the historic step of

establishing a single great regional entity that

unites us all, without exception, through which

we will be able to design policies that will ensure

our well-being, our independence and our

sovereignty, based on equality, solidarity, and

reciprocity.

“Caracas, the capital of the Bolivarian

Republic of Venezuela, is proud to be able to

host, on 2 and 3 December of this year, the

summit of heads of State and Government that

will definitely establish the Community of Latin

American and Caribbean States.

“The people of Venezuela have placed their

hopes in a broad alliance of regional assemblies

of the South, such as the Union of South

American Nations, the Caribbean Community, the

Central American Integration System, the African

Union, the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations and the Economic Cooperation

Organization, among other regional

organizations, and specifically in interregional

coordinating bodies of emerging Powers such as

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the BRICS group — consisting of Brazil, Russia,

India, China and South Africa — which must

become a focus of attention in coordination with

the peoples of the South.

“I would like to conclude by recalling the

great Venezuelan singer Ali Primera, whose

poetic voice sent a message of life and revolution

to our people. In one of his songs, he asks: what

is man’s struggle to achieve peace? And what

kind of peace would it be, if we were to leave the

world as it is? Today more than ever, the worst

crime against peace would be to leave the world

as it is; if we were to do so, the present and the

future would be characterized by unending war.

Bringing about peace, on the other hand, requires

a radical rejection of everything that prevents

humankind from being human.”