Venezuela, 2009

I greet all the citizens of the world who have come

here — as they do every year — for this gathering of

such great importance for the world. I am very pleased

to be back in New York and at the United Nations

following a few years’ absence. I am very grateful for

all the cooperation and the manner in which our

delegation has been received.

Last night we visited Lincoln Center to see a film

made by Oliver Stone during the past year. The title of

the film already stirs your thoughts. It is called “South

of the Border”. In this film, you can see President Evo

Morales chewing coca leaves, together with Oliver

Stone. And, as President Morales says, coca is not the

same as cocaine. You can see Cristina, the President of

Argentina, and the automobile of General Perón. You

can hear what she has to say about events in South

America, in Latin America. And you can see Lula, the

President of Brazil, in the Guajira region of Venezuela,

working with us to help the indigenous peoples, who

were exploited for centuries, through core industrial

projects. You will see President Fernando Lugo, a

bishop and liberation theologian, living today in the

residence occupied for many years by Stroessner. And

you can see how a bishop became a president.

You can also see Rafael Correa, the President of

Ecuador, in Havana with President Raúl Castro. You

can see Fidel. You can even see Obama, in Trinidad,

chatting with a group of us, with his hand held out to

us and an open smile.

I think it is an interesting film, one of the many

made by this great filmmaker of the United States,

Oliver Stone. He had already made two films about

Fidel, “Looking for Fidel” and “El Comandante”.

There is a lot in this film, many messages that could

help us to decipher the enigmas of the times in which

we live.

We stayed behind after the film was over last

night, chatting with a group of people from the United

States and other parts of the world. And this contact

was very instructive and very symptomatic of the

importance of what Fidel calls “the battle of ideas”. A

lady in her fifties came up to me and said “I am very

happy”. She was a North American, very white; a

typical United States citizen, born in this country, but

she spoke some Spanish. She told me, “I am very

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happy”. And I asked her why. “Because, now having

seen this movie, I realize what you are. I thought you

were a very bad person”.

This person was a victim of the hostile media

bombardment, the ideological bombardment, of the

United States and of the entire world, whose aim is to

turn reality inside out and to turn the world upside

down, as Eduardo Galeano put it.

The film is called “South of the Border” and I am

taking advantage of this opportunity and that title to

tell you that, south of the border, a revolution is under

way. A revolution is under way in South America. A

revolution is under way in Latin America. There is a

revolution in the Caribbean. The world must see this, it

must truly realize this and accept it, because it is a

reality and it is not going to change. What is more, this

is a revolution that goes beyond ideology. It is a

geographical and geopolitical revolution. It is a historic

revolution; it is part of our times. It has very deep

roots. It is a total, moral and spiritual revolution. And

we believe that it is a necessary revolution. This

revolution is great in both spirit and magnitude, and it

is going to keep growing as the days, months and years

go by. And why is it great? It is great because it has

been a long time coming: centuries of history have led

up to this moment in time. It is great in terms of the

space that it covers.

I am not going to speak any longer than

Mr. Al-Qadhafi. Al-Qadhafi has said everything there

is to say. This applause is for Al-Qadhafi and his

speech. But nor will I speak any less than Mr. Obama,

or Lula.

I was explaining why this revolution is great.

First, because of time, the accumulated time that has

gone by. It is centuries, centuries of battles, of

struggles, of hopes, of suffering of millions and

millions of human beings in Latin America and the

Caribbean. This revolution is great in the area it

covers. This revolution is great in the depth of its

foundations. This revolution is great in the masses of

people that are joining it. No one seeks to slow it down

and no one will be able to.

Yesterday, it was said by President Morales here

(see ), by this great companion and

indigenous leader of the Aymara, Evo Morales. He also

said it in the film, which you should not miss, “South

of the Border”. Oliver Stone told me last night that

pressure is already being exerted to prevent the

American people from seeing it. Where is their

freedom of expression? It is just a movie. How can

they be afraid of a movie? But there is already pressure

from the monopolies that run the film industry, that

operate the theatres — these are all monopolies and

they are putting on pressure. But the movie will be

shown elsewhere. Fortunately, we are in the age of

computers and telecommunications. We no longer

depend on movie theatres run by monopolies.

In the film, Evo, speaking with Oliver Stone,

recalls a phrase pronounced by a great leader of the

Aymara, an ancestor of his who was murdered, just one

of the many millions that were murdered by the

Spanish, Portuguese and English invasion, by the

European invasion of our continent. I know that all

present are aware that when the European ships arrived

at the American shores there were approximately

90 million indigenous people living here.

Two hundred years later only four million

survived. This is one of the greatest genocides in

history — the genocide of the continent itself, of the

Abya Yala, as our indigenous people call it. So Evo in

the movie repeats the sentence uttered by this great

Aymara leader, who was drawn and quartered — he

was tied to four horses by the arms and legs and he was

torn apart, and as he died the Indian uttered a

prophesy: “Today I die,” said Túpac Katari, “today I

die, but one day I will return as millions.” Túpac Katari

has returned, and we are millions. We are millions.

Nothing and no one can hold back the great South

American, Latin American, Caribbean revolution. And

I think the world should support it. The United States

should support it. Europe should support it, because

this revolution — some brothers and sisters may not

have noticed — is the start of the road to salvation for

this planet, and to salvation for the human race,

threatened as it is by capitalism, imperialism, hunger

and war. This is the necessary revolution. For centuries

this has been called “the New World”. Now we can

truly call it “a new world”.

Years ago — as we recalled last night — I was

invited to a conversation — a large group of important

leaders. They were important in their own right. They

were trade union leaders here in the United States.

Some workers were complaining about a biscuit

factory that was not paying them. They were striking,

and one of them asked me, “Why don’t you buy that

factory?” And I said, “I’ll see. Maybe we can make it a

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socialist biscuit factory, if Obama gives me permission.

Maybe we could do that — buy it, give it to the

workers, let them make the crackers and distribute

them. Why should there just be one or two capitalists

exploiting a lot of people?” That is socialism and that

is the path to salvation for this planet.

Yesterday a journalist asked me — after the

movie there was forum at which he asked me — “Do

you defend socialism even though the Soviet Union

failed?” The reply is very simple. The Soviet Union

lost its way early on. There was never real socialism in

the Soviet Union. But this century, the twenty-first

century, will be the century of socialism — the

socialism of the human race.

I’m sure everyone listening to me has read

Einstein. Albert Einstein convinced the American

President to build the atomic bomb — to begin the

research before the Nazis did. Then later he regretted

what he had done when he saw the disaster of

Hiroshima and the disaster of Nagasaki. But Albert

Einstein, after all his years of study, the great scientist,

among the greatest scientists ever to have walked the

Earth, came to the conclusion — and this is written in

his own hand — “Why socialism?” Einstein came to

the conclusion that the only way for the human race to

live on this planet is socialism. Capitalism is the road

to extinction of the human species. We as a species

have only been around for what? This is Castro

territory, he knows these figures. But, whereas life first

appeared here at least three billion years ago, we the

human species only appeared maybe less than 300,000

years ago, hardly 0.01 per cent of the time that life has

existed on this planet. So we appear after so long and

we’re going to wipe out life on this planet?

We’ve heard it from everybody — Obama, Lula,

Cristina Fernández, Al-Qadhafi, Sarkozy — everyone

said the same thing. They have all clamoured for

change. And what is the change? Capitalism allows no

change. Let us not fool ourselves. It’s only through

socialism that we can bring about genuine change. And

the revolution in Latin America has it all and it has a

strong socialist element. As Mariátequi, the great

Peruvian thinker said, it is an Indian-American

socialism. It is our own socialism. It is a Bolivarian

socialism. It is a José Martí socialism. It is a new

socialism. It has not been copied from anybody else.

There are no manuals for socialism, said Mariátequi. It

is a heroic creation that has to be constantly reinvented.

Yesterday we were remembering what a North

American President, that is to say a United States

President, said shortly before he was assassinated, and

this is on the record, in a speech before the United

States Congress. John Kennedy spoke of a revolution

in the South, saying that the principal cause was

hunger. Only a few days later he was assassinated.

John Kennedy was not a revolutionary, but he was an

intelligent man, just as I think President Obama is an

intelligent man. And I hope God protects Obama from

the bullets that killed Kennedy. I hope Obama will be

able to look and see — genuinely see — what has to be

seen. It does not smell of sulphur here anymore. That

smell has gone. It smells of something else — it smells

of hope. And you have to have hope in your heart and

believe in the hope.

We cannot destroy this planet. What about our

children? What about future generations? Come, let’s

take on the challenge. Lula was saying yesterday that

there was no political will. Those words were whips. I

know Lula’s will. I am deeply aware of his humane

attitude. He is a true brother of mine, and he was right

to say what he said. But I would not exactly say that

there is no political will. I would say rather that some

political will is lacking, because Lula has it and we

have it, but it has to be increased. It has to continue to

grow in the leaders, in society, among the people,

among the youth — particularly in the hearts of the

young — and the workers, everywhere in the world.

Kennedy said it: there is a revolution in the

South. And he added, “Those who make peaceful

revolution impossible will make violent revolution

inevitable”. Jack Kennedy said that. You can find it on

the Internet; you can find everything on the Internet.

My dear Maria Fernanda Espinosa, once

ambassador from fraternal Ecuador, whom I have not

seen for days. We’d like to say hello to President

Correa. The ambassador was Minister for Foreign

Affairs at the beginning of the citizens’ revolution,

with Correa leading the people of Ecuador, the people

of Manuela Saenz and Bolivar and Eloy Alfaro, the

noble and great people in Bolivia and that whole area.

Some are trying to block the path to our peaceful

revolution. And there’s another brave woman, Patricia

Rodas, the Foreign Minister of Honduras; please, a

hand for this brave Central American woman, from the

people of Morazán. Long live Honduras! Long live

Morazán! And long live the dignity of the people!

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At 1 p.m. exactly, I was jotting down these

notes — I don’t have much farther to go, Mr. President;

don’t anybody throw a shoe at me. The Cuban Minister

has taken off his shoe to throw it at me. He had some

rubber shoes — if you are going to throw me a shoe,

throw one of those. I spoke to Manuel Zelaya at 1 p.m.

sharp; I remember it was 1 p.m. sharp — we started at

1 and finished at 1.13.

While we are here, comrades of the world, there

is a President, firm, dignified, who with a small group

of people, almost martyrs, was able to escape those

trying to carry out a coup d’état. The perpetrators of

the coup had brought repression to the Plaza Morazán

in Tegucigalpa and had taken every single road. They

had an entire army; it was as if they had invaded

Honduras with their own army — what an indignity.

From here I make an appeal — I, who am a

revolutionary soldier — to the soldiers of Honduras, to

the sons of Morazán to not continue to repress an

innocent people.

While we are here, Manuel Zelaya, the President

of Honduras, is in the Brazilian embassy, which has

given him refuge. According to what the President has

told me, there are more than 200 soldiers surrounding

the embassy in the most brutal fashion. Were they

trying to go back to the Stone Age? It will not work. Is

that what the perpetrators of the coup d’état had in

mind? They will be swept away by the wind of the new

age. The coup cannot succeed, these regressive forces

cannot have their way, not in Honduras, not in any of

the countries of the Americas. These people have been

out in the streets for 90 days, resisting, resisting,

resisting.

So, there we have a President, firm in his

conviction, with a group of compatriots, with his wife,

the First Lady. Apparently they are not letting food

through; the water is cut off every now and then.

Luckily there is a cistern with water. This morning they

were able to get some of the most up-to-date telephone

interception equipment, which the President told me is

an Israeli brand. Israel has recognized the coup d’état

Government; I think it is the only country in the world

that has. They have all kinds of equipment to block

signals and jam communications, and they are also

trying to create panic among the few people inside the

Brazilian embassy, threatening them with incursion

into the embassy. Does the Assembly realize how

retrograde this is? It is like some kind of trolls or dark

giants or magicians, something from the age of the

cavemen. But they will not return.

The people are in the street, protesting. The

airport is closed now. Who is behind the coup d’état? It

is the Honduran bourgeoisie; the State is taken over by

the bourgeoisie, by the rich. Four or five wealthy,

powerful families own the State. I think we have to

pull out our copies of Lenin, his State and Revolution,

where he talks about the bourgeois State, the control of

everything by the bourgeois State including the

national congress, the judiciary, the army.

The people are in the street, but they are being

fired on. Yesterday the President told me that he knows

of at least three people in the vicinity of the Brazilian

embassy who were killed. And the President is asking

for dialogue, so as to return to the road to democracy.

So let us send the expression of our strongest solidarity

to the people of Honduras and President Zelaya, and let

us ask that the United Nations resolution be complied

with, and the resolution of the Organization of

American States.

The United States Government — and this is

strange — has not recognized that a military coup

d’état has occurred. President Zelaya told me today

that there is some friction between the State

Department and the Pentagon. Yesterday I was reading

Pentagonism, a book by the great Dominican author

Juan Bosch, who was overthrown by imperialism. The

Pentagon is the imperial cave. They do not want

Obama. They do not want change. They want to

dominate the world with their military bases, with all

their threats, their bombs, their soldiers and bases.

The Pentagon is behind the coup in Honduras.

President Zelaya was dragged out of his home, out of

his bed, at dawn on 28 June, taken to a plane, bundled

up by Honduran soldiers under command from the

United States base there, in Palmerola. The plane took

off from Tegucigalpa and landed at the Palmerola base.

They held the Honduran President there for some time.

Then they decided to take him to Costa Rica. The

American military in Honduras knew about the coup;

they supported it. They supported the Honduran

military. Hence the contradictions that Obama has to

face.

At times we wonder if are there two Obamas —

the one who spoke here yesterday and the other — a

double? The one who supports, or allows his military

to support, the coup on Honduras? I want to present

5 09-52425

this question for thought. Is there one Obama, or are

there two? Let us hope the one we heard yesterday will

prevail. That is what the world needs; that is what the

world is calling for.

What is the backdrop of the coup in Honduras? It

has to do with everything we are talking about here —

it is the revolution of the South. It is not the kind of

revolution where there are columns of guerrillas,

heroes such as in the Sierra Maestra, heroes of the high

mountains of Bolivia, where Ernesto Che Guevara was.

But this is not that kind of revolution. This

revolution is different. It does not break out in the

mountains with guerrilla groups. No, it starts in the

towns among the masses. It is a mass revolution, but it

is peaceful and wants to remain peaceful. It is

democratic, deeply democratic.

Do not be afraid of democracy. Here, I am

paraphrasing Noam Chomsky in another wonderful

work that I did not know until I obtained the book in

Madrid a few days ago. I went to visit my friend, the

King of Spain, mainly because an Ibero-American

summit was coming up in Portugal, and I said that I

would go if he did not tell me to shut up. He told me

that he would not. So, I am going. King Juan Carlos

and I are great friends. I went to a recommended

bookshop — La Casa del Libro — in Madrid, and I got

Chomsky’s book Fear of Democracy. We should all

read that book, Fear of Democracy.

The elite are afraid of the people. They are afraid

of true democracy, which Abraham Lincoln, another

martyr, defined very clearly in three ideas: democracy

is government of the people, by the people and for the

people. It is not government of the bourgeoisie or of

the elite when the people rise up and the thugs are

pushed out. That happened in Honduras, and in

Venezuela in 2002. It happened in Brazil with João

Goulart, and in the Dominican Republic. Why were the

peoples of Latin America and of the Caribbean not

allowed to build their own future in the twentieth

century? They did not let them.

This century is ours. This century, in Latin

America and in the Caribbean we will build our own

way and no one can stop it. No one can stop it.

Imperialism must end. At times, one wonders. I was

once asking Lula what America, our Latin America,

would be today if the Governments of the United States

had not dug their claws into our America to impose a

model by violently cutting off the hope and the

struggle of millions of people, extinguishing the dawn.

I was born in 1954. Fidel was already in prison,

and they were dropping bombs in Guatemala. They

invaded the Guatemala of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán; and

then the Bay of Pigs, although they failed there; then

this revolutionary Cuba — admirable, but blockaded.

I call on Obama to lift the blockade on Cuba.

What is he waiting for? Let him do what he says. Or

are there two Obamas? Yesterday, Obama said, and I

noted it — here, I noted down Lula, who spoke before

Obama, and then I noted Obama’s words — that a

political system cannot be imposed on any people and

that each people and its sovereignty must be respected.

Then what is President Obama waiting for to order the

lifting of the brutal and murderous blockade on Cuba?

Does anyone have doubts about that? Does anyone

think that it is rhetorical? No. There is persecution

against businesses in any part of the world that provide

even food to Cuba, and now also to Venezuela.

Not long ago, Fidel Castro mentioned in one of

his reflections that a company known throughout the

world that manufactures and supplies medical

equipment did not meet its obligations to the

Governments of Cuba or of Venezuela this past year or

the one before. They did not send the spare parts for

hundreds of pieces of medical equipment that the two

Governments had bought to bring free quality health

care to our peoples. These include 64-row CT scanners

and electrocardiogram machines that are now in the

poor areas of Caracas. Where the indigenous people

live, there are medical facilities. We have 30,000

Cuban doctors there and a free, good health-care

system for the people. We tried to quietly find solutions

with the company — Philips — but the company has

refused to send the spare parts for that high-tech

equipment. Why? Under pressure from whom? From

the Government of the United States? Is it this Obama

or another Obama? Is it Obama one or Obama two?

Who are you, Obama? Who are you? I want to believe

in yesterday’s Obama, whom I saw here, but these

things keep happening, and they affect the lives of

millions of human beings. Why? In whose name? Why

does the United States continue to do that?

It is fear of democracy, just as happened in

Honduras. It is the fear of the Bolivarian Alliance for

the Americas that rises up as a new and innovative

mechanism of solidarity, and we have brought into line

09-52425 6

the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas

and the Governments and the countries of Cuba,

Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia,

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines. They attack us and try to stop us, but

they will not succeed. The Common Market of the

South and the Union of South American Nations are

being set up and are all part of the great historic Latin

American geographic and geopolitical revolution.

Along the same lines are the seven military bases

that the United States is going to establish in

Colombia. Yesterday, Obama spoke — I have it noted

here — about four pillars. Everyone remembers that.

So let us accomplish that. I take him at his word. We

take the President of the United States at his word:

nuclear non-proliferation, agreed? They could begin by

destroying all the nuclear weapons that they have.

Then go ahead and destroy them.

Obama’s second pillar — the first was

non-proliferation — is the pursuit of peace. So,

President Obama, let us pursue peace in Colombia, in

dear sister Colombia. There is a civil war in Colombia.

That some do not want to acknowledge it is another

matter. There is a long-standing, historical conflict in

Colombia. The United Nations must acknowledge it

and consider it, and we all should extend a hand to

Colombia, while of course respecting its sovereignty,

to pull it from and help it out of that tragedy that that

brother people is experiencing.

I remember that I mentioned that peace to Obama

in front of Lula in Trinidad and Tobago at the Summit

of the Americas. Let us seek peace in Colombia. If

only peace were achieved in Central America, in

Guatemala. When I was an active soldier, I was in

Guatemala. That was war. It was war, with thousands

and thousands dead and disappeared. Look at

El Salvador and Nicaragua. And now Daniel Ortega is

back in Government after almost 20 years. The

Sandinista people brought him back.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Farabundo Martí and the people of El Salvador brought

President Funés to the presidency of that sister

republic. Peace was achieved — I know President

Arias is here — and if peace was achieved in Central

America, my God, why can peace not be achieved in

Colombia? This is one of the greatest desires of my

life. I am Venezuelan, but I feel like a Colombian —

the Colombia of Bolivar, the Colombia of Miranda, our

Colombia.

Is President Obama thinking of seeking peace —

his second pillar — with seven more military bases in

Colombia? These seven bases are a threat, not only for

the possible peace in Colombia but for peace in South

America. We are right — we the Governments of South

America — to have said, each in our own way and in

our own degree of intensity, how concerned we are

about the installation of these seven American military

bases on Colombian territory. I would like to denounce

it and point it out. I ask President Obama to think about

it and that he apply his pillars.

Let us promote peace. The United Nations could

set up a peace commission in Colombia or Venezuela.

Naturally, we would cooperate, I am sure, all countries

that want peace. We do not want any more war among

ourselves.

I will skip some pages. There is another topic that

Fidel touches upon in his 21 September thoughts. It has

to do with climate change. I am going to take another

two minutes, Mr. President, to insist on this point.

Some people think this is a metaphysical concern, it is

for intellectuals. No, we are destroying our planet. As a

reputable Venezuelan journalist has said, this rocket we

are travelling on — because this planet is like a rocket

ship — we are destroying it.

Fidel says, in his piece entitled “A species in

danger of extinction”, from 21 September 2009, “At

the international environmental conference held by the

United Nations in Rio de Janeiro” — that was in 1992;

I remember because I was in jail at the time — “I

stated, as the then head of the Cuban State, ‘A species

is in danger of extinction — man’”. Fidel goes on to

say:

“When I uttered and backed up those words,

received and applauded by the heads of State in

attendance — including the President of the

United States, a Bush less dismal than his son

George W. — they still believed that they had

several centuries to confront the problem. I

myself” — Fidel — “did not envision a date any

closer than 60 or 80 years.

“Today we are dealing with a truly

imminent danger and its effects are already

visible.

7 09-52425

“Average temperatures have increased

0.8 degrees centigrade since 1980.”

That is scientific data, according to the NASA

Institute for Space Studies — 0.8 degrees in the last

almost 30 years. Fidel continues,

“The last two decades of the twentieth

century were the warmest in hundreds of years.

The temperatures in Alaska, the Canadian west

and eastern Russia have gone up at a pace that

doubles the world average. Arctic ice has been

quickly disappearing and the region can

experience its first completely ice-free summer as

soon as the year 2040. The effects are visible in

the 2-kilometre-high masses of ice melting in

Greenland, the South American glaciers, from

Ecuador all the way to Cape Horn, fundamental

sources of water, and the gigantic ice cap

covering the extensive area of Antarctica.

“Current carbon dioxide concentrations

have reached the equivalent of 380 parts per

million, a figure surpassing the natural range of

the last 650,000 years.”

We are destroying our planet. We must be aware

of this, and we must act, as Lula stated at the 3rd

meeting yesterday. With respect to climate change,

Lula said there is no will. The most developed

countries do not want to take decisions. But Obama

says they do. But we are told that the United States is

going to take some decisions. Please do, Mr. President,

do that. But now is time to move from words to action.

Let us save this planet. Let us save the human race.

Let us hope that the summit in Denmark in

December will produce decisions, truly forceful ones.

Venezuela is willing to accept those decisions.

Venezuela calls on everyone to take decisions

proportionate to the extent of their responsibility.

Now, what is the basic cause of this

contamination? It is hyper-consumption. We are

exhausting the petroleum, gas and other fossil fuel

reserves. Reserves that accumulated over millions of

years are being burned in a single century, in less than

a century.

And that of course has to do with the economy. I

shall not read this document, Mr. President; I shall

merely refer to it. It is the Stiglitz report. I invite the

Assembly to analyse it. Yesterday the President of

France also invited the Assembly to analyse it. It is

thanks to him that the report of the Stiglitz

Commission exists. But it is nothing more than a mere

gesture.

The report contains 12 recommendations of the

Stiglitz Commission. Let us assess them. I think that

they address the substance, although they do not

question the capitalist model. We socialists do question

that model, but let us talk about it, let us find

consensus solutions for the circumstances and later for

the medium and long terms.

In its recommendations, the Stiglitz report says,

first, that we should look at income and consumption

to assess material well-being. Second, it recommends

prioritizing the family perspective; third, taking into

account the heritage; fourth, giving more importance to

redistribution of income beyond the average. Fifth, it

recommends expanding indicators of non-commercial

activities. For example, certain services such as child

care, bricklaying, plumbing and carpentry appear in

national accounts only if they are carried out by a

salaried person.

Delegates know that this has to do with

accounting for gross domestic product (GDP). These

are merely capitalist mechanisms. According to the

report, the following is certain: the GDP rises with

traffic, while the anxiety of the people also rises, just

as the unhappiness of passers-by and passengers in

traffic rises as they lost precious time in the traffic.

The GDP rises. Why is it rising? It is rising

because more gasoline is consumed. Moreover,

pollution increases. We know why. The capitalist world

has created measuring methods for the economy that

are destructive. That is why I think the Stiglitz report

offers important considerations. Here, in its second

point, it says that we should establish a battery of

indicators for the environment and for climate change.

Turning to the economy, this report is very

timely. Let us now adopt it, and above all,

Governments, particularly Governments of the most

developed countries — I think they are meeting in

Pittsburgh today, not as the Pittsburgh Pirates, but as

Presidents of the Group of 20 — should discuss it.

Tomorrow I will ask Lula and Cristina how the meeting

went, because they are coming to Caracas on their way

to Margarita Island for the Africa-South American

summit.

09-52425 8

The economy, the economy, the economy. We are

in favour of socialism, but let us discuss it and talk

about indicators and methods and modes of production.

As President Obama said yesterday with regards to his

fourth pillar, we need an economy that serves human

beings. Well, President Obama, that is called socialism.

Come over to the side of socialism, President Obama,

come join the axis of evil and we will build an

economy that truly serves human beings. It is

impossible to do that with capitalism. Capitalism only

benefits a minority and excludes the majority. Besides,

it destroys the environment and destroys lives. That is

capitalism.

Finally — and I think I have now been speaking

for my allotted 10 minutes — I will end with a phrase

of Lula’s. He was the first speaker in the Assembly

yesterday. He said there is no political will. I have

already commented on that, and I would add to it

because I know Lula and I know exactly what he said

to us. He is calling upon all of us to strengthen political

will.

Unlike other Governments elsewhere, which have

doubts and do not want to change despite the terrible

crisis in which we are living, we in southern America

have a lot of political will — here I am speaking for

Venezuela and, I know, also for South America, for

Latin America — a tremendous political will for true

change.

I recommend this book by István Mészáros, a

great Hungarian philosopher and thinker who has been

a professor at various universities in London for many

years: Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition.

I think the book is among the greatest writings of the

twentieth century. It is a complete renewal of socialist

theory. In one of the interesting chapters Mészáros

quotes another great person, Karl Marx. We must not

be afraid of Karl Marx — he was the Einstein of

politics. Yes, he was demonized, but Karl Marx was

right about so many things.

Quoting Marx, Mészáros says in this book that

crises act as a general threat and thus urgently lead us

beyond presuppositions towards a new historic

paradigm. We need a new historic paradigm. For years

we have been hearing about a new world, but what

actually exists is this old, moribund order. We need the

new order to be born, the new historic paradigm, the

new political paradigm, a new global paradigm.

Yesterday Al-Qadhafi said here that we need a new

institutionalism, a new economy, a new society, but

truly new — a world that is new.

Now, I think Lula said yesterday — he finished

speaking at 10:10 in the morning — that we must

become the midwives of history. I agree. I would add

to what Lula said. Has the birth already started? The

birth is not a future event; it is here. Let us be, as

Comrade Lula said, midwives of the new history,

prevailing over those who would bury it. Let us

struggle on the planet for the birth of this new history,

this new time, this new multi-polar, free world, this

economy at the service of all people, not of minorities,

this world of peace.

I am a Christian. One day Christ said, “My

kingdom is not of this world.” It is of a future world,

the reign of love among us, where we can truly live as

brothers and sisters.

Last Sunday in Havana — and I will put my little

books away and I will wind up now — on the Plaza de

la Revolución there was a great concert, the “Concert

for Peace”, with Miguel Bosé, Juanes, Olga Tañó and

Cuban singers. Silvio Rodríguez was there — the Great

Silvio — and they sang to the whole world. Some

people in Miami went crazy and tried to destroy

Juanes’ CDs — that great Colombian — just because

he had gone to sing on the Plaza of the Revolution.

How crazy can you get? Fortunately they are a

minority. Silvio was there with his guitar, and I am sure

he sang, “This era is giving birth to a heart”. He ends

his song, Cita Con Angeles, like this: “Let us be a tiny

bit better and a little less selfish.”

Cheers!