In September 2006,
the President of Venezuela ,
Hugo Chavez,
addressed the United Nations
with a speech titled Rise Up Against the Empire:
“The hegemonic pretensions
of the American empire,” he said,
“are placing at risk
the very survival
of the human species. T he devil
is right at home. T he 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 & 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. Full
of this imperial hypocrisy
from the need they have
to control everything.
What type of democracy
do you impose
with marines & bombs? T he 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.
You can call us extremists,
but we are rising up
against the empire, against the model
of domination. T hey kidnapped me
& they were going to kill me,
but I think God reached down
& our people came out
into the streets
& the army was too,
& so I’m here today.
Over & above all of this,
I think there are reasons
to be optimistic, because
over & above the wars
& the bombs
& the aggression
& the “preventive war”
& 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. It was shown
that the end of history
was a totally false assumption.
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
& Europe
& Latin America
& Oceana. 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 & better world.
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,
& for our children
& our grandchildren
a world of peace. It smells
of sulfur here,
but God is with us
& I embrace you all. May God
bless us all. Good day to you.”
Edited & arranged by John Sinclair
The New Liberator 