Hugo Chávez

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” Wherever he looks he sees extremists, and when he looks at your colour, my brother, he thinks “You are an extremist”. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That is how Venezuela, the homeland of Bolivar, came to put itself forward for a non-permanent seat on 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”