Venezuela’s Chávez shines in New York City

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela arrived here Sept. 15 on an historic trip to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez speaking at a Sept. 17 South Bronx meeting.

The U.S. government tried to deny Chávez and his delegation visas to attend the UN meeting, which is a violation of UN charter rules. Even after Chávez arrived, he informed the press that U.S. officials refused to allow his medical team and some of his security people to disembark the plane.

In his UN speech, President Chávez lambasted the world body for setting goals that it never met. “We said we would reduce by half the 842 million hungry people by the year 2015. At the current rate the goal will be achieved by the year 2215. Who will be there to celebrate?”

He continued, “The 21st century demands deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded. This UN does not work.”

He reserved some of his wrath for the United States government. “The UN should be moved out of the U.S. if the U.S. continues to violate international law. Today we know that there never were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq … however, Iraq was bombed, occupied and is still occupied.”

Referring to Hurricane Katrina, Chávez said, “We send our deepest condolences to the people of the United States. Their people are brothers and sisters of all of us in the Americas and the rest of the world.”

Throughout his trip, President Chávez repeatedly criticized the U.S. government’s lack of response to Hurricane Katrina victims and held up Cuba as an example of a government that knows how to protect its people during natural disasters. He repeatedly offered his country’s assistance.

He went on to attack the U.S. policy for the developing world: “Neoliberalism is precisely the fundamental cause of misery, inequality and infinite tragedy for all the peoples on this continent.”

Chávez also denounced a UN document that was under consideration as null, void and illegitimate. “This document was handed out five minutes before to our delegation and only in English. We need to be able to have discussions and not be dictated to by a handful of countries.”

In this document, the doctrine of the “Responsibility to Protect” is expounded. Chávez said, “We need to ask ourselves, ‘Who is going to protect us? How are they going to protect us?’

“I believe one of the countries that requires protection is precisely the United States. That was shown painfully with the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. The people do not have a government that protects them from an announced natural disaster.

“This doctrine is a very dangerous concept that shapes imperialism’s attempts to try to legalize the violation of national sovereignty.”

Venezuela’s achievements

President Chávez went over some of the achievements of the Bolivarian government. “Venezuela will be declared an illiteracy-free territory in a matter of days. Venezuela has 25 million people. Almost 70 percent of these people are receiving universal health care for the first time. More than a million tons of food is channeled to over 12 million people at a subsidized price. More than 700,000 new jobs have been created, reducing unemployment to 9 percent.”

At a press conference after the UN session, Chávez accused the U.S. of being a terrorist state. He used as evidence its actions in Iraq, its allowing Pat Robertson to call for his own assassination, and its harboring of Luis Posada Carriles, who has admitted acts of terror against Cuba and is wanted in Venezuela. He also said any nation, such as Iraq, has every right to defend itself against attacks.

On ABC’s “Nightline” on Sept. 16, Chávez easily dispelled all media attacks as a U.S. campaign of lies against his government. He acknowledged the special relationship between Cuba and Venezuela built on cooperation and respect.

He warned the U.S. government that, if it ever tried to invade Venezuela, the people and he would fight to the end and never surrender.

On Sept. 17, President Chávez spent the day in the Bronx meeting with different communities. He was accompanied by Congressperson Jose Serrano and Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others. The Bronx has recently been rated the poorest urban county in the U.S., where one out of every three children suffers from respiratory illnesses due to environmental damage.

The Venezuelan president drew a large crowd to a community meeting that evening at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on Manhattan’s West Side. Among the invited guests were Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón, both also in town for the UN General Assembly session, plus the people who had accompanied Chávez to the Bronx, actor and activist Danny Glover, Transport Workers Union President Roger Toussaint and others.

The church was filled to capacity, with a long line of people waiting outside. The crowd roared with applause as President Chávez walked in. Chants for Venezuela and Cuba rang out.

Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke about Vene zuela and Hurricane Katrina: “Venezuela offered 18 generators, 18 water purifiers, one million dollars, two mobile hospital units, 50 tons of food. The planes were loaded up but are still awaiting U.S. government approval in Venezuela.”

Venezuela owns the major part of Citgo Corp., which has 14,000 gas stations and eight oil refineries in the U.S. Chávez outlined several plans throughout his trip that involve using Citgo’s revenues to benefit the people of the U.S. Already Citgo’s gas prices are lower than most others.

“We want to sell oil directly to the people so we can cut out the middleman and save up to 40 percent per gallon,” Chávez said. “We will start a pilot program in Chicago on October 14 in a Mexican-American community and we will expand this program to New York and Boston in November.”

A high point of the event was when Chávez thanked the Cubans for all their help and the crowd roared with chants for Cuba. Chávez recounted how he had seen the conditions that some of the 20,000 Cuban doctors live under in the Venezuelan countryside.

“I saw one of them sleeping on the floor and I immediately wanted to order proper beds for all of them. The doctor said to me, ‘With all due respect, how can we come here and sleep in better conditions than the peasants we work for? It wouldn’t be right.’”

‘Hunger is violence’

Chávez said, “Hunger is violence. It is silent but it is like a thousand Katrinas. About 45 million people die of hunger every year. Instead of a war in Iraq there should be a war against poverty and misery.”

President Chávez was leaving that night for Havana to meet with President Fidel Castro. He said, “Yes, Fidel and I are conspiring. We are conspiring to get rid of poverty and misery.” He gave as an example “Mission Miracle,” a project already underway to detect early signs of cataracts and prevent eye problems that may lead to blindness.

Chávez outlined plans for a medical school to train both Venezuelan and international doctors, including youth from the U.S.