Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Latin America and the Devil

On Wednesday September 20, 2006, Hugo Chavez addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. In his address, he verbally attacked the United States and lashed out at George Bush. At one point in the speech he said, “the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [crosses himself] And it smells of sulfur still today.” He was of course referring to George W. Bush.
Chavez also criticized Bush’s statement referring to extremism. He said, “The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, ‘Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom.’ Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother - he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The 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.”
Chavez went on to criticize the “undemocratic” structure at the UN, stating that the United States and their partners had tremendous amount of disproportionate power in the Security Council that created an atmosphere of illegitimacy.

Soon after Chavez’s heated speech, none other than Democratic House Members, Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi criticized Chavez for this comments. Rangel stated, “You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president.” Nancy Pelosi stated, “He is an everyday thug”.

This comments in particular Rangel’s comments, drive me crazy. How can he make that statement with a straight face? I contend that any person/country that has been a victim of U.S. imperialistic ambitions should be able to speak and criticize the policies that keep his region of the world in a vicious downward spiral. On the contrary, I applaud Mr. Chavez for having the courage take to make such comments. One would only hope that other Latin American Leaders were bold as is Mr. Chavez.

I personally see him as carrying the torch of all Latin American Countries that seek self determinism without having their overgrown, powerful neighbor always looking down on them.

With the U.S.’s past involvement in trying to destabilize Latin America, be it the coup against the Allende Government in Chile or the illegal funding of the Contras in Nicaragua, I think that Rangel like Pelosi, should not be criticizing in ignorance or dare I say arrogance.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092106P.shtml

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