[Mb-civic] Chavez Lashes at US in UN Speech

[Mike Blaxill]

gotta love this guy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091605I.shtml

   Venezuelan Leader Lashes at US in UN Speech 
    Agence France-Presse

    Friday 16 September 2005

    Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez called the
United States a "terrorist state" and said the
United Nations headquarters should be moved away
from New York.

    The outspoken Chavez littered his speech to
the UN world summit with anti-US comments which
were strongly applauded. The ally of Cuba's
President Fidel Castro followed this up with a
press conference at which he accused the US
administration of supporting terrorism.

    Tensions have been mounting between the
United States and Venezuela for months.

    President George W. Bush's government has
accused Chavez of becoming a destabilizing
influence in Latin America. Chavez has in turn
threatened to cut off his country's valuable oil
supplies to the United States.

    Their dispute has been spiced up by a call
from US conservative evangelist, Pat Robertson,
for the United States to assassinate Chavez, a
comment he later apologized for.

    Chavez told the UN General Assembly that the
United States was "a country that does not
respect the resolutions of this assembly."

    To loud applause he took up the call of Latin
American revolutionary Simon Bolivar for the UN
headquarters to be moved to "an international
city" in the southern hemisphere.

    "It is time to think about an international
city," he said, just before being told that his
speech had gone beyond the allotted 15 minutes
for each of the 170 heads of state and government
leaders at the summit.

    Chavez took the opportunity to fire a new
assault at the US leader, claiming that Bush had
been given 20 minutes.

    At a press conference after his speech,
Chavez said that the United States was a
"terrorist state" because of its actions in Iraq,
Robertson's assassination call and for harboring
Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted for the
bombing of a Cuban airliner.

    "It is a terrorist state. It is a government
that violates all rules and behaves shamelessly,"
he said.

    "The United States is the champion of double
standards. The United States' government defends
terrorism. They talk of the fight against the
terrorism, but they commit terrorism, state
terrorism," said Chavez.

    The Venezuelan president said the United
States had used napalm in Iraq and protects
Posada Carriles, who is being held in the United
States on immigration charges.

    The Venezuelan leader arrived in New York on
Thursday morning having kept in doubt whether he
would attend the summit at all.

    Chavez charged Tuesday that the United States
had denied visas to his security and medical
teams. He also complained that his presidential
jet had been ordered to an airport far from the
UN building.

    Stepping up the diplomatic hostilities, as
Chavez arrived, the US administration released a
report saying that Venezuela had "failed
demonstrably" to meet its counter-narcotics
obligations over the past year.