 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks on Democracy Now!
in his first interview in the United States. Chavez discusses the
war in Iraq, President Bush, the role of the media in the aborted
coup against him and Venezuela's request for the extradition of
Cuban anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles
in his first interview in the United States. Chavez discusses the
war in Iraq, President Bush, the role of the media in the aborted
coup against him and Venezuela's request for the extradition of
Cuban anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles
AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President Hugo
Chavez, your assessment of president
Bush, of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq? And do you think if it weren't Iraq, it
would have been Venezuela?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: The
imperialist government of Mr. Bush
planned. What is the U.S. government
looking for? And the elite governing this
country? They're looking for oil. This is
part of the crisis that is looming in the
horizon. You should know that the U.S., I
already said this, 5% of the world
population lives in this country and you
consume 25% of the energy. That this
consumption is partially rational, I am
convinced that the U.S. people will wake
up to the reality of things. Yesterday
morning, we were coming from the
airport for instance, it was the traffic jam
time, it was very packed in the highway
coming from the airport here. I talked to
the people in my car, looked outside,
looked at the cars surrounding us. Out of
a hundred cars, ninety-nine were
occupied by a single person, the driver
only. Cars occupying the highways, and
burning fuel, how many gallons of fuel
were burned yesterday morning,
polluting the environment? That's the
extreme of individualism. And public
transportation, we don’t see large buses
coming from the airport here. So this is
pure individualism, this is capitalism.
This planet cannot stand this model any
longer. I think developed countries-- so-
called developed countries should
reflect upon the way of living and the
waste of energy. And the government
knows this. The big trans-nationals know
this. The U.S. only has 20 billion barrels
of oil in reserve. It seems as though
there is no more oil around. Venezuela
has 300 billion barrels of oil in reserves.
Iraq has like 150 billion barrels of oil.
Iran, close to 300 billion barrels of
reserve. Oil for 200 years of course. Now,
it is clear that the U.S. government wants
that oil. That's why they planned, first
they tried to get the Venezuelan oil and,
of course the coup, they staged against
us. That was an oil-motivated coup. They
want to have the control over
Venezuelan oil before going for the Iraq,
for Iraq’s oil.
They failed in Venezuela. So they went to
attack Iraq. And the soldiers. And when I
saw on TV how they were broadcasting in
the evening news of the tanks attacking
Baghdad, advancing toward Baghdad,
and they said the Baghdad population
were going to receive the American
marines with flowers. I said, those
people are nuts. They're insane. These
people have been combating for
centuries. This is the Mesopotamian
people. I know a little bit of the spirit of
the Arab countries. Those are warriors,
ten times more warriors than we are.
They've been struggling in war for many
centuries. They're going to receive, not
with flowers, they're going to resist the
occupation. That's the reality we are
facing today. The U.S. government, they
fooled the U.S. soldiers, telling them, no,
its going to be a piece of cake, that your
going to be received as heroes, that the
Arabian girls will throw flowers at them.
They are drowning in a quagmire of
blood and it is very painful. That’s the
risk that is hovering over the world
today. They are now threatening Iraq.
There are still threats over Venezuela.
They still think about assassinating me.
There are also plans to invade
Venezuela. Now, when you know the way
of thinking of those in the White House,
any insanity is possible. Now, let me tell
you this, if the imperialist government of
the White House led an invasion against
Venezuela, well, the war of 100 years will
be unleashed in South America. Because
with our teeth, with our nails with our
knees, we will go to struggle and defend
our dignity in South America. Now, I
aspire and I pray to God that this will
never occur. We want peace. We want
life. We want to have eternal relations
with these sisters countries, sister
nations.
The U.S. people have a major role to play
to solve, to save this planet. Because
we're talking about the government. I
was reading recently, Noam Chomsky, I
read him very frequently. And in one of
his most recent books, Chomsky, I would
like very much to shake hands with
Chomsky. I've been reading him for a
while. I admire him enormously. The
name of the book is “Hegemony or
Survival” its what Rosa Luxemburg used
to say, “socialism or barbarism.” We
changed to Capitalism, and we’re going
back to the caveman. Chomsky in his
book, he says that two superpowers in
this world and I was really shocked by
that idea. I think he’s right after all. I
think the key to save the world is one
super power, this government? And it’s
military power? Might? Fear?
Technological might space power,
economic might and so on. But what is
the other superpower that could perhaps
stop this government. That could even
put an end to imperialism so we can have
a true democracy to help the peoples of
the world.
The U.S. Government which will be fully
aware of the needs of Africa, the needs
of the poor. Let's assume that we have a
government here in the United States
that overnight decides to cut in half the
military expenses and withdraw the
troops from around the world and
declare it is the champion of peace of
the world and declare itself an enemy of
imperialism and then devote billions of
dollars to the poor. Last year the defense
budget was $400 billion in military
defense. Just for one single year. One
single year. For those $400 billion we can
go to Africa, in the poor countries of
Asia, in the Caribbean and Latin America,
we can help them.
I’ve learned to appreciate the thinking of
John Kennedy. John Kennedy once said,
and that's why he was assassinated,
listen to the South, he said once. The
recent revolution going on in the south
in Africa, in Asia, and Latin America. It
was in the 1960's, where the people, the
black power was raging. Che Guevara
said, one, two, three, Japan, and Vietnam
and Asia. The world was fed up with
misery and inequities. As he said, the
cause of all the revolution is poverty.
And he said this sentence, today more
than ever is valid, he said, those who
shut down the doors to peaceful
resolutions open the doors to violent
revolutions. That's a reality. I do believe
that the U.S. people – is the other super
power that Noam Chomsky is referring to.
What is the other super power? Public
opinion. The peoples of the world. That's
the other super power. And the U.S.
People have a major responsibility in the
world. I think that we're going to save the
world. And I hope that you take part in
this struggle in the same way we are
doing today. And many other people,
women and men in this country, in this
soil.
AMY GOODMAN: Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez in a rare interview
speaking with Democracy Now! and
Pacifica Radio at the Venezuelan
ambassador to the U.N.'s home in New
York. Coming up, the president speaks
about the Cuban, anti-Castro militant Luis
Posada as well as the role of the media
and the aborted coup against Chavez.
This is Democracy Now! stay with us.
[break]
MARGARET PRESCOD: President Chavez,
speaking of the other super power, the
Bush administration via Rumsfeld
referred to you as a threat to the region.
Many of us translating that on a grass
root level assume that means that you're
doing something that really rattles the
Bush administration and means also that
you're wildly popular in the region. Which
we have seen. I want you to comment on
two things. In relation to women and also
the relationship between the middle
class and the grassroots. You're the only
president who has said that to deal with
poverty, you have to give power to the
poor, 70% of whom are women. Why did
you say this? And how are you putting it
into practice? And also in relation to the
middle class and the grassroots of that
relationship, some of us have often seen
how middle class professionals who are
used to being in charge, instead of
putting their skills at the service of the
grassroots, cling to power and keep the
grassroots out. How are you addressing
the class issue in Venezuela so that the
movement here can learn from it?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: That's a very
important issue you are raising there.
Because you are touching the core, the
very core of any transformation process.
Beat reformists, beat revolutionaries,
beat an abrupt process or aggressive
process, moderate or radical. In any
transformation process, social
transformation process, economic
transformation process, political-- is
doomed to fail without the participation
of the grassroots and the population.
The people, the communities, they are
like the fuel. They are the fuel of
revolution, of the processes. Without
them there's no revolution. It’s like
water. It's just a mixture of hydrogen and
oxygen. Or air, oxygen is important for
this mixture to occur. That is why when
you go to the plenary sessions of the U.
N., I feel like oxygen is missing there.
Because it is so removed from the reality
of the people, of the needs of the people.
You ask me then, in the Bolivarian
revolution, the role of the grassroots
communities, the women and men, as
well of course. But the grassroots and
communities, their role is vital, and it’s
more dynamic. It's very beautiful in the
roles they have to play. Just to give you
an idea of some of the experiences we
have had in Venezuela. I leave for
Venezuela this weekend. Next week we
are going to have an event in Caracas
with thousands of people who are part of
the Urban Land Committee, the C.T.U. in
Spanish. These committees of urban land
are all over the country. They are in each
neighborhood, poor neighborhood. You
have a committee. The members of this
committee should watch the whole
neighborhood. And then they draft the
map of the neighborhood. They go house
by house, family by family and they
assess all the problems. If they lack
running water or if some of the houses
are unstable and they could fall down.
How many children they have. The
schools. The health care system in the
neighborhood and so on. So these are
the urban land communities.
Chavez, your assessment of president
Bush, of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq? And do you think if it weren't Iraq, it
would have been Venezuela?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: The
imperialist government of Mr. Bush
planned. What is the U.S. government
looking for? And the elite governing this
country? They're looking for oil. This is
part of the crisis that is looming in the
horizon. You should know that the U.S., I
already said this, 5% of the world
population lives in this country and you
consume 25% of the energy. That this
consumption is partially rational, I am
convinced that the U.S. people will wake
up to the reality of things. Yesterday
morning, we were coming from the
airport for instance, it was the traffic jam
time, it was very packed in the highway
coming from the airport here. I talked to
the people in my car, looked outside,
looked at the cars surrounding us. Out of
a hundred cars, ninety-nine were
occupied by a single person, the driver
only. Cars occupying the highways, and
burning fuel, how many gallons of fuel
were burned yesterday morning,
polluting the environment? That's the
extreme of individualism. And public
transportation, we don’t see large buses
coming from the airport here. So this is
pure individualism, this is capitalism.
This planet cannot stand this model any
longer. I think developed countries-- so-
called developed countries should
reflect upon the way of living and the
waste of energy. And the government
knows this. The big trans-nationals know
this. The U.S. only has 20 billion barrels
of oil in reserve. It seems as though
there is no more oil around. Venezuela
has 300 billion barrels of oil in reserves.
Iraq has like 150 billion barrels of oil.
Iran, close to 300 billion barrels of
reserve. Oil for 200 years of course. Now,
it is clear that the U.S. government wants
that oil. That's why they planned, first
they tried to get the Venezuelan oil and,
of course the coup, they staged against
us. That was an oil-motivated coup. They
want to have the control over
Venezuelan oil before going for the Iraq,
for Iraq’s oil.
They failed in Venezuela. So they went to
attack Iraq. And the soldiers. And when I
saw on TV how they were broadcasting in
the evening news of the tanks attacking
Baghdad, advancing toward Baghdad,
and they said the Baghdad population
were going to receive the American
marines with flowers. I said, those
people are nuts. They're insane. These
people have been combating for
centuries. This is the Mesopotamian
people. I know a little bit of the spirit of
the Arab countries. Those are warriors,
ten times more warriors than we are.
They've been struggling in war for many
centuries. They're going to receive, not
with flowers, they're going to resist the
occupation. That's the reality we are
facing today. The U.S. government, they
fooled the U.S. soldiers, telling them, no,
its going to be a piece of cake, that your
going to be received as heroes, that the
Arabian girls will throw flowers at them.
They are drowning in a quagmire of
blood and it is very painful. That’s the
risk that is hovering over the world
today. They are now threatening Iraq.
There are still threats over Venezuela.
They still think about assassinating me.
There are also plans to invade
Venezuela. Now, when you know the way
of thinking of those in the White House,
any insanity is possible. Now, let me tell
you this, if the imperialist government of
the White House led an invasion against
Venezuela, well, the war of 100 years will
be unleashed in South America. Because
with our teeth, with our nails with our
knees, we will go to struggle and defend
our dignity in South America. Now, I
aspire and I pray to God that this will
never occur. We want peace. We want
life. We want to have eternal relations
with these sisters countries, sister
nations.
The U.S. people have a major role to play
to solve, to save this planet. Because
we're talking about the government. I
was reading recently, Noam Chomsky, I
read him very frequently. And in one of
his most recent books, Chomsky, I would
like very much to shake hands with
Chomsky. I've been reading him for a
while. I admire him enormously. The
name of the book is “Hegemony or
Survival” its what Rosa Luxemburg used
to say, “socialism or barbarism.” We
changed to Capitalism, and we’re going
back to the caveman. Chomsky in his
book, he says that two superpowers in
this world and I was really shocked by
that idea. I think he’s right after all. I
think the key to save the world is one
super power, this government? And it’s
military power? Might? Fear?
Technological might space power,
economic might and so on. But what is
the other superpower that could perhaps
stop this government. That could even
put an end to imperialism so we can have
a true democracy to help the peoples of
the world.
The U.S. Government which will be fully
aware of the needs of Africa, the needs
of the poor. Let's assume that we have a
government here in the United States
that overnight decides to cut in half the
military expenses and withdraw the
troops from around the world and
declare it is the champion of peace of
the world and declare itself an enemy of
imperialism and then devote billions of
dollars to the poor. Last year the defense
budget was $400 billion in military
defense. Just for one single year. One
single year. For those $400 billion we can
go to Africa, in the poor countries of
Asia, in the Caribbean and Latin America,
we can help them.
I’ve learned to appreciate the thinking of
John Kennedy. John Kennedy once said,
and that's why he was assassinated,
listen to the South, he said once. The
recent revolution going on in the south
in Africa, in Asia, and Latin America. It
was in the 1960's, where the people, the
black power was raging. Che Guevara
said, one, two, three, Japan, and Vietnam
and Asia. The world was fed up with
misery and inequities. As he said, the
cause of all the revolution is poverty.
And he said this sentence, today more
than ever is valid, he said, those who
shut down the doors to peaceful
resolutions open the doors to violent
revolutions. That's a reality. I do believe
that the U.S. people – is the other super
power that Noam Chomsky is referring to.
What is the other super power? Public
opinion. The peoples of the world. That's
the other super power. And the U.S.
People have a major responsibility in the
world. I think that we're going to save the
world. And I hope that you take part in
this struggle in the same way we are
doing today. And many other people,
women and men in this country, in this
soil.
AMY GOODMAN: Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez in a rare interview
speaking with Democracy Now! and
Pacifica Radio at the Venezuelan
ambassador to the U.N.'s home in New
York. Coming up, the president speaks
about the Cuban, anti-Castro militant Luis
Posada as well as the role of the media
and the aborted coup against Chavez.
This is Democracy Now! stay with us.
[break]
MARGARET PRESCOD: President Chavez,
speaking of the other super power, the
Bush administration via Rumsfeld
referred to you as a threat to the region.
Many of us translating that on a grass
root level assume that means that you're
doing something that really rattles the
Bush administration and means also that
you're wildly popular in the region. Which
we have seen. I want you to comment on
two things. In relation to women and also
the relationship between the middle
class and the grassroots. You're the only
president who has said that to deal with
poverty, you have to give power to the
poor, 70% of whom are women. Why did
you say this? And how are you putting it
into practice? And also in relation to the
middle class and the grassroots of that
relationship, some of us have often seen
how middle class professionals who are
used to being in charge, instead of
putting their skills at the service of the
grassroots, cling to power and keep the
grassroots out. How are you addressing
the class issue in Venezuela so that the
movement here can learn from it?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: That's a very
important issue you are raising there.
Because you are touching the core, the
very core of any transformation process.
Beat reformists, beat revolutionaries,
beat an abrupt process or aggressive
process, moderate or radical. In any
transformation process, social
transformation process, economic
transformation process, political-- is
doomed to fail without the participation
of the grassroots and the population.
The people, the communities, they are
like the fuel. They are the fuel of
revolution, of the processes. Without
them there's no revolution. It’s like
water. It's just a mixture of hydrogen and
oxygen. Or air, oxygen is important for
this mixture to occur. That is why when
you go to the plenary sessions of the U.
N., I feel like oxygen is missing there.
Because it is so removed from the reality
of the people, of the needs of the people.
You ask me then, in the Bolivarian
revolution, the role of the grassroots
communities, the women and men, as
well of course. But the grassroots and
communities, their role is vital, and it’s
more dynamic. It's very beautiful in the
roles they have to play. Just to give you
an idea of some of the experiences we
have had in Venezuela. I leave for
Venezuela this weekend. Next week we
are going to have an event in Caracas
with thousands of people who are part of
the Urban Land Committee, the C.T.U. in
Spanish. These committees of urban land
are all over the country. They are in each
neighborhood, poor neighborhood. You
have a committee. The members of this
committee should watch the whole
neighborhood. And then they draft the
map of the neighborhood. They go house
by house, family by family and they
assess all the problems. If they lack
running water or if some of the houses
are unstable and they could fall down.
How many children they have. The
schools. The health care system in the
neighborhood and so on. So these are
the urban land communities.
We also have the technical commissions
of water. These technical commissions of
water interact with the urban land
committee. They take care of the water
supply and also the sewage system.
There are other technical groups to take
care of energy supply, electricity supply
especially. We have also the health
committee. The rural land committees in
the rural areas. We also have housing
cooperatives. In large networks of
grassroots organizations, as you know, in
the constitution that we have drafted, in
the government we foster these
grassroots movements. Here we have
been trying the democratic model. It is
the revolutionary democracy. But it is not
only a representative democracy. It is a
participatory democracy and beyond that
it is a fully and meaningful democracy.
And Abraham Lincoln already said this:
the government of the people, for the
people and by the people. That what we
say here is to transfer power to the
people, especially the poorest of the
poor. If you want to get rid of poverty, we
need to empower the poor. Not to treat
them like beggars. And this week we're
going to give money, we’re going to give
financial resources to these
neighborhood committees, grassroots
organizations, we’re going to give them
technical resources, equipment, we are
going to carry out the housing schemes,
infrastructure schemes, water supply,
electricity supply schemes. So this is a
beautiful task we are conducting.
Because there, we are reducing to zero,
the possibility of corruption because we
give the money to the population
themselves. And they put it in the bank,
they help to make withdrawals and then
execute the budget. They have to save
some money also. And, of course, the
money is to better used. They do the
social oversight of the use of the
moneys. Efficiency, because the work will
profit them. It not a private company that
is going to do the job and they take the
profit and in the end the community is
poorer than before.
And let me tell you this. In all these
committees, cooperatives, the women
play a major role. Without women there
would be no revolution. Artists are never
wrong when they paint revolution with
the beautiful dress and with the sword.
On the horse or by foot. Because
revolution is a woman. A woman is the
revolution. But the poverty also is the
face of the woman. And the hopes is also
woman. And nature is also woman. There
will be no probability of success without
the creative participation and the
powerful participation of women.
MARGARET PRESCOD: Thank you.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Mr. President, there's
no longer any doubt that the majority of
the people in Venezuela support your
government. But there are still those in
Venezuela who say that you are using
that majority support to stamp out the
dissident views. Recently, I participated
in a forum at Columbia University with
Gustavo Cisnero, the head of
Venevision, where he insisted that you
are not allowing a free press to continue
to function in Venezuela. I asked him,
well what is the press of Venezuela
doing organizing political coups? But I'd
like you to talk about the role of the
press in your democratic revolution and
the importance of the press in general in
communicating ideas to the mass of the
people.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: Ignacio
Ramonet recently wrote a piece called
“The Media Dictatorship” because most
of the media, not only in Venezuela but
all over the world as well, they are in the
hands of very powerful people. Very
powerful economic people. For instance
this person you refer to is a clear
example of that. And he was one of the
ones taking part in the coup in that time.
And he use all his media power and all
the private channels in Venezuela and all
the media, the press, newspapers and
private TV stations even succeeded in
fooling the international public opinion
for some time. They depicted me as a
tyrant who massacred his people. The
tyrant was defeated, was overthrown,
was toppled. However, a few hours after
that, the people who toppled the tyrant
brought the tyrant back. So they were
naked before the world, of course. So
that is one of the problems the world is
facing today, the media’s tyranny and that
we have been denouncing around the
world. However, at the same time we are
very encouraged by the fact that we
have excellent shows.
Every day the more the truth is being
revealed in the Hurricane. I was watching
CNN during the Katrina disaster, and you
can see how the journalists-- I remember
a lady who was in the eye of the
hurricane, Inez Fered, I think the name of
this lady. I watched a lot of TV at the time
during Katrina. Well she started to
interview people and telling the truth.
And then another journalist, and they
started to criticize the government for
the way they reacted to the tragedy. So
the powers could not silence the truth.
Not even through CNN. And other media,
large media. Now in Venezuela we have
full freedom of the press. I doubt very
much that there is any other country
where freedom of the speech is so
respected in Venezuela. For instance,
Luis Zapatero, the president of the
Spanish government, he arrived late,
and I waited for him in the palace the
next day. When he saw me, he told me,
Chavez, I had many news about you and
about freedom of speech. Now, this
morning I saw two hours of TV shows.
And I read the papers. I have no doubt in
my mind that here you have full and total
freedom of speech. And this will
continue to be so. And all these rumors
and attacks against us are totally untrue.
And I think here in the United States you
have a journalist in jail because she did
not reveal her sources. This has never,
in other parts of our history, never
happened. Journalists who were in jail
and journalists killed or persecuted.
Today, there is total freedom Venezuela.
This is part of the dynamic of the
revolutionary democracy. And what the
capitalists of the media do not forgive
us, forgive the people because we have
demonstrated that the people are fully
aware of the reality defeat the media
campaign.
You ask about the middle class. I forgot
to mention the middle classes. This is
important. The same struggles -- the
same reality that was discovered openly
in the world is touching today the middle
class. In Venezuela, middle class’s
current is appearing all over the country.
And they are adding up. They are joining
the process. After the coup there is this
movement called middle class in positive
this is a movement which is growing
every day. When the medical doctors, the
Cuban doctors arrived in Venezuela. The
media launched a campaign against
these Cuban doctors. And they
succeeded in making the middle class to
oppose the presence of the Cuban
doctors in Venezuela. They succeeded in
preventing Venezuelan doctors to join
these health care schemes. It was
insanity, total insanity. Today, however,
we have thousands of Venezuelan
doctors joining the Cuban doctors in
these programs. We have dentists,
ophthalmologists, and the “Into the
Neighborhood” project, the health care
program, today, two hundred million of
doctors seeing patients in poor
neighborhoods. We have twenty-five
million people. It means that it’s four
times the population. It’s like each
Venezuelan has gone to the doctor four
times, and these being free of charge
procedures with the medication. The
Venezuelan doctors today are joining
this scheme. And together with Castro,
we have signed an agreement to form, to
train two hundred thousand doctors in
ten years. To train them in South
America, Africa and the U.S., social
doctors, doctors who are not charging,
those who are saving lives. People who
are giving a lending hand to the poor.
That’s the medical doctors we need. We
have also started a project called “The
Miracle Project,” and we put this project
today to be at the disposal of the U.S. If
you know someone – tomorrow when you
show this broadcast this show and you
have people who have eye problems and
they cannot afford an eye surgery,
please, go to the Venezuelan Consulate
in the U.S. Go to the U.S. Embassy in
Washington. Go to CITGO. We can
guarantee the transportation of these
people to Caracas and Havana free,
totally free of charge. These people
could undergo eye surgery. This year we
have conducted close to 100,000 eye
surgeries, cataracts. In children, when
you do not operate these cataracts, they
can go blind, cornea operations,
estavism, myopia and many others. You
wear glasses and you are writing pretty
well, right? If you remove your glasses,
you cannot read. It’s going to be difficult.
The same thing. I am 51 years old. So I
have problems with my eyes. I need
glasses. There are people who cannot
read because no one has told them that
they should wear glasses. They don't
have glasses to read – millions of human
beings. So we have this plan with Fidel,
and we have agreed to do this in the
next 10 years, and we have already
started, 2005 to 2015, we are going to
operate to conduct eye surgery to a
million people. 600,000 people per year.
That's a miracle surgery. And that
includes the U.S. people, especially the
poorest of the poor. Help us to help
these people who are suffering from eye
diseases.
AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, I know
you have to go, but why are you calling
for the extradition of Luis Posada to
Venezuela?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: Well, you
know that this gentleman – there is
ample evidence that this guy is a
terrorist, clear evidence that he took
part and he masterminded, among many
other terrorist attacks, in the blowing the
Cuban plane that was coming from
Barbados to Caracas. It was blown up,
and 73 people died as a result of this
terrorist attack. But also in Venezuela
this person occupied a senior position in
the political police force, and there are
many evidences of tortures, of people
missing as a result of his acts. It was in
the 1960's and the 1970's. So this
gentleman, Posada, was already
condemned in Venezuela for the blowing
of the plane. He was in jail, but he fled.
He escaped with the connivance of
friends in jail. So we have the duty, once
we located him – and we located him
here in the U.S. – well it is our duty to
request that he is extradited to
Venezuela because he is a murderer. He
is an assassin. He's a terrorist. He's a
very dangerous person. He has caused a
lot of harm, and he could even cause
more harm, by himself and in a network
he is leading, because he is very active.
If he were in jail, he would be the
mastermind of the terrorist network that
already took part in the coup attempt in
Venezuela, like snipers for instance, they
were sent to kill people. So they blame
me for those deaths. So this person
should be extradited in Venezuela
of water. These technical commissions of
water interact with the urban land
committee. They take care of the water
supply and also the sewage system.
There are other technical groups to take
care of energy supply, electricity supply
especially. We have also the health
committee. The rural land committees in
the rural areas. We also have housing
cooperatives. In large networks of
grassroots organizations, as you know, in
the constitution that we have drafted, in
the government we foster these
grassroots movements. Here we have
been trying the democratic model. It is
the revolutionary democracy. But it is not
only a representative democracy. It is a
participatory democracy and beyond that
it is a fully and meaningful democracy.
And Abraham Lincoln already said this:
the government of the people, for the
people and by the people. That what we
say here is to transfer power to the
people, especially the poorest of the
poor. If you want to get rid of poverty, we
need to empower the poor. Not to treat
them like beggars. And this week we're
going to give money, we’re going to give
financial resources to these
neighborhood committees, grassroots
organizations, we’re going to give them
technical resources, equipment, we are
going to carry out the housing schemes,
infrastructure schemes, water supply,
electricity supply schemes. So this is a
beautiful task we are conducting.
Because there, we are reducing to zero,
the possibility of corruption because we
give the money to the population
themselves. And they put it in the bank,
they help to make withdrawals and then
execute the budget. They have to save
some money also. And, of course, the
money is to better used. They do the
social oversight of the use of the
moneys. Efficiency, because the work will
profit them. It not a private company that
is going to do the job and they take the
profit and in the end the community is
poorer than before.
And let me tell you this. In all these
committees, cooperatives, the women
play a major role. Without women there
would be no revolution. Artists are never
wrong when they paint revolution with
the beautiful dress and with the sword.
On the horse or by foot. Because
revolution is a woman. A woman is the
revolution. But the poverty also is the
face of the woman. And the hopes is also
woman. And nature is also woman. There
will be no probability of success without
the creative participation and the
powerful participation of women.
MARGARET PRESCOD: Thank you.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Mr. President, there's
no longer any doubt that the majority of
the people in Venezuela support your
government. But there are still those in
Venezuela who say that you are using
that majority support to stamp out the
dissident views. Recently, I participated
in a forum at Columbia University with
Gustavo Cisnero, the head of
Venevision, where he insisted that you
are not allowing a free press to continue
to function in Venezuela. I asked him,
well what is the press of Venezuela
doing organizing political coups? But I'd
like you to talk about the role of the
press in your democratic revolution and
the importance of the press in general in
communicating ideas to the mass of the
people.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: Ignacio
Ramonet recently wrote a piece called
“The Media Dictatorship” because most
of the media, not only in Venezuela but
all over the world as well, they are in the
hands of very powerful people. Very
powerful economic people. For instance
this person you refer to is a clear
example of that. And he was one of the
ones taking part in the coup in that time.
And he use all his media power and all
the private channels in Venezuela and all
the media, the press, newspapers and
private TV stations even succeeded in
fooling the international public opinion
for some time. They depicted me as a
tyrant who massacred his people. The
tyrant was defeated, was overthrown,
was toppled. However, a few hours after
that, the people who toppled the tyrant
brought the tyrant back. So they were
naked before the world, of course. So
that is one of the problems the world is
facing today, the media’s tyranny and that
we have been denouncing around the
world. However, at the same time we are
very encouraged by the fact that we
have excellent shows.
Every day the more the truth is being
revealed in the Hurricane. I was watching
CNN during the Katrina disaster, and you
can see how the journalists-- I remember
a lady who was in the eye of the
hurricane, Inez Fered, I think the name of
this lady. I watched a lot of TV at the time
during Katrina. Well she started to
interview people and telling the truth.
And then another journalist, and they
started to criticize the government for
the way they reacted to the tragedy. So
the powers could not silence the truth.
Not even through CNN. And other media,
large media. Now in Venezuela we have
full freedom of the press. I doubt very
much that there is any other country
where freedom of the speech is so
respected in Venezuela. For instance,
Luis Zapatero, the president of the
Spanish government, he arrived late,
and I waited for him in the palace the
next day. When he saw me, he told me,
Chavez, I had many news about you and
about freedom of speech. Now, this
morning I saw two hours of TV shows.
And I read the papers. I have no doubt in
my mind that here you have full and total
freedom of speech. And this will
continue to be so. And all these rumors
and attacks against us are totally untrue.
And I think here in the United States you
have a journalist in jail because she did
not reveal her sources. This has never,
in other parts of our history, never
happened. Journalists who were in jail
and journalists killed or persecuted.
Today, there is total freedom Venezuela.
This is part of the dynamic of the
revolutionary democracy. And what the
capitalists of the media do not forgive
us, forgive the people because we have
demonstrated that the people are fully
aware of the reality defeat the media
campaign.
You ask about the middle class. I forgot
to mention the middle classes. This is
important. The same struggles -- the
same reality that was discovered openly
in the world is touching today the middle
class. In Venezuela, middle class’s
current is appearing all over the country.
And they are adding up. They are joining
the process. After the coup there is this
movement called middle class in positive
this is a movement which is growing
every day. When the medical doctors, the
Cuban doctors arrived in Venezuela. The
media launched a campaign against
these Cuban doctors. And they
succeeded in making the middle class to
oppose the presence of the Cuban
doctors in Venezuela. They succeeded in
preventing Venezuelan doctors to join
these health care schemes. It was
insanity, total insanity. Today, however,
we have thousands of Venezuelan
doctors joining the Cuban doctors in
these programs. We have dentists,
ophthalmologists, and the “Into the
Neighborhood” project, the health care
program, today, two hundred million of
doctors seeing patients in poor
neighborhoods. We have twenty-five
million people. It means that it’s four
times the population. It’s like each
Venezuelan has gone to the doctor four
times, and these being free of charge
procedures with the medication. The
Venezuelan doctors today are joining
this scheme. And together with Castro,
we have signed an agreement to form, to
train two hundred thousand doctors in
ten years. To train them in South
America, Africa and the U.S., social
doctors, doctors who are not charging,
those who are saving lives. People who
are giving a lending hand to the poor.
That’s the medical doctors we need. We
have also started a project called “The
Miracle Project,” and we put this project
today to be at the disposal of the U.S. If
you know someone – tomorrow when you
show this broadcast this show and you
have people who have eye problems and
they cannot afford an eye surgery,
please, go to the Venezuelan Consulate
in the U.S. Go to the U.S. Embassy in
Washington. Go to CITGO. We can
guarantee the transportation of these
people to Caracas and Havana free,
totally free of charge. These people
could undergo eye surgery. This year we
have conducted close to 100,000 eye
surgeries, cataracts. In children, when
you do not operate these cataracts, they
can go blind, cornea operations,
estavism, myopia and many others. You
wear glasses and you are writing pretty
well, right? If you remove your glasses,
you cannot read. It’s going to be difficult.
The same thing. I am 51 years old. So I
have problems with my eyes. I need
glasses. There are people who cannot
read because no one has told them that
they should wear glasses. They don't
have glasses to read – millions of human
beings. So we have this plan with Fidel,
and we have agreed to do this in the
next 10 years, and we have already
started, 2005 to 2015, we are going to
operate to conduct eye surgery to a
million people. 600,000 people per year.
That's a miracle surgery. And that
includes the U.S. people, especially the
poorest of the poor. Help us to help
these people who are suffering from eye
diseases.
AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, I know
you have to go, but why are you calling
for the extradition of Luis Posada to
Venezuela?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: Well, you
know that this gentleman – there is
ample evidence that this guy is a
terrorist, clear evidence that he took
part and he masterminded, among many
other terrorist attacks, in the blowing the
Cuban plane that was coming from
Barbados to Caracas. It was blown up,
and 73 people died as a result of this
terrorist attack. But also in Venezuela
this person occupied a senior position in
the political police force, and there are
many evidences of tortures, of people
missing as a result of his acts. It was in
the 1960's and the 1970's. So this
gentleman, Posada, was already
condemned in Venezuela for the blowing
of the plane. He was in jail, but he fled.
He escaped with the connivance of
friends in jail. So we have the duty, once
we located him – and we located him
here in the U.S. – well it is our duty to
request that he is extradited to
Venezuela because he is a murderer. He
is an assassin. He's a terrorist. He's a
very dangerous person. He has caused a
lot of harm, and he could even cause
more harm, by himself and in a network
he is leading, because he is very active.
If he were in jail, he would be the
mastermind of the terrorist network that
already took part in the coup attempt in
Venezuela, like snipers for instance, they
were sent to kill people. So they blame
me for those deaths. So this person
should be extradited in Venezuela
An Interview with
Hugo Chevas
Hugo Chevas
| September 19 2005 |
News Links News / Ronnie LoBello Editor
Part One Part Two
SPECIAL EDITION