http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1558

Interview: President Hugo Chavez on Democracy Now!
"If the Imperialist Government of the White House Dares to Invade Venezuela, the
War of 100 Years Will be Unleashed in South America"

By: Amy Goodman - Democracy Now!
Scores of world leaders have come to the United States for a summit at the
United Nations. Among them, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In a speech
before the world body, Chavez accused the US of trying to hijack the UN summit
and described the US as a terrorist nation because it is harboring the
tele-evangelist Pat Robertson who recently called for his assassination. He has
accused the United States of being behind the aborted coup against him in 2002,
condemned the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened to cut off
oil sales to the United States.
Democracy Now! met with President Chavez on Friday in his first sit-down
interview in the United States. Amy Goodman interviewed him with Democracy Now!
co-host Juan Gonzalez and Margaret Prescod of Pacifica Radio station KPFK at the
Venezuelan ambassador to the UN's residence in New York City.

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AMY GOODMAN: Scores of world leaders have come to the United States for the
United Nations summit. Among them, Venezuelan President Chavez. In a speech
before the world body Chavez accused the U.S. of trying to hijack the U.N.
Summit and described the United States as a terrorist nation because it's
harboring the televangelist Pat Robertson who recently called for Chavez's
assassination. President Chavez also accused the United States of being behind
the reported coup against him in 2002. Chavez condemned the U.S. invasions of
Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States.
Democracy Now! met with president Chavez on Friday, in his first sit-down
interview in the United States. I interviewed him with Democracy Now! co-host
Juan Gonzalez and Margaret Prescott of KPFK. We talked to the president at the
Venezuelan ambassador's home here in New York.
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 PRESCOTT: 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.