TIME: The Devil and Hugo Chavez

[DeepModem Mom]

The Devil and Hugo Chavez
The Venezuelan president causes a stir with his U.N. attack on Bush - and that's just the way the leftist leader likes it
By TIM PADGETT/NEW YORK


(MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS)
President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez addresses the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York
Wednesday, Sep. 20, 2006

When a Mexican reporter asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a question during a press conference at the United Nations this afternoon, Chavez beamed and told the room that he was a great fan of the Mexican Revolution hero Pancho Villa. "Especially the part," Chavez said, "when Villa invaded the United States." True to his boisterous style, Chavez was in the midst of his own invasion of New York City, where he brought his unabashedly radical, left-wing and anti-U.S. politics to the U.N.'s annual General Assembly. In a speech Wednesday morning to the Assembly, Chavez, as he has done several times before, called President Bush "the devil." Referring to Bush's own U.N. speech yesterday, Chavez said, "The devil came right here... And it still smells of sulfur today."

If that kind of acrimony sounds out of place at a diplomatic haven like the U.N., that's the way Chavez likes it. He believes it his mission, and that of his Bolivarian Revolution, to shake up what he calls the U.S.-dominated "imperialist order" — in which he includes the U.N. In the past few years he has been jetting around the world — bankrolled by the epic oil revenues earned today by Venezuela, which has the hemisphere's largest crude reserves — to forge a more coordinated alliance of developing nations, Iran among them, whose antipathy for Washington is as ardent as his. But autumn in New York has become perhaps Chavez's favorite yanqui-bashing moment each year, the time when he can freely make his Villa-spirited raid on U.S. soil. "It's when he can have the most impact as a voice for the disenfranchised countries," says a Venezuelan diplomat, who admits that Chavez's oil wealth "allows him to use some rhetoric that other developing nations might fear to use."

Chavez is hoping to make that voice even louder next month when the U.N. votes on which Latin American nation will take over that region's rotating seat in the Security Council. Chavez has lined up substantial support in the hemisphere and around the world, including such nations as Brazil, Russia and China. But the U.S., which charges that Chavez is a would-be dictator in the mold of Fidel Castro — and also fears that Venezuela might thwart the Bush Administration's efforts to rein in Iran's uranium enrichment program — is battling hard to get Guatemala elected to the Latin seat instead. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton — pointing to just the kind of raw rhetoric Chavez used today — has repeatedly warned that Venezuela would be a "disruptive" presence on the Council. Nevertheless, Chavez looks likely to best the U.S. in this contest....

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1537357,00.html?cnn=yes

[EarthNeedsHope]

1. Why do all the American political writers try to be witty?

They are degrading the discussion by the way they talk about this stuff. They're acting as if Chavez is simply some kind of provocative bellwether, whereas he's making a legitimate effort to create a worldwide anti-corporate global order movement.

But most Americans will not know this, as our media won't give them a fair view of these people. It'll go back to the "US vs everyone" mentality all over again...

[eleny]

2. welcome to du!

[Kahuna]

3. Whatever. Hugo got a better reception than beelzebush..

There were lots of smiles and smirks as he spoke and a prolonged applause when he concluded.

[Nozebro]

4. If you read Chavez's speech, you'll like it a lot more than Time's BS.

His speech was powerful, truthful, and much more reasonable than the blather we're used to hearing from
Bush & Company and most Democrats too, I'm sorry to say.

[opihimoimoi]

5. The TRUTH SPRAY has been improved: ABLE TO STRIP AWAY BS,

and Varnish/Whitewash/Deception.