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US democracy is 'twisted'
22/09/2006 15:14 - (SA)
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| Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez waves to the audience before speaking at Cooper Union in New York. (Tina Fineberg, AP) |
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New York - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in New York this week. He came without a prepared speech but with a firm conviction that he would address the United Nations without reservations or omissions.
His description of United States President George W Bush, "the devil", stirred controversy and some sharp reactions after his speech, but Chavez said on Thursday that he stood by his terminology.
"Sometimes the devil takes the form of people," Chavez told hundreds of supporters in a church in Harlem.
He called the war in Iraq criminal and said Bush was a "sick man".
Some observers, like Reverend Jesse Jackson, suggested that Chavez and the Bush administration calm their rhetoric and avoid name-calling.
Chavez also accused the US of stopping his doctors and his security chief from coming to New York by not granting them visas.
"They're attempts to persuade me not to come, because some people would like for me not to come, but I come. I come to say what I think must be said," said Chavez.
'Enemies of imperialism'
He said he did not prepare a script, but came in with ideas and spoke spontaneously, as was his custom.
Chavez described himself as a friend of the American people, and said Venezuela would boost sales of discounted heating oil to poor Americans.
But, "we're enemies of imperialism", he said, referring to the Bush administration.
He urged Americans to conserve energy and to choose a different type of president in the future, reciting the words of American thinkers from Mark Twain to Abraham Lincoln.
Chavez also repeated his warning that his country would halt oil shipments if the US tried to oust him. He added that he would like a US president "who you could talk with".
Insults have increasingly flown between Caracas and Washington since 2002, when the US recognised those who had briefly ousted Chavez in a coup.
Jackson meets with Chavez
The US house majority leader, congressman John Boehner of Ohio, has called Chavez a "power-hungry autocrat" and said his UN speech was "an embarrassment and an insult to the American people".
Bush has said he sees Chavez as a threat to democracy.
Jackson met with Chavez on Thursday night.
"I think he should not be calling President Bush 'devil'. Bush should not be calling him 'evil' or calling him 'tyrant'," said Jackson. "We must cease these hostilities."
The US government has sought to block Venezuela's bid for a seat on the UN security council, backing Guatemala instead.
Chavez says this is proof the Bush government has a twisted view of democracy.
Some who heard Chavez speak on Thursday said they shared his views, even if they might have chosen different words.
"He likes to set fires, to do good or just to get people riled up," said Natalia Munoz, a 25-year-old public health co-ordinator. "He gets a lot of people thinking."
- AP
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