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Monday, March 13, 2007
Hugo Chavez to George W. Bush:
Gringo Go Home
President Bush has arrived in Guatemala for the
second-to-last stop of his five-nation tour of Latin America. He is
meeting with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger for talks expected to
be dominated by immigration and free trade issues.
Bush's visit to the region has been marked by mass
protests and marches. In Brazil on Thursday, thirty thousand people
took to the streets. The next day in Uruguay, some six thousand
marched in the capital of Montevideo. In Bogota, police made one
hundred twenty arrests when five thousand protesters marched just
one mile from where Bush held talks with Colombian president Alvaro
Uribe. Bush will travel to Mexico later today for the last leg of
his tour.
While many analysts agree the president's trip is part of an
effort to gain back influence in the region, the White House has
sought to portray the tour as part of a humanitarian effort to
address issues of poverty. Last week in Washington, President Bush
spoke before the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
President Bush speaking in Washington last week. In addition to
the mass protests to his presence in the region, Bush has been
dogged by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who is on a counter-tour
of Latin America at the same time. In fact, Chavez has practically
shadowed Bush since the beginning of his trip. When Bush was in
Uruguay Friday, Chavez held a massive rally in neighboring
Argentina. When Bush flew to Colombia, Chavez addressed thousands in
Bolivia. While Bush is in Guatemala, Chavez is again close by in
neighboring Nicaragua.
During a mass rally in Buenos Aires on Friday, the Venezuelan
president launched a stinging attack on Bush who was in Uruguay,
just thirty miles away across the River Plate.
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush has arrived in Guatemala for
the second-to-last stop of his five-nation tour of Latin America. He
is meeting with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger for talks expected
to be dominated by immigration and free trade.
Bush's visit to the region has been marked by mass protest and
marches. In Brazil Thursday, 30,000 people took to the streets. The
next day in Uruguay, some 6,000 marched in the capital of
Montevideo. In Bogota, police made 120 arrests when 5,000 protesters
marched just one mile from where Bush held talks with the Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe. Bush will travel to Mexico later today for
the last leg of his tour.
While many analysts agree the President's trip is part of an
effort to gain back influence in the region, the White House has
sought to portray the tour as part of a humanitarian effort to
address issues of poverty. Last week in Washington, President Bush
spoke before the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, not far from the
White House, there’s a statue of the great liberator Simon
Bolivar. He’s often compared to George Washington -- Jorge W. Like
Washington, he was a general who fought for the right of his
people to govern themselves. Like Washington, he succeeded in
defeating a much stronger colonial power. And like Washington, he
belongs to all of us who love liberty. One Latin American diplomat
had put it this way: “Neither Washington nor Bolivar was destined
to have children of their own, so that we Americans might call
ourselves their children.”
We are the sons and daughters of this struggle, and it is our
mission to complete the revolution they began on our two
continents. The millions across our hemisphere who every day
suffer the degradations of poverty and hunger have a right to be
impatient. And I'm going to make them this pledge: The goal of
this great country, the goal of a country full of generous people,
is an Americas where the dignity of every person is respected,
where all find room at the table, and where opportunity reaches
into every village and every home. By extending the blessings of
liberty to the least among us, we will fulfill the destiny of this
new world and set a shining example for others. Que Dios les
bendiga.
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush, speaking in Washington last
week. In addition to the mass protests to his presence in the
region, Bush has been dogged by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
who’s on a counter-tour of Latin America at the same time. In fact,
Chavez has practically shadowed Bush since the beginning of his
trip. When Bush was in Uruguay on Friday, Chavez held a mass rally
in neighboring Argentina. When Bush flew to Colombia, Chavez
addressed thousands in Bolivia. When Bush was in Guatemala, Chavez
is again close by in neighboring Nicaragua.
Today, we’re going to play an excerpt of one of Chavez's
speeches, this at the mass really in Buenos Aires on Friday. The
Venezuelan president launched a stinging attack on Bush, who was in
Uruguay, just thirty miles away across the River Plate.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: [translated] On the other side of
the river, that is where that little gentleman of the North must
be. Let's give him a big boo! Gringo, go home!
I am convinced that our friends in Brasilia and in Montevideo
are not going to feel offended, because we would not want to hurt
any of our brethren from Uruguay or Brazil. We recognize their
sovereignty. We recognize that those governments have the
sovereign right to invite the little gentleman of the North, if
they so choose.
But Kirchner and I don't need to plan anything to sabotage this
visit, because we are witnessing the true political cadaver. The
President of the United States is a political cadaver. He doesn't
even smell of sulfur anymore. He doesn't even smell of sulfur or
brimstone, if you will. No longer. What you smell from him now is
the stench of political death. And not long from now, he will turn
to dust and disappear. So we don't need to put forth any effort to
sabotage the visit of the President of the United States to some
countries, sisters countries of Central and South America, of
course. We don't need to do that. It's a simple coincidence, the
visit of Nestor to Venezuela and our visit here to Buenos Aires.
Well, we nevertheless need to thank that little gentleman
that's visiting us, because if he were not here in South America,
perhaps this event would not be so well-attended. We have
organized this event to say no to the presence of the chief of the
empire here in the heroic lands of South America.
The imperial little gentleman that's visiting Latin America
today said about seventy-two or forty-eight hours ago in one of
his speeches, when he was announcing that he was leaving for Latin
America, he compared Simon Bolivar to George Washington. In fact,
he even said the ridiculous thing -- and I can't say it's
hypocrisy, because it is simply ridiculous, the most ridiculous
thing he could say. He said, today we are all children of
Washington and Bolivar. That is, he thinks that he is a son of
Bolivar. What he is is a son of a -- but I can't say that word
here.
So he has said -- he has said -- and you should listen to what
he said here -- he said that now is the time to finish the
revolution that Washington and Bolivar commenced . How's that for
heresy? That is heresy and ignorance, because we have to remember
-- and I say this with all due respect to George Washington, who
is historically one of the founding fathers of that country -- but
we must also remember the differences and how different George
Washington and Simon Bolivar were, are and will always be.
George Washington won a war to gain the independence of the
North American economic elite from the English empire, and when
Washington died, or, rather, after his independence and after
having been the president of the United States, after ordering the
massacre of the indigenous peoples of North America, after
defending slavery, he ended up being a very rich owner of slaves
and of a plantation. He was a great landowner. That was George
Washington.
Simon Bolivar, however, was born with a silver spoon, and at
eight years old his parents died and he inherited a large fortune,
together with his brothers, and he inherited haciendas and slaves.
Simon Bolivar, when history led him -- and as Karl Marx said, men
can make history, but only as far as history allows us to do so --
when history took Bolivar and made him the leader of the
independence process in Venezuela, he made that process
revolutionary. Simon Bolivar turned over all of his land. He freed
all of his slaves, and he turned them into soldiers, and he
brought them here. He brought them to Peru and Carabobo, and he
worked together with the troops of San Martin to liberate this
continent. That is Simon Bolivar.
And Simon Bolivar, having been born with that silver spoon in
his mouth, when he died on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, when
he died on December 17 in 1830, he was dressed with a shirt of
someone else, because he had no clothes. Simon Bolivar is the
leader of the revolution of this land. He is the leader of the
social revolution, the people's revolution, the historical
revolution. George Washington has nothing -- nothing -- to do with
this history.
It was in 1823 that James Monroe said, "America for the
Americans." And when I say this tonight, I say it because I want
to remind you, my brothers of Argentina, of Venezuela and of
America, that the presence of the President of the United States
in South America represents all of that. He represents that Monroe
Doctrine of America for the Americans. Well, we will have to tell
him: North America for the North Americans and South America for
the South Americans. This is our America.
The President of the United States, that political cadaver --
and when I say political cadaver, he would like to see me as a
real cadaver -- I want him to be a political cadaver, and he
already is a political cadaver. The President of the United States
has the lowest level of credibility and acceptance from his own
people. He is the current president of the United States.
It would appear that he doesn't even dare mention my name,
because he was asked in Brasilia today in a press conference -- I
saw it, I watched it at the hotel -- and the journalist asked him,
“It is said that you are here to stop Chavez's movement in South
America.” And it looked like he almost had a heart attack when he
heard "Chavez," because he actually stuttered a couple of times,
and he actually changed the subject. He didn't answer the
question. He didn't answer the question at all. So he doesn't even
dare.
And I definitely dare to say his name. The President of the
United States of North America, George W. Bush, the little
gentleman of the North, the political cadaver that is visiting
South America, that little gentleman is the president of all the
history of the United States, and in the history of the United
States, he has the lowest level of approval in his own country.
And if we add that to the level of approval that he has in the
world, I would think he's in the red now -- negative numbers.
AMY GOODMAN: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Argentina
on Friday, speaking before a mass rally of tens of thousands of
people -- an excerpt of that address. When we come back, response to
the Latin American trip with Greg Grandin, who is author of
Empire’s Workshop, a professor in Latin American studies. We'll
also speak with Steve Ellner, just back from Venezuela. Stay with
us.
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