Word: chavez
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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez caused a stir this week during his visit to New York City, denouncing President Bush as "the devil" in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly and, during a visit to Harlem the following day, calling him an "alcoholic." In an exclusive interview with TIME's Tim Padgett, Chavez defended his controversial rhetoric as a necessary part of his left-wing revolution's effort to counter what he calls Bush's "global imperalism...
...Bush has called me worse things - tyrant, populist dictator, drug trafficker, to name a few," Chavez said. "I'm not attacking Bush; I'm simply counterattacking. Bush has been attacking the world, and not just with words - with bombs. I think the bombs he's unleashed on Baghdad or Lebanon do a lot more harm than any words spoken in the United Nations...
...growing support in Latin America for his brand of "21st-century socialism," Chavez said: "After seeing the failure of Washington-backed capitalist reforms in Latin America, I no longer think a third way between capitalism and socialism is possible. Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ - who I think was the first socialist - only socialism can really create a genuine society...
...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...
...Chavez, echoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also took on the U.N. itself in his speech - calling for nothing less than a complete "refounding" of the body to wrest it from what he called the Americans' inordinate domination. "We [the U.N. members] have become a merely deliberative organ," he complained. "We have no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world today." On Thursday, Chavez will continue his New York invasion, visiting Harlem to highlight his program of providing poor Americans with Venezuela-subsidized heating oil - something he started during his U.N. visit last year...