Hugo Chavez
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.Collection: Independence
The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war. It wants peace, but what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last hundred years in Latin America and in the world?Collection: Peace
Convinced as I am and as I am from my government that the world needs a new moral architecture over all I believe that this should be the first topic to debate in our world of today, ethics, moral.Collection: Architecture
Mutual respect! That's what it takes to be friends.Collection: Respect
We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality. Simon Bolivar, our father, said a balanced world - a universe - a balanced universe in order to have peace and development.Collection: Equality
I neglected my health, and I was reluctant to have medical check-ups. It was a fundamental mistake for a revolutionary, to the Venezuelan people and the international public opinion.Collection: Medical
Noam Chomsky has a book, which I read for the first time when I was in Spain, called 'Fear of Democracy'. There is your answer. Fear of democracy. In Honduras, they had a sham democracy. It was run by elites, what was called a liberal democracy, but in reality was a false democracy.Collection: Fear
I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.Collection: Equality
Our policy is to deepen the relations with all the countries in the world - monarchies, kingdoms, large powers - we want to respect all differences and have our relationships based on mutual respect.
My father and my mother were both teachers. They inculcated to us the importance of studies.
Capitalism is destroying the world.
I even believed in a third way; I thought it was possible to put a human face on capitalism. But I was wrong. The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy; there's no dictatorship here.
Dr. Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot. The insipid Dr. Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the OAS for daring to play that role.
It makes one sad to see the sell-out of President Fox; really, it makes one sad. How sad that the president of a people like the Mexicans lets himself become the puppy dog of the empire.
Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur. And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support.
There's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council. The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.
Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet. This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.
The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserve, and Venezuela has to defend itself.
I don't care about the internal political system of the United States. I want to be a friend of United States, of its baseball, its institutions, its rock and roll, its workers, and its technology because we need it. I want to be friends of the Arab people, of the Persian people, of the Asian people.
Venezuela is supporting tens of thousands of poor families in the United States with heating oil.
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.
I've learned to appreciate the thinking of John Kennedy.
Artists are never wrong when they paint revolution with the beautiful dress and with the sword. On the horse or by foot. Because revolution is a woman.
I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother.
I was an altar boy. My mother wanted me to be a priest. I am very Christian and Catholic... I'm very faithful.
The 'Alliance for Progress' was a political proposal to improve conditions. It was aimed at lowering the social difference between cultures.
Kennedy was the driving force of reform in America.
Castro has been a teacher for me. A master. Not on ideology but on strategy.
I'm going to show the world that I'm not a tyrant, much less a devil.
Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns, so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do for this country and these people.
There is film of the Americans landing on the moon. Does that mean the moon shot really happened? In the film, the Yanqui flag is flying straight out. So, is there wind on the moon?
I don't know anything about Osama Bin Laden that doesn't come to me through the filter of the West and its propaganda.
The United States was born with an imperialist impulse. There has been a long confrontation between Monroe and Bolivar... It is necessary that the Monroe Doctrine be broken.
What a thing, Europe. Europe! The cultured Europe! We are the barbarians, the Indians, the blacks, the southerners. How cynical is Europe. Chavez the tyrant! Chavez the strongman! Chavez, who wants to stay forever. While there, they have kings, my friend!
We must be aware of consumerism! That's our tendency. It's the capitalistic curse that we were poisoned with. We should spend only what is necessary. How do you call the big cars, the latest ones? Hummer! Not a single dollar to import Hummers! What is that? What is that? What kind of revolution is this? One of Hummers? No way!
Raul Reyes was a good revolutionary. I knew him personally.
I will be very sad and worried if the imperialist government was calling me a great democratic man.
In my opinion, Obama can become one of the biggest frustrations in the history for many people, not for me, but for the people of the United States that voted for him and saw him as a symbol of hope for change.
The United States is the biggest spender of oil and of all the planet resources. Oil is a very valuable resource for life - electric heaters. We must have to transition ourselves to a post-oil era.
I have to leave the government in the year 2012. I have to go.
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.
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.
The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over, and people are standing up.
Aristotle might not recognize it, or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
The capitalist model, the developed model, the consumer model which comes from the North, which it has forced on the world, is falling apart on Earth, and there is no planet nearby that we can emigrate to.
If we reduced the military expenses in 10 percent of the world, we would have enough money to save millions of lives in this world.
Terrorists bombard complete cities, such as Fallujah, Baghdad, innocent women and children.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the U.S. government, lead by Mr. Bush, planned and participated in a coup d'etat in Venezuela in April, 2002.
Venezuela is a free country, and we will not be blackmailed by anyone. We will not accept being told what to do over Iran; we will not accept being anyone's colony.