By Daniel Romero Pernalete  

Translated By Harry Kenneth Echevarria

September 21, 2006

Venezuela - El Tiempo - Original Article (Spanish)    

President Hugo Chavez prays after calling President George W. Bush
'El Diablo,' in English, 'the Devil,' at the 61st session of the United
Nations General Assembly. He also called President Bush a 'tyrant'
and a 'liar.' (above and below).

—BBC NEWS VIDEO: Chavez calls President Bush 'the Devil',
and says the U.N. is Worthless,' Sept. 20, 00:01:30

—UNITED NATIONS VIDEO: Venezuela's President Hugo
Chavez addresses the opening of the 61st session of the
U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 20, 00:23:50

President Hugo Chavez recommends Noam Chomsky's Book,
'Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance'
to gathered dignitaries at the 61st session of the United Nations
General Assembly. (below).





Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with one of his new 'brothers.'
Iran's President Ahmadinejad, during a visit to a Venezuelan oil
rig, Sept. 18. (above).

—UNITED NATIONS VIDEO: Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad addresses the opening of the 61st session
of the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 19, 00:31:00

—UNITED NATIONS VIDEO: Zimbabwe President Mugabe
addresses the opening of the 61st session of the U.N. General
Assembly, Sept. 20, 00:24:30

From left, presidents of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe; Belarus, Aleksander
Lukashenko; and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, have a grand time at the 14th
Nonaligned Summit in Havana, Sept. 15. (below).





Opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, the man
who has the best chance of beating President Hugo Chavez
in December's election, speaks to supporters Sept. 6. However,
he is still considered a long-shot. (below).


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Mr. Chavez thinks he is Venezuela. His unhinged personality, nourished by the crawling sycophants that surround him, has led him to believe that he himself is Venezuela.

Chavez likes to pretend that he is the motherland and its people. To be against his personal plans is the equivalent of offending the people, betraying the country and harming the national interest.

Such absurd equivalence is strengthened by official government statements at all levels.

Fanaticism and ignorance are his fertilizing broth, and at times the press follows a pattern of radical over-simplification. It is urgent that we alter this pattern.

It is not the case that Venezuela seeks a seat on the U.N. Security Council. It is Chavez that seeks this, in his unhealthy eagerness for attention. It also provides a platform that could lift him out of mediocrity and oxygenate his brand of international terrorism.

Nor is it true that Venezuela is a threat to the region. The threat is from Mr. Chavez.

And a serious threat he is, because his oil wealth allows him to finance FARC terrorists , the ineptitude of President Morales (Bolivia), the outrages of President Kirshner (Argentina), the agony of Castroism (Cuba), and the civil disturbances of Lopez Obrador (the defeated Mexican presidential candidate).

The trouble doesn't derive from Venezuela, but from Chavez. The country is not confronting the United States. It is Hugo Chavez that seeks a fight with George Bush to prove his false anti-imperialism.

It isn't Venezuela that has distanced itself from Mexico or Peru. It is Hugo Chavez, with his ample supply of insults, that has staged showdowns with Vicente Fox (former Mexican President) or Alan Garcia (Peruvian President).

It's not Venezuela that has formed brotherhoods with the despotic regimes of Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Byelorussia. It's Chavez who rolls around the same pigsty as Ahmadinejad, and shows such fidelity to Fidel, Kim Jong-il [dictator of North Korean] or Lukashenko [dictator of Belarus].

If this equivalency between Chavez and the country were merely a question of misguided thinking, the matter would only be of interest to opinion writers; material for a pocket-sized history book. But unfortunately, this equivalency represents a very tangible risk.

Chavez has, in effect, embraced the socialism of the past and the extremism of the present. And that embrace jeopardizes the sweat, blood, and tears of his fellow citizens.

He has offered Venezuelan lives to defend the Cuban dictator, or the Iranian terrorist. Just as he gives away oil, Mr. Chavez tries to give the blood or our young boys.

At home, Chavez has become the "people and country" by his own whim, and to the thunderous applause of courts that don't allow domestic adversaries. All opposition groups are his enemies, against the mother country and its people, servants of imperialism. And as enemies, they must be prosecuted. He has said this on several occasions.

But the blood that will drench the nation's countryside or be spilled in other lands, will not belong to Chavez, neither to Rangel [Venezuela's vice president ], nor be of Madura [former president of Guatemala , nor of Antonio Rodriguez [Governor of Venezuela's Vargas State , nor of the Cabello [a Venezuelan city , nor of the Barreto [unknown reference].

And the Chavista leaders will then defend themselves by paying tribute to the dead as martyrs.

Chavez is not Venezuela, it must be repeated once and a thousand times. Chavez is a circumstantial fact. A historical error. A surmountable nightmare.

Venezuela should not be so greatly diminished.

Spanish Version Below

Chávez no es Venezuela

By Daniel Romero Pernalete

September 21, 2006

Chávez se cree Venezuela. Su naturaleza desquiciada, abonada por la rastrera adulancia de su entorno, lo ha llevado a equipararse al país.

Chávez juega a ser la patria, el pueblo. Oponerse a sus designios personales es ofender al pueblo, traicionar a la patria, atentar contra los intereses del país.

Esa absurda equivalencia es reforzada por el discurso oficial, en todos los niveles.

El fanatismo y la ignorancia son su caldo de cultivo. Y la prensa, a veces, sigue el juego de las simplificaciones aberrantes. Urge sacudir conceptos.

No es cierto que Venezuela haya buscado un puesto en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU. Es Chávez quien lo buscó, en su enfermizo afán por figurar. Por tener una tribuna desde la cual inflar su medianía y oxigenar el terrorismo internacional.

Tampoco es cierto que Venezuela sea una amenaza para la región. La amenaza es Chávez

Y una amenaza grave porque la riqueza petrolera le permite financiar el terrorismo de las FARC, la ineptitud de Morales, las tropelías de Kirchner, la agonía del castrismo y el bochinche de López Obrador.

La camorrera no es Venezuela, es Chávez. El país no está enfrentado a los Estados Unidos. Es Hugo Chávez quien busca pelea con George Bush para demostrar su falso antiimperialismo.

No es Venezuela la que se ha distanciado de México o del Perú. Es Chávez quien ha tejido pleitos con Fox o con García, con los hilos de su amplísima provisión de insultos.

No es Venezuela la que se hermana con los regímenes despóticos de Irán, Cuba, Corea del Norte o Bielorrusia. Es Hugo Chávez quien se revuelca en el mismo chiquero con Ahmadinejad, con lo que queda de Fidel, con Kim Jog Il o con Lukashenko.

Si la equiparación de Chávez con el país fuera sólo un problema de conceptos, el asunto no pasaría de ser tema para opinadores, material para la historia de bolsillo. Lo triste es que la igualación representa un alto riesgo.

En efecto, Chávez se ha abrazado al socialismo del pasado y al extremismo del presente. Y ese abrazo compromete sangre, sudor y lágrimas de sus conciudadanos.

Ha ofrecido vidas venezolanas para defender al dictador cubano o al terrorista iraní. Así como obsequia petróleo, Chávez pretende regalar la sangre de nuestros muchachos.
Puertas adentro, Chávez, convertido en patria y pueblo por su propio capricho y con el aplauso ladino de su corte, no admite adversarios internos. Todos son enemigos. De la patria y del pueblo.

Mandaderos del imperialismo. Y como enemigos hay que tratarlos. Lo ha dicho en varios escenarios.

Pero la sangre que riegue la geografía nacional, o la que se derrame más allá de las fronteras, no será de los Chávez, ni de los Rangel, ni de los Maduro, ni de los Rodríguez, ni de los Cabello, ni de los Barreto.

Los jefes del chavismo, a buen resguardo, quedarán para rendirle tributo a los mártires.

Chávez no es Venezuela, hay que repetirlo una y mil veces. Chávez es un hecho circunstancial. Un error histórico. Una pesadilla superable.

Venezuela no se reduce a tan poca cosa.