His Excellency President of the General Assembly,

His Excellency Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

Honorable Delegates,

Representatives, brothers and sisters of diverse countries of the world, 

This last week, the debate of the General Assembly has been followed by our people in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a people in the midst of a revolution, achieving new spaces for political culture, an informed, an educated people followed with attention the positions advocated from this General Assembly.  We could say that the debate has reflected the current world situation, a world struggling to construct itself peacefully, a world seeking new courses.     

A year ago, from this platform, President Hugo Chavez Frias alerted the world, ratifying the warnings of many of the warring madness that has been imposed, and, in parallel, the majority of the world desires peace. Let’s analyze today the result of the warring madness.

Six years ago, by means of lies, the harassment and invasion of a brother country was forced on the people of Iraq.  A global campaign to justify the military occupation of the nation of Iraq was fabricated.  Today, 5 years later, let’s expose the balance, the result of a policy full of hate and evil. 

From 2002 to 2006, US$ 610 thousand million of the budget of the United States of America have been invested in the war in the Middle East to cause death and destruction; US$ 610 thousand million from the US contributors have been invested in bombs, bullets, in death.  Those US$ 610 thousand million invested in war would have represented today during these six years of the Iraq occupation, social progress, equity and justice for the people of     Iraq; however, the results are evident: researches of the universities of the world state that over 600 thousand Iraqis have died as a result of this invasion and military occupation; over 3.600 young Americans have been killed; over 25.000 young Americans have returned to their country, handicapped for life, blind, deaf. Those US$ 610 thousand million invested in death have reproduced violence, and the balance that we can see today of that investment has not resulted in a more safe world, a more balanced world, a more peaceful world. 

Today, the nations of the world acknowledge that we have a more unsafe world, with greater dangers of terrorism, that we have an unbalanced Middle East, full of violence, full of divisions.  Should those US$ 610 thousand million had been invested in life, we would be talking today of another balance and figures.  With US$ 610 thousand million, US$ 3 million mobile hospitals can be built to assist the world, as the peoples of Cuba and Venezuela are building throughout Latin America and the Caribbean through he Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America – ALBA.  With US$ 610 thousand million invested in war, 12 million decent houses could have been built for men and women in the poorest regions of the world, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, or with those US$ 610 thousand million invested in bullets aimed to kill, 300 thousand schools for at least 350 million children throughout the planet could have been built. But, the madness and greed for the natural resources of the world prompted the elites of the United States to embark on a senseless and irrational war.  

Today, if we analyze the balance, the direct result of this senseless and irrational war, we could say that this war has brought death, destruction, de-destabilization and has created more terrorist nuclei. Therefore, this senseless war is the worst example of the security system to protect balance and peace in the world. 

Today the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela calls on our brothers and sisters of the world to reflect; it is necessary to adjust the mechanisms to seek balance, peace and to stop the insanity of war. 

We have seen how in these days the international public media campaign satanizes the people and the Government of Iran.  We have seen dangerous threats against the peace of the people of Iran.  Has the world wondered, have the governments represented in this General Assembly wondered what would happen should the frantic madness of the elites ruling the United States result in an attack against the peaceful people of Iran? Where would a situation of those characteristics lead us?  

We are on time to stop this satanizing campaign; we are on time to build the walls to contend it, the warnings, and the alliances to stop the warring lunacy of the elites that rule the United States of America. 

Today, the war against terrorism and the struggle against terrorism have occupied great spaces in the international public agenda.  We, from this platform, wish to ratify to the Government of the United States of America the official request for the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to be extradited, according to international laws, and to be tried for crimes committed in Latin America and in the Caribbean against our peoples. 

This general Assembly knows that one of the most dangerous terrorists, Luis Posada Carriles, head of a terrorist band, convicted and confessed to crimes in the Condor Operation in South America, responsible for the disappearance of men and women; convicted and confessed of placing bombs in tourist sites in Cuba in the 90’s, is free and protected by the Government of the United States of America, in Florida. 

This General Assembly knows that this terrorist has served in the C.I.A. of the United States of America for 40 years.  We have requested the Anti-terrorist Committee of the Security Council to take action, and we request the support and the solidarity of friendly Governments of the world for this terrorist to be extradited, and to continue in Venezuela his trial for bombing the Cubana de Aviación plane. This double standard shows the hypocrisy of a policy that encourages war to, supposedly fight terrorism, but protecting in its own land, in its own space, one of the most dangerous terrorists known in the Western Hemisphere.

Likewise, we wish to express solidarity from this platform with the increasing exhortation of governments and peoples of the world for a fair trial and the immediate release of the five Cubans detained in the prisons of the empire for fighting terrorism in the territory of the United States of America. These demands that we formulate to the General Assembly of the Organization of the United Nations are part of the struggle standard raised today by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Mr. Chairman, Mister General Secretary, today, from this podium we wish to greet the victory of President Rafael Correa, the progressive forces of the people of Ecuador, in the recent electoral process to designate the Constituent National Assembly, that is going to head the peaceful process of change in Ecuador.

The victory of Ecuador is part of a set of peaceful and democratic change processes that have taken place in South America, in Latin America and in the Caribbean, change processes that have been subject of media campaigns by internal oligarchies and international conspiracies to attempt to halt them.  There we have the clear voice of the Ecuadorian people, united to the voice of the Bolivian and the voice of the Venezuelan people, to the voice of the Uruguayan people. South America, Latin America and the Caribbean, request, demand that the right to the peaceful and democratic change of our societies be respected; the right to build through democratic revolutions, new processes, new economic and social structures that allow us to overcome poverty and that allow us to build true democracies stabilized by equality.

The world knows of the permanent conspiracies against the Venezuelan democracy, against President Hugo Chavez.  The world knows that our people victoriously confronted, in 2002, an attempted of coup d’ Etat, that aimed to destroy democracy and murder President Hugo Chavez.

Today, the people of Venezuela is undergoing a process of reforming the Constitution; next December the people of Venezuela, after debating the conditions and proposals of the constitutional reform, will decide in a sovereign manner, the destiny of our country and the reforms to extend the  basis for political, social and economic democracy.  We, today, ratify to the world the desire that Venezuelan sovereignty be respected, that Venezuelan independence be respected, and that the media campaign directed by the empire to attempt to distort the true conditions of democratic construction of our people and of our popular Revolution, ceases.

Today, we ratify the need of a profound and integral reform of the Organization of the United Nations. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, a pluripolar, balanced world, without imperial hegemony is necessary; it is urgent and it is possible. 

We join the debate on the reform of the Organization of United Nations.  We believe that this organization must be re-founded.  We believe that this organization must be built to be at the service, as a loyal tool of a pluripolar world, of a world of balance, of a world of peace, a world without hegemony.  Seventeen years of a unipolar world has revealed the need of a profound transformation of multilateral organizations to be at the service of peace, equality, justice and the great causes of humankind.

Today, we ratify our conviction of the need of this Organization of United Nations to be profoundly re-founded and to advance towards the democratization of the Security Council, towards its extension, of permanent members as well as non permanent members, towards the fulfillment of new functions of this General Assembly, towards the strengthening of the political role of the General Secretariat.  

Lastly, that we can advance towards new mechanisms of dialogue, and the construction of a pluripolar world, with equal values, where our peoples could be considered equals in the framework of a global cooperation to build the basis for peace, the basis for justice to overcome the madness    of war and to defeat the desire of the world elites to take over the natural resources and the wealth of our peoples.  

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, ratifies its will to advance together with the peoples of the world in a profound reform that turns the Organization of United Nations into a new organization, into a true instrument for peace, for life and for development.