Jim McIlroy, Caracas
In a series of fiery speeches on the closing day of the World Social Forum, January 29, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the US government that a US attack on Iran would be "10 times worse than Iraq".
"Enough already with the imperialist aggression!", Chavez said, according to the January 31 Caracas Daily Journal, listing countries from Panama to Iraq where the US military has intervened. "Down with the US empire!"
"We need militaries that don't trample over [us] and that don't sell themselves to the empire", Chavez said. "If the empire of the United States thinks to come here and invade Venezuela, you can be certain that the 100-year war will begin and we will defeat the North American empire on this land", Chavez added, to loud applause.
Earlier, US peace activist Cindy Sheehan, appearing on the president's weekly television and radio address Alo Presidente, thanked Chavez for "supporting life and peace". Sheehan announced her plans to camp outside US President George Bush's ranch at Crawford, Texas, in April. Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, has been leading a revival of the anti-war movement in the US.
Putting an arm around Sheehan's shoulder, Chavez noted that "soon, in Holy Week [Easter], she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr Danger's ranch". "Mr Danger" is Chavez's nickname for Bush, and he has also nicknamed Sheehan "Mrs Hope". "She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up a tent also", Chavez told the TV audience.
Chavez also called for a march on the US embassy in Caracas on International Women's Day. "Organise committees to collect signatures in all the neighbourhoods, in all the towns and cities, and on March 8 a march [will take place] of mothers and daughters to the embassy of the United States to support the cause of peace and life", he said during his January 29 Alo Presidente address.
Chavez invited "all of Venezuela to rise up and say: We demand independence for Puerto Rico" and the withdrawal of US soldiers from Iraq. As well as Sheehan, Chavez also welcomed onto the program Elma Beatriz Rodado, the wife of Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who was killed in a shoot-out with the FBI in 2005.
"We must bury the empire in this century, so that the world will be truly free and there will be justice and peace ... either there will be a world for all or there won't be a world for anyone", Chavez concluded.
From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.
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