Chavez to UN: Revolution sweeping Latin America and Caribbean

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing a revolution that is “comprehensive and necessary” after years of accumulated suffering by millions of people across the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told the General Assembly today as he urged other States around the world to follow the path of socialism.

In an address to the second day of the Assembly’s General Debate, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Mr. Chávez criticized capitalism and said that “only through socialism can we dream about” progressive social change and development.

Mr. Chávez called it “a fact of life” that revolution was sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean – a revolution that he said “goes beyond ideology, even geography, geopolitics. It’s a historic revolution… It’s a moral and spiritual revolution… that is comprehensive and necessary.”

For far too long, he noted, the people of Latin America had suffered or been exploited, with millions enduring hunger and other forms of deprivation.

He said his country and others had introduced new forms of socialism – “there are no recipes” – that was helping to turn the course of history and lead to a more multi-polar world.

“Let us help the birth of the new history. Let us help it see the light. Those who are trying to bury it – let them not prevail.”

The Venezuelan leader turned to the recent political strife in Honduras during his speech, saying that the “coup d’état cannot prevail” and urging the return to power of ousted President José Manuel Zelaya.

Today Mr. Chávez also made reference to remarks he had made when he addressed the General Assembly’s annual General Debate in 2006.

“It doesn’t smell of sulphur here any more… No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope.