Venezuela at UN: We must build 'new world without imperialism'
Translated excerpts from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he called to build a new multipolar world without imperialism
Defying Washington’s ongoing coup attempts, Venezuela’s constitutional President Nicolás Maduro used his platform at the United Nations to call for a “new world without imperialism.”
While denouncing the “hellish blockade” the United States and European Union have imposed on his country, Maduro spoke of the need for a multipolar system based on peace, cooperation, and respect for national sovereignty.
He made these remarks in a speech at the General Assembly on September 22.
When he spoke, Maduro also highlighted that the vast majority of the 193 member states of the United Nations always did and still do recognize him and his constitutional government as the legal representatives of Venezuela — emphasizing without needing to name Juan Guaidó that the US puppet only ever had the support of less than one-fourth of UN member states, at the peak of Washington’s coup attempt.
I have translated key excerpts from Maduro’s speech and published them below, because they will doubtless be ignored in the English-language corporate media.
Maduro insisted that we need “what should be, without a doubt, the construction of the new world, of the new human community, of a world without hegemonic empires.”
The Venezuelan president called for building a “world free of attempts at domination, economically, financially, militarily, politically, of any hegemon, of any empire, or of those who, over centuries, plundered and dominated, exploited and oppressed the peoples of the world, with the old predatory colonialism.”
Maduro lamented that imperial powers today “try to present as new forms of neocolonialism against our people, new forms of domination of plunder, of oppression, of exploitation of the peoples of the world.”
“Because of that, in this General Assembly, affected by the pandemic, from the very heart of our beloved homeland, Venezuela raises its voice for a new world without colonialism, for a new world without imperialism, for a new world without a dominating hegemon, for a new world of sharing, of cooperation, of a human community with a shared destiny,” Maduro declared.
“The multipolar, pluricentric world that we yearn for, and that we are united for, with our flags of struggle with all of the peoples of the world, with the peoples of the South, especially the doctrine of the Non-Aligned Movement, the South-South doctrine, our doctrine, our vision.”
The Venezuelan president condemned "the ferocious campaign against our country, which was unleashed by the elites who govern the United States, which was unleashed as well with the complicity of the elites who lead organizations in Europe and other places.”
“They have wanted to instrumentalize international organizations and international law to justify the ferocious campaign and criminal attacks against a noble, peaceful, and democratic people, which is the people of Venezuela,” Maduro said.
“Venezuela denounces a ferocious campaign, and it denounces a permanent and systematic aggression, by means of economic, financial, and oil sanctions, by means of persecution against the right to economic freedom, against economic rights, and economic guarantees which all of the peoples of the world should be able to enjoy.”
Maduro called this “a ferocious attack against the right to buy what our country needs, and against the right to sell what our country produces.”
“[Our] bank accounts are stalked. They have stolen and blocked the gold from the legal international reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela, in London. They have stolen from us and blocked billions of dollars in bank accounts in the United States, Europe, and beyond,” Maduro said.
“They prevent Venezuelan companies, in oil and mining, from trading their products and opening accounts in the world, from paying, from getting paid, and from doing commercial transactions, in a free manner, which international law takes into account.”
“It is persecution, financial, monetary, commercial, economic, energetic, systematic, cruel, and criminal. And Venezuela raises its voice to denounce it, before the peoples of the world.”
Maduro said that, despite the incredible difficulties, Venezuela is trying to find new ways to increase production and get around the illegal, suffocating sanctions.
“We have taken the path, of the deployment of the productive forces, of a country subject to a hellish blockade, to criminal persecution, and to cruel torture, of its economic and social body.”
The Venezuelan president then affirmed, “And we say to the peoples of the world, with courage, with resolution, with intelligence and wisdom, yes we can confront the imperial aggressions, and advance.”
“That is why today, we ratify our request, our demand that all criminal sanctions be lifted against the Venezuelan economy, against Venezuelan society, by the United States of North America and by the governments of the European Union.