Venezuela’s Chavez calls Bush ‘the devil’

updated 4:19 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2006

UNITED NATIONS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush “the devil.”

The impassioned speech by the leftist leader came a day after Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparred over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program but managed to avoid a personal encounter.

“The devil came here yesterday,” Chavez said, referring to Bush’s address on Tuesday and making the sign of the cross. “He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world.”

Standing at the podium, Chavez quipped that a day after Bush’s appearance: “In this very spot it smells like sulfur still.”

Chavez held up a book by American leftist writer Noam Chomsky “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance” and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly.

The leftist leader, who has joined Iran and Cuba in opposing U.S. influence, accused Washington of “domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world.”

“We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head,” he said.

Chavez drew tentative giggles at times from the audience, but also some applause when he called Bush the devil.

The main U.S. seat in the assembly hall was empty as Chavez spoke. But there was a “junior note taker” there, as is customary “when governments like that speak,” the U.S. ambassador to the U.N said.

Comments 'just don't warrant a response'
Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that Chavez had the right to express his opinion, adding it was “too bad the people of Venezuela don’t have free speech.”

“I’m just not going to comment on this because his remarks just don’t warrant a response,” Bolton said. “Serious people can listen to what he had to say and if they do they will reject it.”

Describing the U.N. as an “important world stage” on which leaders represent their citizens, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey, said such personal attacks were “disappointing.”

“And I’ll leave it to the Venezuelan people to determine whether President Chavez represented them and presented them in a way they would have liked to have seen,” he said.

Chavez spoke on the second day of the annual ministerial meetings, which were overshadowed by an ambitious agenda of sideline talks.

The Mideast peace process also was in the spotlight, with ministers from the Quartet that drafted the stalled road map — the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia — planning to meet. The Security Council also was scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting Thursday that Arab leaders hope will help revive the Mideast peace process.

Bush tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying extremists were trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism.

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