Anti-Americanism Is a Big Hit at U.N.
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez Provides Theatrical Performance 
That Resonates With Some

By Neil King Jr. 
September 21, 2006
The Wall Street Journal
Original Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115876861116368987.html
UNITED NATIONS -- A day after President Bush's speech at the same lectern here drew tepid applause, Venezuela's leader earned laughter and ovations from the world leaders on hand by calling Mr. Bush the devil and comparing the U.S. to a sword hanging over our heads.
While President Hugo Chávez's anti-American jabs were hardly new, they marked a theatrical high point for an annual U.N. gathering where full-bore anti-Americanism is not only back in fashion, but also much appreciated by many in attendance.
The leaders of Iran, Venezuela and Bolivia have all delivered full-throated harangues this week against Mr. Bush and U.S. foreign policy. Less expected were persistent pokes delivered by more-centrist leaders from places such as Brazil or Mexico.
Speeches by leaders of 57 nations over the past two days -- and many more to come -- reveal a world body awash in grievances over trade, the Iraq war, perceived U.S. unilateralism, Washington's drug policy in Latin America and the great powers structure of the U.N. itself. All illustrate, some observers say, a rising chorus of discontent with the world order envisioned by the U.S.
In their inflammatory and provocative way, Chávez and the others are expressing a sentiment that is deeply resentful of the way the U.S. uses its power, said Julia Sweig, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Friendly Fire, a recent book on the rise of anti-Americanism.
People who say these guys are just outliers are wrong, said Mark Weisbrot, a Latin America specialist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. They are saying things that many other leaders only think.
The U.N. has seen much U.S. bashing over the years. Cuba's Fidel Castro gave a famous stemwinder on U.S. imperialism in September 1960, just before Nikita Khrushchev famously pounded his shoe on his desk in a fit of pique at the General Assembly.
But this week's U.N. confab has put on full display a new generation of leaders in the Castro mold who revel in lobbing rhetorical missiles at Washington and lambasting U.S. policies abroad. And in the case of the Iranian and Venezuelan presidents, their fiery populism comes backed by soaring oil wealth, a lever Castro never had.
Bolivia's populist President Evo Morales, a former coca grower elected in December, drew a rousing response Tuesday when he pulled a coca leaf from his pocket during his speech to the General Assembly, then blasted the U.S. for its neocolonialist efforts to eradicate coca production.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then took to the podium for a far more scathing and almost scholarly critique of the use of U.S. power, accusing the Bush administration of employing its nuclear and military might to intimidate other countries and to control the U.N. Security Council.
Some seek to rule the world relying on weapons and threats, while others live in perpetual insecurity and danger, he said. In a theme echoed by many speakers, Mr. Ahmadinejad said that the U.S. and other powers, such as Britain, had turned the U.N. Security Council into an instrument of threat and coercion that now has to be reorganized.
Yet no one found a more receptive audience than Mr. Chávez, who got laughs right off when he raised high -- and highly recommended -- a copy of leftist professor Noam Chomsky's 2003 tome, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.
According to Mr. Chávez, the book told everything one needs to know about the world. Then he lashed into Mr. Bush. The devil came here yesterday. Right here, he said, pointing at the lectern before him. It smells of sulfur still.
In his speech the day before, Mr. Bush had sought to speak directly to the citizens of undemocratic countries such as Iran and Syria, and to express U.S. support for a future free of extremism.
Mr. Chávez lashed into what he described as Mr. Bush's obsession with extremists, suggesting it was racist. He looks at your color, brother, and he sees an extremist, he said to an audience made up largely of diplomats from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that Mr. Chávez's remarks were not becoming for a head of state. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, called Mr. Chávez's antics insulting and said it was too bad President Chávez doesn't extend the same freedom of speech to the people of Venezuela.
Mr. Chávez is campaigning heavily to win for Venezuela next year a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council, and U.N. watchers say Mr. Chávez may well garner the 128 country votes needed to prevail.