Chavez on Nightline

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Transcript: Hugo Chavez Interview
Venezuelan President On Rocky Relations with Washington

Sep. 16, 2005 - In his first American broadcast interview since the Rev.
Pat Robertson called for his assassination last month, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez told ABC News' Ted Koppel today that he has evidence of a
United States plan to invade Venezuela. In New York for the U.N. Summit,
Chavez discussed his strained relationship with the United States
government, Robertson's comments and the United States' dependence on
Venezuela's oil supply.

Following is a rush transcript of the interview, which airs tonight on
"Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET.

KOPPEL: Tell me a little bit -- most Americans don't know very much about
you. Tell me a little bit about your youth, when you were a young man.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I would like to welcome you. And I would like
to greet all of the people who are watching this program and who are
listening to it. I was a farm kid from the plains of South Venezuela, from
a very poor family. I grew up in a palm tree house with an earthen floor.

And later, we were lucky enough, my brothers and I, to be able to study.
There were six of us. My father and my mother were both teachers. They
inculcated to us the importance of studies. But out of every 100 children
from my town, 99 didn't get to study. That was poverty, the poorest of the
farmers.

Later, I was a young athlete. I was telling this friend here from San
Francisco so that one of my greatest dreams was to be a pitcher for the San
Francisco Giants. I played a lot of baseball. It was a passion of mine.

I painted. I wanted to be a painter. I sang. I still sing a little bit. I
still paint a little bit. And I can still bat a bit.

But afterwards, when I was 16, I became a soldier. But I became a soldier,
not because I had a military vocation initially, but because it was the
only way that that young, poor-class child from the provinces could go to
the center of the country: through baseball, which was my dream.

But I liked the army. And I became a patriotic soldier. And that's what I
am, essentially, a patriotic soldier.

KOPPEL: I read that you discovered later in your life that your grandfather
or your great grandfather was a guerrilla fighter. Is that correct?

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR):That was from a previous time, a hundred years
ago. Yes, he was a great grandfather of mine.

But the point is that when I was a kid, I would hear stories from my
grandmother and my great grandmother -- you know, when they talk --
grandmothers tell stories.

And when I was a kid, I heard that I had a murderous grandfather. And that
stuck with me.

But later, when I became a man, and I was reading the history of my
fatherland, a history that starts in the 20th century, I conciliated myself
to the fact that he was not a murderer; he was a guerrilla. He was one of
the last men on horseback. This was the time of Pancho Villa. This was the
time of Emiliano Zapata. This was the time of San Dino (ph). This was the
time of (inaudible) the gentleman of hope in Brazil (inaudible). He was one
of those last horsemen who took on imperialism.

My great grandfather was one of them. I discovered the truth.

KOPPEL: You're a man who loves language. You're a man of many words. I'm
going to put you to a test now.

Give me three words that describe you.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR):A soldier-esque man. I would add the word
"patriot." I would add the word "revolutionary."

KOPPEL: A revolutionary has to be in revolt against something. What are you
revolting against?

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR):I've been in revolt for years against ignominy,
against injustice, against inequality, against immorality, against the
exploitation of human beings.

One of the greatest rebels, who I really admire: Christ. He was a rebel. He
ended up being crucified. He was a great rebel. He rebelled against the
established power that subjugated. That is what rebellion is; it's
rebellion out of love for human beings. In truth, that is the cause, the
cause of love: love for every human being, for every women, for every
child, for every man, for every brother.

I believe you to be a brother. I don't see you as above or below. I don't
feel superior or inferior to you. We're on an equal basis. Your cameraman,
your photograph are equal. The men and women who are seeing you, who are
seeing us are equal. They're true brothers.

full: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=1134098

--

www.marxmail.org