Hugo Chavez Quotes

Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can't be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can't be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.

Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.

Let the dogs of the empire bark, that's their job; ours is to battle to achieve the true liberation of our people.

Racism is very characteristic of imperialism and capitalism. Hate against me has a lot to do with racism. Because of my big mouth and curly hair. And I'm so proud to have this mouth and this hair, because it is African.

Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, and as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism. But capitalism can't be transcended from with capitalism itself, but through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice. I'm also convinced that it is possible to do it under democracy, but not in the type of democracy being imposed by Washington.

Democracy is impossible in a capitalist system. Capitalism is the realm of injustice and a tyranny of the richest against the poorest.

I am convinced that the path to a new, better and possible world is not capitalism, the path is socialism.

What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what led me to become a rebel.

Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ -- who I think was the first socialist -- only socialism can really create a genuine society.

The grand destroyer of the world, and the greatest threat... is represented by U.S. imperialism.

We have to re-invent socialism. It can't be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.

Israel has gone mad. It's attacking, doing the same thing to the Palestinian and Lebanese people that they have criticised - and with reason - the Holocaust . But this is a new Holocaust.

We shall remember Gaddafi our whole lives as a great fighter, a revolutionary and a martyr.

If the climate were a bank, they would already have saved it.

The Devil is right at home. The Devil, the Devil himself, is right in the house. And the Devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the Devil came here. Right here. And it smells of sulphur still today. Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the Devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

Israel criticizes Hitler a lot, so do we, but they've done something very similar, even worse, than what the Nazis did.

The ones who close the path for peacefull revolution, at the same time open the path for violent revolution.

We're not perfect, but we do have democracy.

Long live the Unity of Latin America.

When imperialism feels weak, it resorts to brute force.

Venezuela has changed forever.

To paraphrase Karl Marx, the great Karl Marx, a specter is haunting the streets of Copenhagen...Capitalism is the specter, almost nobody wants to mention it...Socialism, the other specter Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too, rather it is like a counter-specter. Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet, I don't have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell, to the destruction of the world.

But Cuba doesn't have a dictatorship - it's a revolutionary democracy.

I shook Obama's hand and I said, 'I want to be your friend.' My hand is still outstretched. I am not Obama's enemy, but it's difficult not see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it don't want to see it, like the ostrich.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves in the world. And the biggest gas reserves in this hemisphere, the eighth in the world. Venezuela was a U.S. oil colony. All of our oil was going up to the north, and the gas was being used by the U.S. and not by us. Now we are diversifying. Our oil is helping the poor.

Down with the U.S. empire! It must be said, in the entire world: Down with the empire!

I painted. I wanted to be a painter. I sang.

I would like to invite the citizens of Great Britain and the citizens of the U.S. and the citizens of the world to come here and walk freely through the streets of Venezuela, to talk to anyone they want, to watch television, to read the papers. We are building a true democracy, with human rights for everyone, social rights, education, health care, pensions, social security, and jobs.

The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy; there's no dictatorship here.

Mutual respect! That's what it takes to be friends.

Mr. Bush is an illegitimate President. In Florida, his brother Jeb deleted many black voters from the electoral registers. So this President is the result of a fraud.

If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach $150 or even $200.

I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.

We must confront the privileged elite who have destroyed a large part of the world.

Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by those wandering Jews.

We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality. Simon Bolivar, our father, said a balanced world - a universe - a balanced universe in order to have peace and development.

I'm a man with many defects. I love. I sing. I dream. I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother. My children, my two daughters are with me and I want a better world for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren.

What they have implanted here, which is really a 'gringo' custom, is terrorism. They disguise children as witches and wizards, that is contrary to our culture.

I hereby accuse the North American empire of being the biggest menace to our planet.

Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire.

The descendants of those who crucified Christ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.

Latin Americans have gotten tired of the Washington consensus - a neoliberalism that has aggravated misery and poverty.

Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations.

We must reduce all the emissions that are destroying the planet. However, that requires a change in lifestyle, a change in the economic model: We must go from capitalism to socialism.

I do wish that the IMF and the World Bank would disappear soon.

The left is back, and it's the only path we have to get out of the spot to which the right has sunken us. Socialism builds and capitalism destroys.

I'm a reading addict. I can't live without it, like someone who is addicted to drugs.

No part of the human community can live entirely on its own planet, with its own laws of motion and cut off from the rest of humanity.

Venezuela is a free country, and we will not be blackmailed by anyone. We will not accept being told what to do over Iran; we will not accept being anyone's colony.

What is the U.S. government looking for? And the elite governing this country? They're looking for oil.