1992

• Before anything else I would like to say good day to all of the Venezuelan people, and this Boliviarian message is directed to the brave soldiers in the Parachutist Regimen of Aragua and the Armed Brigade of Valencia. Friends: For now, lamentably, the objectives we considered were not achieved in the capital. That is to say, we here in Caracas have not managed to take power. You did very well over there, but now is the time to reflect; new situations will come and the country must definitively get on the path to a better destiny. So hear my word; hear Commander Chávez, who sends you this message so that you may please reflect and put down your weapons, because now, really, the objectives that we have brought to the national level are impossible to achieve. Friends: Hear this message of solidarity. I thank you for your loyalty, your valor, your exuberance, and I, before this country and before you all, assume responsibility for this Boliviarian militant movement. Thank you.
  • Hugo Chávez to Venezuelan television reporters just before being arrested for his participation in an attempted coup d'état, February 1992.

2002

• We must confront the privileged elite who have destroyed a large part of the world
  • Hugo Chávez

2004

I give you a replica of liberator Simon Bolivar's sword.

• He was an asshole to believe them.
  • Remarks about US President George W. Bush during a pro-government rally in Caracas on March 1, 2004, accusing the US of "meddling" in Venezuela's affairs.

• I give you a replica of liberator Simon Bolivar's sword. For you who, like Bolivar, took up arms to liberate your people. For you who, like Bolivar, are and will always be a true freedom fighter. [Mugabe] continues, alongside his people, to confront the pretensions of new imperialists.
  • Praising Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a freedom fighter, as quoted in "Chavez's colourful quotations" at BBC News (12 November 2007)

2005

When imperialism feels weak, it resorts to brute force. The attacks on Venezuela are a sign of weakness, ideological weakness.

It is necessary to transcend capitalism.

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.... it must be done... with equality and justice... under democracy...

Knowing English is important, but for us Venezuelans I think it would also be important to know Portuguese.

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

• When imperialism feels weak, it resorts to brute force. The attacks on Venezuela are a sign of weakness, ideological weakness. Nowadays almost nobody defends neoliberalism. Up until three years ago, just Fidel [Castro] and I raised those criticisms at Presidential meetings. We felt lonely, as if we infiltrated those meetings.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• Just look at the internal repression inside the United States, the Patriot Act, which is a repressive law against U.S. citizens. They have put in jail a group of journalists for not revealing their sources. They won't allow them to take pictures of the bodies of the dead soldiers, many of them Latinos, coming from Iraq. Those are signs of Goliath's weaknesses.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• The south also exists... the future of the north depends on the south. If we don't make that better world possible, if we fail, and through the rifles of the U.S. Marines, and through Mr. Bush's murderous bombs, if there is no coincidence and organization necessary in the south to resist the offensive of neo-imperialism, and the Bush doctrine is imposed upon the world, the world will be destroyed.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism. But capitalism can not be transcended through capitalism itself; it must be done 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.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• 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.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• 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.
  • Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005.

• If I am assassinated, there is only one person responsible: the president of the United States. If, by the hand of the devil, these perverse plans succeed...forget about Venezuelan oil, Mr Bush. I will not hide, I will walk in the streets with all of you...but I know I am condemned to death.
  • Hugo Chávez message to George Bush during his television/radio show ¡Aló Presidente! on February 20, 2005.

• The world should forget about cheap oil. [The price] will keep going up and some day arrive at US$100 per barrel.
  • Hugo Chávez at a press conference in New Delhi, after signing a cooperative agreement with India's hydrocarbon sector, March 2005.

• "I am convinced that the path to a new, better and possible world is not capitalism, the path is socialism."
  • Hugo Chávez in March 2005

• The grand destroyer of the world, and the greatest threat … is represented by U.S. imperialism.
  • Hugo Chávez during his television/radio show ¡Aló Presidente! on August 21, 2005.

• But Cuba doesn’t have a dictatorship — it’s a revolutionary democracy.
  • Hugo Chávez during his television/radio show ¡Aló Presidente! on August 21, 2005.

• [Pat Robertson] is expressing the wishes of the US elite. If anything happens to me then the man responsible will be George W. Bush. He will be the assassin. This is pure terrorism.
  • Responding to remarks from US TV evangelist Pat Robertson on August 28, 2005.

• That man, the king of vacations... the king of vacations in his ranch said nothing but: "You have to flee." and didn't say how... that cowboy, the cowboy mentality.
  • Hugo Chávez criticizes George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina, during a cabinet meeting broadcast live on television (August 31, 2005).

• Knowing English is important, but for us Venezuelans I think it would also be important to know Portuguese. For that reason, we should evaluate the possibility of it being taught in our schools.
  • Hugo Chávez during his television/radio show ¡Aló Presidente! on October 2, 2005.
• 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.
  • Christmas Speech at a rehabilitation center on December 24th, 2005.

• Let the dogs of the empire bark, that's their job; ours is to battle to achieve the true liberation of our people.
  • Hugo Chávez in retort to a comment by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

• 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.
  • Hugo Chávez on Halloween.

• I hereby accuse the North American empire of being the biggest menace to our planet.
  • Hugo Chávez speaking in October 2005

• It makes one sad to see the sell-out of President Fox, really it makes one sad. How sad that the president of a people like the Mexicans lets himself become the puppy dog of the empire.
  • Statement in reference to Mexican president Vicente Fox's support of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, in Mar de Plata as quoted in "Chavez's colourful quotations" at BBC News (12 November 2007)

• The world has an offer for everybody but it turned out that a few minorities--the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of those who expelled Bolivar from here and also those who in a certain way crucified him in Santa Marta, there in Colombia--they took possession of the riches of the world, a minority took possession of the planet’s gold, the silver, the minerals, the water, the good lands, the oil, and they have concentrated all the riches in the hands of a few; less than 10 percent of the world population owns more than half of the riches of the world.
  • Chavez is invoking a Christian metaphor to condemn capitalism in this Christmas address, December 24, 2005, which some commentators have taken to be a reference to the Jews.

President Hugo Chavez's Speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Full Transcript online

• They [US officials] say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
• [If] we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.
• But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war... But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?
• I think there are reasons to be optimistic...because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning... the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?
• What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.
• We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.
• Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.
• ...reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier. And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.
• In just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner. And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government. And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.

2006

Yesterday the Devil came here. Right here. And it smells of sulphur still today.

I nationalize strategic companies and get criticized, but when Bush does it, it's OK.

• Enough already with the imperialist aggression! Down with the U.S. empire! It must be said, in the entire world: Down with the empire!
  • Remarks during a meeting with US activist Cindy Sheehan in January 2006.

• Don’t be shameless, Mr Blair. Don’t be immoral, Mr. Blair. You are one of those who have no morals. You are not one who has the right to criticize anyone about the rules of the international community. You are an imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favor with Danger Bush-Hitler, the number one mass murderer and assassin there is on the planet. Go straight to hell, Mr. Blair.
  • Responding to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, which Mr. Blair urged Venezuela to abide by the rules of the international community. (February 2006) 12

• You messed up with me, birdie. No? You don't know much about history. You don't know much about anything, you know? A great ignorance is what you've got. You are ignorant, Mr. Danger. You are an ignorant. You are a donkey, Mr. Danger … By that I mean, you know, to say it with all its letters, to Mr. George W. Bush. You are a donkey, Mr. Bush. I'm going to tell you something, Mr. Danger. You are a coward, you know? You are a coward. Why don't you go to Iraq and command your army? It's so easy to command an army from afar. If you ever come up with the crazy idea of invading Venezuela, I'll be waiting for you in this savanna, Mr. Danger. Come on here, Mr. Danger. Come on here. Come on here, Mr. Danger. Coward, assassin, genocidal... Genocidal, you are a genocidal. You are an alcoholic, a drunk.. A drunk, Mr. Danger. You are immoral, Mr. Danger... You are the worst ever, Mr. Danger … The worst of this planet, the very worst is called George W. Bush. God save the world from this menace. Because he is an assassin. A sick man, a psychologically ill man, I know it. Personally, he is a coward. But he has a lot of power. He has a lot of power. And look at what's happening in Iraq. Yesterday the world marched against the war... 70%, according to the surveys I've seen, of your own people, Mr. Danger, are against you, against the war. You are a liar, Mr. Danger. You are killing children, Mr. Danger, who aren't responsible for your illnesses, of your complexes. Your soldiers in Iraq are bombing cities. Just yesterday we were watching images of five children who were murdered by you soldiers. They're not the murderers. You are the murderer, coward!
  • Message to George W. Bush, in a nationally televised speech in March 2006.

• [I'm being] compared to the biggest genocide person alive, in the history of humanity, the president of the United States... killer, genocidal, immoral... who should be taken to prison by an international criminal court. I don't know to what you are referring when you compare me to President Bush. Have I invaded any country? Have Venezuelans invaded anything? Have we bombarded a city? Have we had a coup d'etat? Have we used the CIA to kill a president? Have we protected terrorists in Venezuela? That's Bush!
  • Hugo Chávez to reporters during a press conference with London mayor Ken Livingstone on May 12, 2006.

• We see here a model social state like the one we are beginning to create.
  • Hugo Chávez to reporters during a state visit to Minsk, Belarus, on July 25, 2006.

• I have found yet another friend here. And with such a friend we will together form a team, like a soccer team. This will be a fighting team.
  • Hugo Chávez, referring to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, to reporters during a state visit to Minsk, Belarus, on July 25, 2006.

• [I admire] your wisdom and strength. [...] We are with you and with Iran forever. As long as we remain united we will be able to defeat [U.S.] imperialism, but if we are divided they will push us aside.
  • Said to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, during a meeting to the country on July 29, 2006.

• Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire
  • Hugo Chávez on the Islamic Republic Medal ceremony at Tehran University in Iran. July 30th, 2006.

• 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.
  • In protest of Israel's military offensive in Lebanon.

• 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. [crosses himself] 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.
  • Speech at the U.N. in which he referred to George W. Bush as the Devil, (September 2006), as quoted in "Chavez's colourful quotations" at BBC News (12 November 2007)

2007

• Dr Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot. The insipid Dr Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the OAS for daring to play that role.
  • Chavez responding to criticism from OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza regarding the governments decision for not renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station. (January 9, 2007)

• Go to hell, gringos! Go home!...What does the empire want? Condoleezza said it. How are you? You’ve forgotten me, missy...Condoleezza said it clearly, it’s about creating a new geopolitical map in the Middle East...They took out Saddam Hussein and they hung him, for better or worse. It’s not up to me to judge any government, but that gentleman was the president of that country.
  • Weekly radio address (January 21, 2007)

• The two of them [Bush & Negroponte] are criminals. They should be tried and thrown in prison for the rest of their days. If he had any dignity, the president of the United States would quit. The U.S. president doesn't have the political or moral capacity to govern.
  • Responding to remarks by US President Bush, over concerns of Venezuela's democracy being under threat. (February 1, 2007)

• No se trata de estatizar toda la economía (...) No, nuestro socialismo acepta la propiedad privada. Solo que esa propiedad privada debe estar en el marco de una constitución y leyes y de un interés social.
  • It's not about nationalize the entire economy, (...) No, our socialism accepts private property. It's only that this private property must be within the framework of a constitution and laws and of a social interest.
  • As quoted in Socialismo aceptará propiedad privada (23 July, 2007), La Nación

• Critico, aunque respeto, a mis amigos que sostienen la idea marxista leninista de que no debe haber propiedad privada, porque no la comparto.
  • I criticize, although I respect, my friends that hold the Marxist-Leninist idea that there should not be private property, because I do not share it.
  • In his talk show Aló Presidente, as quoted in Chavez defiende propiedad privada frente a marxistas leninistas (August 26, 2007), El Universal.

• La propiedad privada es aquella que pertenece a personas naturales o jurídicas y que se reconoce sobre bienes de uso y consumo y medios de producción legítimamente adquiridos.
  • Private property is that which belong to natural or legal persons and that it is recognize under legitimately acquired fixed assets and consumer goods and means of production.
  • Reading the Article 113 on the Constitution Amendment in his talk show Aló Presidente. As quoted in Chavez defiende propiedad privada frente a marxistas leninistas (26 August, 2007), El Universal.

• Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.
  • Referring to Spanish politician José María Aznar as a fascist, November 2007.

• 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.
  • Opening remarks at the OPEC Summit, November 2007.

• A Third World War? With an atom bomb? He said it, with an atom bomb. There would be no more world. The world would end. Humanity would no longer exist. I think he has to be put in an asylum. He has to be put in an mental asylum.
  • Responding to President George W. Bush remarks on Iran, November 21, 2007

2008

• I nationalize strategic companies and get criticized, but when Bush does it, it's OK. … Bush is turning socialist. How are you, comrade Bush?
  • Statement of 21 September 2008, as quoted in "Credit Crisis Fools Latin America's Leaders: Alexandre Marinis" at Bloomberg.com (21 October 2008)

2009

• Every factory must be a school to educate, like Che Guevara said, to produce not only briquettes, steel, and aluminum, but also, above all, the new man and woman, the new society, the socialist society.
  • Speech to a May 2009 "Socialist Transformation Workshop" in Guayana, as quoted in Venezuela Nationalizes Gas Plant and Steel Companies, Pledges Worker Control: James Suggett at Venezuela Analysis (22 May 2009)

• It doesn't smell of sulphur any more. No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope, and you have to have hope in your heart.
  • Speech at the U.N, welcoming the Obama administration. (September 2009) BBC

2010

• I'm not loved by Hillary Clinton... and I don't love her either.
  • Chavez trying to make a song about Hillary Clinton on June 2010. 1

• Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game, 'You've got to find Chavez to kill him'.
  • Chávez referring to the videogame Mercenaries 2: World in Flames where the player has to kill a Venezuelan general. Quoted in Chavez Sets His Sights On Banks And Barbie

• You should resign. It's the least you can do: Resign, along with those other spies and delinquents working in the State Department.
  • Chavez told Hillary Clinton in a televised speech on December 9, 2010

2011

• Liberator of Libya, He will be remembered as a great fighter, a revolutionary and martyr. They assassinated him. It is another outrage.
  • Chavez on Muammar Gaddafi.

• Mr. Obama decided to attack us, Now you want to win votes by attacking Venezuela. Don’t be irresponsible. You are a clown, a clown. Leave us in peace … Go after your votes by fulfilling that which you promised your people.
  • On Barack Obama after he criticized Venezuela’s ties with Iran and Cuba .

• I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet

2012

• I extend from here my recognition of all who voted against us, recognition of their democratic weight.
  • On his election victory. (08 December 2012)

• El socialismo bolivariano nosotros tenemos que construirlo en el marco de la Constitución Bolivariana. [...] Nosotros no tenemos prevista la eliminación de la propiedad privada, ni la grande ni la pequeña. [...] El socialismo tenemos que construirlo, los sectores de clase media, profesionales, técnicos, nos hacen falta para construir un socialismo productivo. Nosotros necesitamos a la clase media, a los profesionales, a los técnicos, a los empresarios, a los agricultores, a la juventud, que se incorpore a un debate amplio. El socialismo del siglo XXI es democracia. Nosotros no estamos hablando de la dictadura del proletariado. No.
  • We have to build the Bolivarian socialism within the framework of the Bolivarian Constitution. [...] We do not envisage the abolition of private property, neither the big nor the little one. [...] Socialism has to be built by us, the sectors of the middle class, professionals, technicians, they are needed to build a productive socialism. We need the middle class, the professionals, the technicians, the entrepreneurs, the farmers, the youth, to join into a broad debate. Socialism of the 21st century is democracy, we are not talking about the dictatorship of the proletariat. No.
  • As quoted in Chávez propone constituir un ministerio para el seguimiento de obras y políticas (6 October 2012), Correo del Orinoco.

2013

• We have arrived again to Venezuela, Thank God. Thanks to my beloved country.
  • After coming back to Caracas. Chávez was in Cuba receiving treatment for cancer. 18 February, 2013.
    • He passed away on 2013/03/06 by cancer.

• I don't want to die. Please don't let me die.
  • Last words (mouthed).

Unknown year

• Convinced as I am and as I am from my government that the world needs a new moral architecture over all, I believe that this should be the first topic to debate in our world of today - ethics, and moral...[Capitalism is] an infernal machine that produces every minute an impressive amount of poor, 26 million poor in 10 years are 2.6 million per year of new poor, this is the road, well, the road to hell.
  • Hugo Chávez

• Democracy is not just turning up to vote every five or four years, it’s much more than that, it’s a way of life, it’s giving power to the people.

Hugo Chavez's economic miracle, by David Sirota, Salon (6 March 2013)

Full text online

• Chavez became the bugaboo of American politics because his full-throated advocacy of socialism and redistributionism... delivered some indisputably positive results. Indeed, as shown by some of the most significant indicators, Chavez racked up an economic record that a legacy-obsessed American president could only dream of achieving.

• Chavez's first decade... saw Venezuelan GDP more than double... both infant mortality and unemployment almost halved... under Chavez's brand of socialism, poverty in Venezuela plummeted... its "extreme poverty" rate fell from 23.4 percent in 1999 to 8.5 percent... left the country with the third lowest poverty rate in Latin America... college enrollment... more than doubled, millions of people have access to health care for the first time... the number of people eligible for public pensions has quadrupled.

• When... a country goes socialist and its economy does what Venezuela's did... especially when said country has valuable oil resources... [Venezuela] came to be seen as a serious threat to the global system of corporate capitalism... a high crime prompting a special punishment.

• Are there any lessons to be learned from Venezuela's policies that so rapidly reduced poverty?...Are there any constructive lessons to be learned from Chavez's grand experiment with more aggressive redistribution? Such questions need to be asked. The problem is that...at the moment Chavez's name is invoked, the conversation is inevitably terminated, ending any possibility of discourse. That is by design - it is what the longtime caricaturing and marginalizing of Chavez was always supposed to do. But maybe now [that Hugo Chavez has passed away]...a more constructive, honest and critical economic conversation can finally begin.