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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is once again being dismissed as “anti-American” by the mainstream media in this country for daring to say what many of us know is true: that our government’s policies throughout the world are more about control of resources than fighting terrorism.

Chavez is not “anti-American.” He is anti-George Bush. He is anti-U.S. government policies. So are millions of others (myself included), who have been marching and speaking out against those same policies since Bush first took office in 2000.

The latest charges of being “anti-American” come after Chavez addressed the United Nation’s 61st General Assembly on September 20. Commenting on Bush’s appearance at the UN the day before, Chavez said: “The devil came here yesterday. He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world.” The Socialist leader accused the U.S. government of “domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world.” He said that our government was already supporting coup attempts to overthrow him, which comes as news to no one who knows anything about the history of U.S. involvement in Latin America.

In his 23-minute speech, which received thunderous applause from the almost 200 delegates present, Chavez made it clear that he was talking about the U.S. government and not the American people. In fact, Chavez credited the American people with wanting peace in the world: “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.”

How is that anti-American?

Obviously, the use of “anti-American” in headlines and stories about Chavez is meant to inflame readers. It is not intended to be an accurate and non-biased description of Chavez’s speech. It is more and more the way the mainstream American media deals with dissent against the president’s policies. If there’s a Woodward and Bernstein in the press these days, they’re hiding for fear of being given a one-way ticket to Guantánamo–by their editors.

Chavez told the truth. He said things that the liberal Democrats in this country should be saying every day and in every way possible. Instead of demonizing Chavez, the American people should be grateful that finally a world leader has spoken out forcefully against a war that we hate and policies that put all of us at risk of more terrorist attacks.

Que viva Hugo Chavez! Keep on telling it like it is.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical queer southern Italian working-class performer, writer and activist.

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