On the World Stage

By Robert Brubach, Z-Net

Hugo Chavez has moved onto the world stage as an advocate of profound change within his own country and abroad. At the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this week he proclaimed: "The United Nations has exhausted its model...The twenty first century demands deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded." He described the specter of a "frightening neo- liberal globalization" that has sapped the will of the United Nations. Alluding to the United States, he called for an end to the "shameless dictatorship" it exercises over the international organization and demanded that UN headquarters be moved from New York to an "international city" in a country in the South.