Chavez rails against “two Obamas”

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez spoke at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday for the first time since his infamous 2006 “smells like sulfur” discourse. His speech this afternoon was not as harsh as it was against then-U.S. president George W. Bush yet he did have several critical comments to say.

Chavez claimed that the podium had the “smell of hope” in reference to Barack Obama who spoke at the same podium on Wednesday. Nevertheless, Chavez blasted the U.S. president for being two-faced towards the Americas and breaking his electoral promises. "Doesn't it seem like there are two Obamas?" asked Chavez who claimed that the White House “supported” the ouster of Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya last June. Chavez also called Obama hypocritical in that he called for global peace at his U.N. speech while also backing for U.S. military expansion in Colombia and continuing the embargo against Cuba.

Much like the comment on the “smell of hope”, Chavez hour-long speech also had a few lighter moments:

Chavez also urged Obama to "come over to the socialist side. Come join the Axis of Evil over here." He was only half joking.

A socialist and populist, Venezuela's president did not mention Bush by name, but got in another dig when he said "please, don't anybody throw a shoe at me!" and joked that Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, an ally, had been preparing to do just that.

Image- Miami Herald (“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds up a copy of "Beyond Capital" by Istvan Meszaros while addressing the 64th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009.”)
Online Sources- The Telegraph, BBC News, AP, The Latin Americanist, CNN