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UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and declaring to the annual meeting of the General Assembly that its system is "worthless."
"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body Tuesday from the same lectern. "And it smells of sulfur still today."
Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world," and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement.
"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' "
Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: "The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated."
John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, later told CNN that "I think that [Chavez's] rhetoric today shows exactly what kind of man he is."
Bolton said: "We're not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.
"The real issue here is he knows he can exercise freedom of speech on that podium and, as I say, he could exercise it in Central Park, too. He's not giving the same freedom to the people of Venezuela."
Chavez's tirades against Bush have become common. In May, he accused Bush of committing genocide and said the U.S. president should be imprisoned by an international criminal court.
Oil supplies loom large in any discussion of U.S.-Venezuela relations. Venezuela was the world's ninth-largest oil producer in 2004 and the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, accounting for 11.2 percent of U.S. imports in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Double-standard accusation
Chavez also directed his criticism Wednesday to the United Nations, calling the General Assembly "merely a deliberative organ" that meets once a year.
"We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world," he said.
Chavez called the veto power shared by the five permanent members of the Security Council "anti-democratic," and cited the U.S. veto of a resolution that would have demanded the Israelis halt their bombing of Lebanon this summer.
That move "allowed the Israelis with impunity to destroy Lebanon in front of us all as we stood there watching," Chavez said. He recommended that the world body's headquarters be moved to another country and offered his own as a possible new home.
Chavez also alleged that the United States is planning, financing and setting in motion a coup to overthrow him. The U.S. has denied such accusations in the past.
He accused the U.S. government of having a double standard, protecting terrorists when it suits its leaders.
He noted that he recently returned from a summit of more than 50 heads of state from nonaligned nations in Havana, Cuba, and urged his audience to support their efforts for "a world of peace."
Lest his remarks had not been clear, he closed to applause by saying, "It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all."
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