In fiery letter to U.N., Venezuela’s Chavez denounces ‘new colonialist wars’

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was absent from the U.N. General Assembly but made his presence felt Tuesday through a fiery letter warning of “a new cycle of colonial wars” that began with the conflict in Libya.

Chavez – who in his 2006 U.N. presentation famously described U.S. president George W. Bush as “the devil” – is one of the few prominent supporters of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. The Venezuelan leader is recovering after having a cancerous tumor removed in June and was unable to attend the U.N. event.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, “a new and unprecedented imperialist war started, a permanent war, in perpetuity,” went the letter, read by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

“Right now, there is a very serious threat to global peace: a new cycle of colonial wars, which started in Libya, with the sinister goal of refreshing the capitalist global system,” Chavez said.

“Why is the United States the only country that scatters the planet with military bases?... Why has it unleashed so many wars, violating the sovereignty of other nations which have the same rights of their own fates ... why does the U.N. not do anything to stop Washington?”

The U.S. goal “is to reconfigure the world so it is based on the Yankee military hegemony,” Maduro said, reading the Chavez letter.

The goal of NATO military intervention in Libya was “re-colonize Libya in order to take over its wealth,” the letter read.

Chavez earlier sent a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon supporting the Palestinian bid to become a full member.

Chavez, 57, had a tumor removed on June 20 in Havana, but officials have provided little information about the type of cancer afflicting the leftist president.