Heads Of State

"Venezuela is subjected to a permanent media aggression... to justify an international intervention. We know that it is an intended international intervention, a military intervention to control our country. At global level, a file has been forged through the media against our country to pretend a humanitarian crisis that uses the United Nations concepts to justify a coalition of countries led by the Government of the United States, and their satellite governments in Latin America, to get its hands on our country. A migration crisis, that goes without saying, has been forged by several means, aimed at diverting the attention from the real migration crises in the world..."

"We are complex beings they say Homo Sapiens have been around for 300 thousand years. The scholars say it. Scientists with recent discoveries, I believe, in Argentina, by studying Milei's brain, discovered that he didn't belong to Homo Sapiens which is a weird thing. And as such, (he is a) “Homo Fascis”, “Homo Nazis”. Milei is a kind of “Homo Nazi”."

"Yesterday, the President of the United States announced, precisely on this same platform, new and alleged economic and financial sanctions against our country in the sanctuary of the law and international legality. Did the United Nations System know that the unilateral sanctions, using the dominion, the status of the currency and the financial persecution are considered illegal from the standpoint of international law?"

"Should Latin America and the Caribbean accept these methods that so hurt our region in the entire 20th century? How many military interventions? How many coup d’états? How many dictatorships were imposed during the long and dark 20th century in Latin America and the Caribbean, and who did it favor? Did it favor the Peoples? What interests did they represent? The interests of the transnational companies, the unpopular interests; long dictatorships, like Augusto Pinochet’s in Chile, were faced by our peoples due to the stubbornness of the American elites..."

"On election day, I spoke to one of the 150 foreign election observers. “It was entirely fair,” he said. “There was no fraud; none of the lurid media claims stood up. Zero. Amazing really.”"

"You are wrong, Milei [...] you who were put in Argentina to destroy the rule of law, to destroy the State, to destroy all social and labour rights, to destroy the national economy and to colonise Argentina and deliver it to the knees of North American imperialism."

"We bring our homeland’s truth to this honorable UN General Assembly; after the failure published and announced by the New York Times of these illegal, unconstitutional and criminal attempts of regime change, after the democratic presidential election, last May 20th, when I, Nicolas Maduro Moros, obtained 68% of the popular votes through free elections – the 24th election in 19 years, of which 22 have been won by the revolutionary forces of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at different levels of approval, against the opposition forces of our country; after the failure of the attempted military coups, candidacies and electoral tactics supported by Washington..."

"It’s a political war of the American empire, of the interests of the extreme right that today governs, of the Ku Klux Klan that rules over the White House, to take over Venezuela."

"I welcome all those... who wish to help respecting the country’s sovereignty, without interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs so that they can support us, join us in a process of sovereign dialogue for Venezuela’s peace, democracy, justice, future and prosperity; a noble nation which deserves peace, a future and the best."

"Come and get me, I'll be waiting for you here in Miraflores [...] Come and get me, coward!"

"Don't let yourself be masturbated, don't let your ego be masturbated. More disturbed (masturbar: masturbate, más: more + turbar: disturb), that is, disturbed greatly."

"The Maduro diet gets you hard without Viagra."

"I am in fact ready, ministers, comrades, I am ready to to hand over to the communal power the plants that any bigwig in this country has shut down. Plant halted, plant handed to the people, but let's do it, fuck it, the time has come to do it, I am ready to do it and radicalize the revolution, the time has come without hesitation, to hesitate is to lose, comrades."

"When I met Commander Chávez, I didn't hesitate for a millimeter of a second to be by his side."

"The butterflies visit me, it might be that they recognize me as a faggot (mariposón: literal translation: 'big butterfly', homophobic insult for feminine men)."

"Sometimes I realize it's me when I look in the mirror."

"I'm using my intelligence to play dumb and thus make world news."

"The Russia Today television channel is more powerful than a thousand nuclear missiles."

"Stalin looked just like me; the mustache is exactly the same. Comrade Stalin, who defeated Hitler."

"It's delinquency (delinquency: morosidad), not morasity (mora: blackberry + -idad: -ity, suffix used to form an adjective); that has to do with blackberries; the production of blackberry jam."

"I don't obey imperial orders. I'm against the Ku Klux Klan that governs the White House, and I'm proud to feel that way."

"It's too much of a coincidence that someone gets killed and is dead the next day."

"He (Simón Bolívar) was orphaned of a father at the age of 3, orphaned of a mother at 9, and at just 17 or 18 he was orphaned of a wife. If you could call it that. Orphan of a wife. It's called widowed, but in truth he was orphaned, (he) became alone, alone."

"At the 5th of march he (Chávez) reached the 4th life, the eternal life, from there (Heaven) he watches us, from there he brings us his ardor, from there he brings us his songs, like Jorge said. Something else also happened this morning, I'll tell you about it. The time has come to tell you about something else. I entered a little chapel around 8 in the morning, 8:30. Small chapel. (Made out) of wood. (I was) alone and I was praying and remembering him (Chávez). There was a large photo of him, a statuette of José Gregorio Hernández and a Christ. Suddenly a little bird flew in and flew three times (in circles) up here. He landed on a wooden beam over here, and began to sing. A song there, (it was) pretty. I looked at him and I sang to him too. I said, “if you sing at me, I'll sing at you.” And so I sang. The little bird looked at me funny, sang a little, flew a lap around me, and left. And I felt his (Chávez) spirit. I felt him as though he was giving us a blessing, telling us “Today the battle begins. Go forth to victory, you have our blessings.”Thats what I felt in my soul and thats how I felt it, the same way you felt it, Jorge."

"You know who "Gremlins" are? Some little monsters who hate christmas."

"The president of the United States Donald Trump in the months of August and September of last year was analyzing a military intervention against Venezuela."

"Two years ago, on April 30, 2019, the Venezuelan people took to the streets to reclaim their democracy from the illegitimate rule of Nicolás Maduro. Yet for now, Maduro still clings to power. In so doing, he has driven what was once the wealthiest country in Latin America — with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, its second-largest gold deposits, and one of the highest literacy rates in the region — into abject, grinding poverty."

"People elected... Nicolás Maduro...There’s a conspiracy to undermine the will of the people... that has happened, the will of the majority of the people. They delegitimized the elections when the Carter Institute said... “these are the best elections in the world.” ...We seem to redefine or define dictator in ways that are useful [to dishonest politicians]. So you drive it into people’s consciousness... This pathology, if you drive that into people’s consciousness, that a person is a dictator, then in some sense, they accept that in ways, subconsciously, unconsciously, because it’s been drummed into their memory. No matter all the information that refutes that... free elections... transparent elections, whatever...The question is always going to be what they hear..."

"I hope history will absolve my first 24 months in office."

"I am a son of Chávez, but I am not Chávez."

"All across the so-called liberal media, the reporting and analysis on Venezuela the past weeks has been atrocious. And actually, it has been this way for a long time. We should remember that The New York Times actually openly supported the 2002 coup against Hugo Chávez. But in the wake of the recent Venezuelan elections, there has been a total uniformity to the characterization of Venezuela’s suffering and chaos as the sole fault of Nicolás Maduro. The elections are being denounced by anchors as though it’s just accepted fact that Maduro is only president because of corruption. Almost never mentioned prominently is the fact that Venezuela has been systematically targeted by the United States and its allies and its puppets in Latin America or the impact the economic sanctions have had on the country or the fact that there was an attempt to kill Nicolás Maduro with a drone packed with explosives. The story is just “Maduro is a corrupt Socialist dictator. He needs to be taken out so that Venezuela can be free.” The central role that the U.S. has played under Bush, under Obama, and now, under Trump in destabilizing Venezuela"

"If I were homosexual I would proclaim it proudly to the world."

"The size and variety of corruption schemes employed by the regime is dizzying. Over the past two decades, the late Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro and their cronies plundered at least $300 billion from state assets (according to several of Chávez’s own former ministers). At the same time, they racked up a massive amount of debt; experts place the amount owed to creditors at more than $150 billion. The situation is so bad that the International Monetary Fund recently made clear that the Maduro regime is cut off from receiving its $5 billion in special drawing rights, because the IMF knows that Maduro will simply steal the money."

"Im going to remove this helmet; It's fucking up what little brain I have left."

"Today, international relations are dominated by a many-faceted world-wide confrontation"

"One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory."

"“As power and the strength of a lion was bestowed upon Ibrahim by the Almighty, he made over to him the well-populated country of Hindustan and gave him 40,000 valiant horsemen to take the country, in which there were more than 1000 rais… Its length extends from Lahore to the Euphrates, and its breadth from Kashmir to the borders of Sistan… The army of the king destroyed at one time a thousand temples of idols, which had each been built for more than a thousand years. How can I describe the victories of the king…”"

"It is wrong to say that Sher Shah did not destroy a temple or break an image. His conquest and occupation of Jodhpur was followed by the conversion of the Hindu temple in the fort into a mosque. The Thrlkh-i-DnUdl ascribes his attack on Maldev, Raja of Jodhpur, partly to his religious bigotry and a desire to convert the temples of the Hindus into mosques. His treachery towards Puran Mall was not, as Qanungo tries to assert, the result of a fanatic religious leader forcing his opinions upon an unwilling king. It had been planned by Sher Shah beforehand, discussed by him with his officers and was deliberately done to earn religious merit by exterminating this arch-infidel. Sher Shah said prayers of thanks after this ‘religious’ deed. No amount of mere rhetoric can enable us to get over the accounts of the expedition, especially when we find Sher Shah, who got ill on the eve of the battle, inviting his officers and confiding to them that ever since his accession he had been anxious, in the cause of his religion, to defeat Puran Mall. All accounts give this expedition a religious significance which no argument can destroy. Sher Shah was only a product of his own age as far as his religious policy was concerned. Like Feroz Shah before him, he combined administrative zeal with religious intolerance. His place in history does not depend upon his initiating a policy of religious toleration or neutrality. He had no more to do with founding a united nation in India, which is yet in the making, than any other successful ruler before him."

"If Sher Shah had lived longer, it is possible that we would not remember the Mughal rule as anything more than one more Central Asian raid."

"Sher Shah gave to many of his kindred who came from Roh money and property far exceeding their expectations." ... "To every pious Afghan who came into his presence from Afghanistan, Sher Shah used to give money to an amount exceeding his expectations, and he would say, 'This is your share of the kingdom of Hind, which has fallen into my hands, this is assigned to you, come every year to receive it.'" And to his own tribe and family of Sur, who dwelt in the land of Roh, he sent an annual stipend of money, in proportion to the members of his family and retainers; and during the period of his dominion no Afghan, whether in Hind or Roh was in want, but all became men of substance. It was the custom of the Afghans during the time of sultans Bahlul and Sikandar, and as long as the dominions of the Afghans lasted, that if any Afghan received a sum of money or a dress of honour, "that sum of money or dress of honour was regularly apportioned to him, and he received it every year". Sher Shah Suri too said, "It is incumbent upon kings to give grants to imams; for the prosperity and populousment of the cities of Hind are dependent on the imams and holy men... whoever wishes that God Almighty should make him great, should cherish Ulama and pious persons, that he may obtain honour in this world and felicity in the next."

"…Upon this, Sher Shah turned again towards Kalinjar… The Raja of Kalinjar, Kirat Sing, did not come out to meet him. So he ordered the fort to be invested, and threw up mounds against it, and in a short time the mounds rose so high that they overtopped the fort. The men who were in the streets and houses were exposed, and the Afghans shot them with their arrows and muskets from off the mounds. The cause of this tedious mode of capturing the fort was this. Among the women of Raja Kirat Sing was a Patar slave-girl, that is a dancing-girl. The king had heard exceeding praise of her, and he considered how to get possession of her, for he feared lest if he stormed the fort, the Raja Kirat Sing would certainly make a jauhar, and would burn the girl... “On Friday, the 9th of RabI’u-l awwal, 952 A.H., when one watch and two hours of the day was over, Sher Shah called for his breakfast, and ate with his ‘ulama and priests, without whom he never breakfasted. In the midst of breakfast, Shaikh NizAm said, ‘There is nothing equal to a religious war against the infidels. If you be slain you become a martyr, if you live you become a ghazi.’ When Sher Shah had finished eating his breakfast, he ordered Darya Khan to bring loaded shells, and went up to the top of a mound, and with his own hand shot off many arrows, and said, ‘Darya Khan comes not; he delays very long.’ But when they were at last brought, Sher Shah came down from the mound, and stood where they were placed. While the men were employed in discharging them, by the will of Allah Almighty, one shell full of gunpowder struck on the gate of the fort and broke, and came and fell where a great number of other shells were placed. Those which were loaded all began to explode. Shaikh Halil, Shaikh Nizam, and other learned men, and most of the others escaped and were not burnt, but they brought out Sher Shah partially burnt. A young princess who was standing by the rockets was burnt to death. When Sher Shah was carried into his tent, all his nobles assembled in darbAr; and he sent for ‘Isa Khan Hajib and Masnad Khan Kalkapur, the son-in-law of Isa Khan, and the paternal uncle of the author, to come into his tent, and ordered them to take the fort while he was yet alive. When ‘Isa Khan came out and told the chiefs that it was Sher Shah’s order that they should attack on every side and capture the fort, men came and swarmed out instantly on every side like ants and locusts; and by the time of afternoon prayers captured the fort, putting every one to the sword, and sending all the infidels to hell. About the hour of evening prayers, the intelligence of the victory reached Sher Shah, and marks of joy and pleasure appeared on his countenance. Raja Kirat Sing, with seventy men, remained in a house. Kutb Khan the whole night long watched the house in person lest the Raja should escape. Sher Shah said to his sons that none of his nobles need watch the house, so that the Raja escaped out of the house, and the labour and trouble of this long watching was lost. The next day at sunrise, however, they took the Raja alive…”"

"“It is related in the Akbar ShahI, that when Sher Shah rendered up his life to the angel of death in Kalinjar, Jalal Khan, his youngest son, was in the town of Rewan, in the province of Bhata, and his eldest son ‘Adil Khan, the heir-apparent, in the fort of Runthur (Ranthambhor). The nobles perceived that ‘Adil KhAn would be unable to arrive with speed, and as the State required a head, they despatched a person to summon Jalal Khan who was nearer. He reached Kalinjar in five days, and by the assistance of ‘Isa Hajjab and other grandees, was raised to the throne near the fort of Kalinjar, on the 15th of the month RabI’u-1 awwal, 952 A.H. (25th May, 1545 CE). He assumed the title of Islam Shah… “After his accession, he ordered the Raja of Kalinjar, who had been captured with seventy of his adherents, to be put to death, and directed that not one of them should be spared…”"

"Sher Shah Sur’s name is associated in our textbooks with the Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar to Dacca, with caravanserais, and several other schemes of public welfare. It is true that he was not a habitual persecutor of Hindus before he became the emperor at Delhi. But he did not betray Islam when he became the supreme ruler. The test came at Raisen in 1543 AD. Shaykh Nurul Haq records in Zubdat-ul-Tawarikh as follows: “In the year 950 H., Puranmal held occupation of the fort of Raisen… He had 1000 women in his harem… and amongst them several Musulmanis whom he made to dance before him. Sher Khan with Musulman indignation resolved to conquer the fort. After he had been some time engaged in investing it, an accommodation was proposed and it was finally agreed that Puranmal with his family and children and 4000 Rajputs of note should be allowed to leave the fort unmolested. Several men learned in the law (of Islam) gave it as their opinion that they should all be slain, notwithstanding the solemn engagement which had been entered into. Consequently, the whole army, with the elephants, surrounded Puranmal’s encampment. The Rajputs fought with desperate bravery and after killing their women and children and burning them, they rushed to battle and were annihilated to a man.”"

"The Amír marched out towards Lamghan, which is a city celebrated for its great strength and abounding in wealth. He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them. He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property. On the completion of his conquest he returned and promulgated accounts of the victories obtained for Islam, and every one, great and small, concurred in rejoicing over this result and thanking Allah."

"Sher Shah, an Afghan chief, defeated him in two bloody battles, and restored for a time the Afghan power in India. Sher Shah, though capable of slaughter in the best Islamic style, rebuilt Delhi in fine architectural taste, and established governmental reforms that prepared for the enlightened rule of Akbar."

"When this intelligence reached the Amír, he considered it false, as being opposed to the usual habits of Jaipál; but after repeated accounts to the same effect were brought, when the curtain which obscured the truth was withdrawn, and he knew that God has set his seal upon Jaipál's heart, so that he might obtain the reward of his evil deeds, and placed a veil between it and rectitude, so that he might obtain punishment for his wickedness and infedelity. The Sultan therefore sharpened the sword of intention in order to make an incursion upon his kingdom, and cleanse it from impurity and from his rejection of Islam. So he departed with his valiant servants and allies, relying upon the one God, and trusting in the fulfilment of the promise of the victory; and he went on till he arrived with his troops in the country of Hind, and he killed everyone who, on the part of Jaipál, came out to oppose him."

"“…The nobles and chiefs said, ‘It seems expedient that the victorious standards should move towards the Dekhin’…Sher Shah replied: ‘What you have said is most right and proper, but it has come into my mind that since the time of Sultan Ibrahim, the infidel zamindars have rendered the country of Islam full of unbelievers, and having thrown down masjids and buildings of the believers, placed idol-shrines in them, and they are in possession of the country of Delhi and Malwa. Until I have cleansed the country from the existing contamination of the unbelievers, I will not go into any other country’…”"

"“His attack on Maldev, Raja of Jodhpur, (was due) partly to his religious bigotry and a desire to convert the temples of the Hindus into mosques.”"

"When Jaipál had marched to a great distance and thought that the demand upon him had relaxed, his evil disposition his evil disposition prompted him to break his engagements, and his folly made him beget enemity, insomuch as he imprisoned those who accompanied him on the part of the Amír, in reprisal for those of his relations the Amír had taken as hostages."

"When the Amír heard these words, and knew what Jaipál would do in his despair, he thought the religion and the views of the faithful would best be consulted by peace, and the acquisition of tribute. So the Amír Mahmúd agreed with Subuktigín as to the propriety of withdrawing his hand of vengeance, on the condition of receiving at that time 1,000,000 dirhams of royal stamp, and some cities and forts in the middle of his country. Jaipál was to deliver these forts to the officers nominated by the Amír, and was to send hostages from among his relatives and friends to remain with the Amír until these conditions of cession were fulfilled. The Amír sent two deputies with Jaipal to see that he did not swerve from his engagements, and they were accompanied by confidential officers who were to receive charge of the ceded places."