SEPTEMBER
26, 2006 --
LPR
was in Manhattan, September 21 when a report on radio said that Venezuela's
President Hugo Chavez was
speaking at a church in Harlem.
Later, another report said that President Chavez was speaking at the Mt. Olivet
Church and LPR headed for the church in search of a presidential photo op.
Mt. Olivet Church is on Lenox Avenue (a/k/a Malcolm X Blvd.) at 120th Street.
If the interior seems more like a synagogue than a church, that is because
the building was constructed one hundred years ago as Temple Israel of Harlem.
The visit of President Chavez to Mt. Olivet, the day after he spoke to the
United Nations General Assembly and included some interesting references to
President
Bush in his remarks, drew a few anti-Chavez demonstrators, but outside the
church there were more media people than demonstrators or supporters.
LPR heard the end of the Chavez address at the church and has no idea what
he said -- he spoke in Spanish.
As for the speech at the General Assembly, LPR wonders if President Chavez
was auditioning for Air America.
His remarks might have been even more provocative.
Imagine the reaction had he demanded "Free Noriega Now," referring
to Manuel Noriega, the Panama strongman seized by U.S. forces during the first
Bush
administration. Gen. Noriega was taken to Florida for trial on drug-trafficking
and other charges, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. (He is scheduled to
be released in 2007.)
LPR would also note that President Chavez has not followed Iran President Mahmnoud
Ahmadinejad's lead and maneuvered President Bush into saying "nuclear:"
In any event, the most bizarre presidential statement, for LPR, last week was
the protest of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that he could not talk about
U.S. pressure to join the war on terror without permission of Simon and Schuster,
his publisher. Talk about the power of the press!
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Exterior
of Mt. Olivet Church
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No
crowds outside for Chavez (view of church from 120th Street)
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Interior
of Mt. Olivet Church (President Chavez is at the rear left
-- naturally -- of the photo)
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Purpose
of the Chavez visit -- lower oil prices for poor Americanos.
(The Chavez entourage also gave away "Citgo Discounted Heating Oil
Program" t-shirts, Venezuela flags, and other souvenirs marking
the occasion.)
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President
Chavez on a poster on a folding chair outside the church .
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President
Chavez at the microphone inside the church.
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The
Anti-Chavez Group
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