Chávez began his speech by evoking Noam Chomsky, describing him as “one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals," and urging people to read Chomsky’s book, Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.

It is surprising that a political street fighter with the savvy and intellect of Chávez found the need to promote the work of Chomsky, whose weak, grossly deceptive and empty “structuralist” hand-wringings have been designed to deny systemic realities and real “root causes," protect corruption and criminality, and purposely lead gullible Left/liberal icon-worshippers into terminal intellectual dead ends.