I became a soldier, not because I had a military vocation initially, but because it was the only way that that young, poor-class child from the provinces could go to the center of the country: through baseball, which was my dream.

The revolution will survive. It does not rely solely on oil for its survival. There is a national will, there is a national idea, a national project.

We have to re-invent socialism. It can't be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.

I do wish that the IMF and the World Bank would disappear soon.

What is the U.S. government looking for? And the elite governing this country? They're looking for oil.

I'm a Christian. I want the world of justice and equality. This is the only way to achieve peace.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves in the world. And the biggest gas reserves in this hemisphere, the eighth in the world. Venezuela was a U.S. oil colony. All of our oil was going up to the north, and the gas was being used by the U.S. and not by us. Now we are diversifying. Our oil is helping the poor.