Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was among the world leaders speaking Thursday at the UN General Assembly. Chavez invoked his 2006 speech in which he called former President George W. Bush a “devil” and said he now senses hope with President Obama in office. But Chavez criticized what he called the continued dominance of the Pentagon.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “The Pentagon, that is the imperialists’ cave. The Pentagon does not want Obama. They don’t want him. They don’t want change. They want world dominance with their military bases, their threats, their bombs, their invading soldiers.”

Chavez went on to criticize Obama’s recent UN address, saying plans for US military bases in Colombia contradict Obama’s stated commitment to peace.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “He thinks of finding peace, his second pillar, with seven military bases in Colombia? Those seven bases are a threat to a possible peace in Colombia, if not peace in South America. We, the governments of South America, have reason to have expressed, in each our own way and intensity, our great worry over the installation of these seven American military bases on Colombian territory.”