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By the way, I'm pretty sure that CounterPunch didn't do their own translation. The version on CounterPunch is virtually identical to the English-language version on the Venezuelan Embassy's website (and the Common Dreams version), with the difference that on the Embassy's version it's clear that it comes from a transcript service and after it says "Mullah" it says "(ph)", indicating a phonetic transcription. It seems clear that the various English versions all stem from the same source -- a transcription of the UN English translator (who did a great job, by the way - and what a nice voice!.) You can see this from the fact that when Chavez is talking about how you can read Chomsky's book in different languages, he says
está publicado en inglés, en alemán, en ruso, en árabe
but the UN translator says
The book is in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German.
This seems to be reflected in all the English versions. This sort of inversion is common in simultaneous translation but would be unusual for someone working from a printed text.
-- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org