Venezuela stymied in bid for U.N. Security Counci

[UndergroundConnexion]

What do you think on this


ARTICLE:

Venezuela stymied in bid for U.N. Security Council
POSTED: 1:40 p.m. EDT, October 16, 2006
Adjust font size:
Decrease fontDecrease font
Enlarge fontEnlarge font

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Guatemala topped Venezuela in the first four rounds of voting Monday for a U.N. Security Council seat, but it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority to win a two-year term on the powerful United Nations body.

That result opened the door for others to join the race, in what could be a blow to both countries' chances for a seat. Now diplomats will search for a compromise candidate to break the deadlock.

The results were an embarrassment to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who had waged a highly public campaign on the claim that his nation would use its seat on the council to speak out against the United States. The U.S. and its allies argued that Venezuela's stance could stymie the council and undermine its credibility.

Guatemala, whose candidacy had been backed by the United States, received 109 votes in the first round, then 114, 116 and finally 110. Venezuela's chances appeared to fade as the voting proceeded and then jumped at the end -- it received 76 votes, 74, 70 and then 75.

Diplomats said Chavez may have hurt his nation's chances with a bombastic speech at the General Assembly debate in September, when he railed against the United States and called President Bush "the devil" -- a speech criticized even by U.S. politicians who had reached out to Chavez.

Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Francisco Arias Cardenas complained the United States has pressured countries worldwide to prevent Venezuela from winning the rotating seat.

"We are going to continue and we are going to call on countries of dignity, strength, independence and autonomy, which is what the United Nations needs right now," Arias Cardenas told state television from New York.

Guatemala has the support of Colombia, apparently most of Central America, Europe and other countries. Some diplomats had expressed concern that Washington's support might actually hurt its bid by turning the contest into a U.S. vs. Chavez battle.

Venezuela has served four times on the Security Council. Guatemala, emerging from years of brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship, has never had a seat but is a leading contributor of troops to U.N. peacekeeping missions.

In recent months, Chavez has collected pledges of support as he visited about a dozen countries from eastern Europe to Africa. Venezuela's opposition leaders have accused Chavez of squandering millions of dollars on his Security Council campaign while neglecting domestic problems such as rampant crime and acute poverty.

The 10 non-permanent seats on the council are filled by the regional groups for two-year stretches. The other five are occupied by the veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The 192-nation General Assembly elected South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium to the four other open seats in the council. They will start their terms on the council on January 1, replacing Tanzania, Japan, Denmark and Greece.

All of those nations won seats easily. Attention throughout the run-up to the vote had focused on the race between Guatemala and Venezuela.

[Guerrilla22]

I didn't like their chances to start with. The world as a whole is too reactionary for Venezuela to get voted in.

[izquierda80]

While it was difficult to begin with, Venezuela could have improved its chances to get in by, at least temporarily, laying off the harsher aspects of the rhetoric and emphasizing the positive ones.

Not because a lot of what that rhetoric represented isn't true, because most of us know that it is, but simply because that freely contributed to the already existing scaremongering from the U.S.

[Tekun]

Fuck Guatemala (even though I was born there :lol: )
If they get on the Security Council they're just gonna be another American puppet that acquiesces to the US's every demand
If Venezuela gets the nod, they're gonna oppose every US directed action or policy, thus complicating things for the imperialists
And that's why the US is pressuring other countries to either vote for Guatemala, or oppose anything that might help Venezuela's chances

[IronColumn]

I don't think this is due to any tactical mistake that Chavez made. The U.S. can simply buy a whole lot of votes for anything it wants. Or threaten to get votes.

This is only the first engagement in the hopefully long running U.S.-Chavez feud.

[Guerrilla22]

The US accused Venezuela of trying to use oil to buy votes. :lol:

[AlwaysAnarchy]

Maybe if Chavez hadn't gone overboard with the whole devil thing he might have won more votes from the international community.

Even Tariq Ali, a Trotskyist and Chavez supporter said as much:


AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of his speech at the United Nations?

TARIQ ALI: Well, that was a historic speech. I mean, the images weren’t fully shown. But in other parts of the world, they were shown, and you saw the bulk of the delegates applauding him. It was like a breath of fresh air. And he took on the Bush administration's foreign policy, and lots of people came up to him afterwards from the Arab world, from other parts of the world, and said, “You say something which we can no longer say. We are just too frightened.” And that is what gives it its support.

I mean, I think he went over the top a bit. I’m personally opposed to attacking Bush personally, in personal terms. Whether he’s an alcoholic or what is not significant. But I think the administration has been attacking Chavez so hard, trying to get rid of him, telling lies about him, as we saw in that clip from the White House press secretary, that he’s a very spontaneous guy and lost his cool a bit. But overall, the speech had a tremendous impact, and it made him a cult figure globally. And then, of course, it made Noam Chomsky a bestseller in this country, Amy, which is the other side of it.

[Louis Pio]

Well the UN is worthless, all it can be used for is a bit of provocative propaganda as Chavez did with his speech. Was quite amazed at how many people thought it was cool here in Denmark, put Venezuela on the map for some people.

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 23, 2006 02:11 pm
Well the UN is worthless, all it can be used for is a bit of provocative propaganda as Chavez did with his speech. Was quite amazed at how many people thought it was cool here in Denmark, put Venezuela on the map for some people.
:lol: Hegemony or survival immidetly hit the New York Times best seller list, the book has been out for like 5 years!

[Lenin's Law]

This only proves what a farce the UN really is. And how much it is effecitively controlled by powerful states that are willing to use "any means necessary" to get the results they want. It is obvious that the vast majority of the world's people are far closer politically to Chavez than to Bush and Guatemala has an atrocious record of human rights that might make Saddam blush.

The "victory" of the US through its puppet Guatemala will be a phyrric one as it is being shown ever more clearly that the UN as it stands right now is nothing more than a forum for powerful states to wind up their favorite toys and make them do their bidding. It is a fig leaf for imperialism.

[Sadena Meti]

Originally posted by Lenin's [email protected] 27, 2006 02:51 pm
It is a fig leaf for imperialism.
Thanks a lot, now I have the most horrific image of George W Bush in my head and I can't get rid of it.

[praxis1966]

Personally, I thought the devil speech was priceless. I definately laughed and cheered out loud. Intellectually, however, I was rather dismayed. People are going to just use this to paint all leftists with the same brush; that we're just a bunch of headcases like Kruschev, Castro, and Chavez. It's difficult imagery to live down.