UN To Vote on Venezuela VS Guatamala Today
The UN will vote today on whether Venezuela or Guatamala will be the new non-permanent member of the Security Council. Venezuela's chances are said to be better than US backed Guatamala. I tend to agree -- remember the clip on C-Span showing the clapping and cheering when Hugo called Bush the devil?
From MSNBC, an article from FT:
Venezuela mounted a final lobbying offensive at the weekend to win a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council on Monday, in the face of fierce opposition from the US.But, it's not the inability of the Security Council to make a decision, or even the spectre of voting endlessly until the "correct" party wins. Nope, it's the US's fault, of course:
In the most hotly-contested Council race for a non-permanent seat since the start of the cold war, all 192 members of the UN's General Assembly are due to vote on Monday to fill the slot reserved for Latin America, which is soon to be vacated by Argentina...
Venezuela has a better chance than Guatemala of winning the necessary two-thirds of the secret ballot – 128 votes.
Venezuela is counting on support from several South American nations and many in the Caribbean, as well as most Arab countries, several in Africa, Russia and China.
Guatemala, is backed by Central American nations, most European countries, a few from Africa and Asia, and the US. Only a few weeks ago, a Venezuelan victory seemed assured ...
Mr Chaderton Matos said Venezuela had been working not only to win in the first round of voting but also to continue in the battle "until the end" if needed.
That raises the spectre of a diplomatic war of attrition not seen at the UN since 1979, when Cuba and Colombia endured 154 rounds of voting over three months before Mexico was chosen as a consensus candidate.
US officials say that Venezuela's "confrontational" style on the Council would undermine its efforts, for example, to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme. Mr Chávez sees Tehran as a close ally
"If we want to talk about disruption of the Council we really do have to talk about the disruptive effect of the veto," said Ms Bennis (director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington).However, AM Mora y Leon wrote yesterday that Chavez has an uphill battle:
"The US believes that it can use that veto with impunity. That's the real disruption of the Council, not worries about bellicose speeches from Chávez.
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is losing his UN Security Council bid badly. Now Chile has come out and said it won’t vote for him, but will abstain through the first round. Socialist Chile was one Chavez insisted he had in the bag. Well, he no longer does. The UN goes to the vote tomorrow and will have the results around 12:00 p.m. Eastern, so this contest for the fate of the free world’s democracies versus the world’s worst tyrannies won’t be long.I hope AM Mora y Leon is right -- and the good news is, he usually is.
What is seems to boil down to is the question "How crazy are they?"
It's a question that you can apply to any of a number of world leaders these days -- and the answer is not reassuring.
Crossposted at RedHotCuppaPolitics
Above photo from CNN.
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