Defeating Venezuela in the 2006 non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council

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A US diplomatic note obtained by the BBC says Caracas would use the Council for "ideological grandstanding".

The Bush administration has said it prefers Guatemala for the seat but denies putting pressure on other Latin American nations to vote its way.

A US diplomatic communique obtained by the BBC details Washington's efforts to persuade other countries to vote against Venezuela.

The document, called "Defeating Venezuela in the 2006 non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council", states that "Venezuela has shown that it is more concerned with disrupting international events than in working constructively to achieve common goals".

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However, there is growing reaction to these continued efforts to interfere in the region's decision:

Battle for UN Security Council seat

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AS IT WAS IN 2005 for the election of a new Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the United States (US) is again facing defeat in its backing this time of a Latin American candidate for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council in October.

Currently, Venezuela is reported to have majority support among Latin American and Caribbean nations but a consensus is, traditionally, the desirable goal to avoid it being referred to the UN General Assembly for a vote.

In its campaign to bloc Venezuela's bid for the UN Security Council seat, the Bush administration had failed to gain the level of support it had sought on the margins of the OAS meeting in Santo Domingo

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This article is from a paper in Barbados which isn't known for it's leftist views.

I hope they're right because watching Chavez in the Security Council would be quite the thing!

[ 25 June 2006: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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A US diplomatic note obtained by the BBC says Caracas would use the Council for "ideological grandstanding".

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I mention this last point because it seems to me that a large part of the political destabilizing strategy of the USA towards an independent Venezuela consists of electoral boycotts in conditions when the chosen candidates of US imperialism take electoral drubbing and now resort to "electoral Calvinball" and withdraw from elections in an effort to destabilize them and cast doubt upon the results.

[ 26 June 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

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The idea of a Chavez-led government holding a seat on the Security Council does not go down well in Washington, and the Bush administration is leading a campaign to prevent it with aid and support of the kind of attack-dog journalism found in the Wall Street Journal. Honest observers know this newspaper of record for corporate America has a hard time dealing with facts it dislikes so it invents the ones it does to use in their place.

The June 23 editorial is a good example. It extolls the record of the Guatemalan government with its long-standing record of extreme abuse against its own people, falsely claiming it's been "accumulating an impressive record of international cooperation on a variety of UN efforts." It claims one of its main qualifications is its "active role in international peacekeeping" and that the country is now home to a Central American regional peacekeeping school and training center. Oddly it mentions that Guatemalan peacekeepers are now serving in the Congo, Sudan, and Haiti. What it fails to mention is that those so-called "peacekeepers," along with those from other countries serving with them, have in large part functioned as paramilitary enforcers, and in that capacity have committed gross human rights abuses against the local people rather than trying to protect them. The WSJ writer surely knows this but didn't choose to share that information with her readers. Instead she extols the country's "democratic credentials." But readers with any knowledge of recent Guatemalan history surely know that country's true record is one of extreme violence and abuse against its own people and one no one would think of as a nation representing them democratically. Source

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The arm twisting and propaganda is in full flight. This should be interesting to see which countries stand up to these imperialists.

Countries never elected to the Security Council.

I was going to say that my vote would go to Costa Rica, which has never invaded anybody and which disbanded its own military in 1948. (It was then invaded by Nicaragua in 1949, leading to one of the oddest client wars in history in which the CIA and the US State Department found themselves on opposite sides. Although something vaguely similar but less clearcut happened during the UK-Argentina war over the British Empire's southernmost sheep meadow.)

ZNet article outlines Guatemala's "qualifications" for a seat in the Security Council

There is a Canadian connection with Guatemala as well. Canadian busines interests, in the form of a World Bank mining project was opposed by indigenous protestors. "Indigenous protestors raised a blockade to prevent Canada's Glamis Gold from bringing in its mining equipment. Berger sent in the military and police who opened fire on protestors, killing one person and injuring dozens of others." The interests of Canadian capitalists are far from the interests of ordinary Canadians, whether here in Canada or abroad.

The Cuban website Granma also has a little write-up, based on the comments of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez.

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John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, said recently that the United States doesn’t believe Venezuela could make a "productive contribution" to the Security Council.

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Bolton was chosen by the Bush regime to be ambassador to the UN for his unwavering antagonism to it. A greater foe to the UN could hardly be imagined.

[ 28 June 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

Ali Rodriguez-Araque at the Commonwealth Club of California

"Distributing wealth becomes just as important as creating wealth."

[ 28 June 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

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President Chavez has brought hope to the "excluded" and poor people of our country while gaining the goodwill of our neighbors. President Chavez is not a destabilizing factor in the region; Poverty is the destabilizing factor, and our president has sworn an all-out war against this cancer in our societies. There will be no social justice until poverty has been eradicated. Venezuela has been and will be an ally of the United States. However, this does not mean that we will tolerate meddling in our internal affairs, since each country has the sovereign right to plan its destiny.

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[ 28 June 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

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Originally posted by maidenhead:
If only Mr. Chavez and Mr. Bush would realize how alike they are - both love to interfer in the domestic politics of others.

The world would be better off with both of them off the 'Security' Council.

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Chavez has done exactly what to interfere with your enjoyment of life??

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Originally posted by N.Beltov:
Whoops. Duly corrected. I see that his name is listed elsewhere as Ali Rodriguez-Araque.

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His name is Alí Rodríguez Araque. No hyphen.

The way Spanish names work is that you have one or more first names, then a surname, then a maternal surname. The maternal surname is sort of optional, it can be omitted or abbreviated, unless the surname is too common.

For example, the Peruvian author (and right-wing commentator) Mario Vargas Llosa. His surname is Vargas, so you would refer to him as Sr. Vargas or Sr. Vargas Llosa. In Perú, he's often referred to by his initials, MVLL. ('LL' is a single letter in traditional Spanish orthography, as was 'CH'.)

Similarly, Gabriel García Márquez is Sr. García Márquez. The president-elect of Perú is Alan García Pérez. (García is a very common surname, so you usually use both surnames in such cases.)

Normally, women don't change their names when they marry (although they sometimes add "de ").

The couple is referred to as the "family ", and that's the pair of surname's the kids end up with.

I recently attended a seminar on unethical Canadian mining operations in Latin America - and the practices of Glamis Gold took up a large chunk.

One person mentioned that one of the major investors in Glamis Gold is CUPE.

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otter: There may be no greater praise a nation could receive than to be condemned by the u.s. of a. government.

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rici: I was going to say that my vote would go to Costa Rica ...

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You might want to reconsider that in light of the following:

New government in Costa Rica launches assault on trade unions.

Death threats, political intimidation, improperly or uninvestigated deaths of trade unions officials (Parmenio Medina was killed three years ago; nobody has yet been identified as responsible for the murder.) are contributing to a climate of fear and terror. The gist of the intimidation revolves around silencing opposition to the Free Trade Agreement between Central America and the United States (CAFTA).

"All these events coincide with the arrival in power of President Oscar Arias Sanchez, Nobel Peace Prize winner, on 8th May. His electoral campaign was clearly focused on the need to ratify the CAFTA ..."

[ 29 June 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

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Originally posted by unionist:

Chavez has done exactly what to interfere with your enjoyment of life??

I don't know many democratically elected world leaders who, after being ousted in an illegal U.S.-supported coup, are triumphantly ushered back to power after a weekend of mass popular uprising. Just for that accomplishment, I'd give Chavez 10 free credits for interference in the domestic affairs of Canada, any time he wishes over the next ten years.

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[ 02 July 2006: Message edited by: Heavy Sharper ]

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Venezuela gets backing for U.N. council seat

Venezuela got a boost for its bid for a U.N. Security Council seat after the 15-member Caribbean Community said it would not support Guatemala's U.S.-backed candidacy.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND PABLO BACHELET
[email protected]

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chávez took a major step toward securing a crucial bloc of votes for a seat on the U.N. Security Council Thursday after the 15-member Caribbean Community made it clear they would not support Guatemala's U.S.-backed candidacy.

A formal declaration of CARICOM's support for Venezuela would come later, but leaders of the regional bloc meeting here said Guatemala's long-standing territorial claims against Belize, a CARICOM member, made them oppose its candidacy.

''The very strong view within CARICOM is that the claim that Guatemala continues to make on Belize is unacceptable,'' said CARICOM Chairman and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas....

Miami Herald

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Venezuela's chances for a Latin American seat in the U.N. Security Council next year waned on Monday after it fell considerably behind U.S.-backed Guatemala in the 10th round of secret balloting.

After breaking even with Guatemala in the sixth round, the 10th round produced only 77 votes for Venezuela compared to 110 for Guatemala. Five nations abstained.

No country has reached the two-thirds majority needed for victory in the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly.

The meeting was adjourned to resume on Tuesday morning. Diplomats said intensive lobbying was expected by the United States and Venezuela overnight.

The vote has become a battle for influence between the United States and Venezuela, which under U.S. foe President Hugo Chavez has tried to form an alliance in Asia, Africa and the Middle East to challenge Washington's interests.

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Feminicide in Guatemala

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A dawn police patrol regularly recovers from alleyways and rubbish dumps bodies often unrecognizable due to torture and sexual mutilation. In the killers’ methods there are strong echoes of ferocious attacks on women used by US-backed government troops and death squads in Guatemala’s long civil war that ended in 1996. Most of the perpetrators of those wartime crimes are still at large.

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