Israel Matzav

Chavez losing at the UN

Some good news coming out of the UN for a change, with the Slimes reporting that Guatemala continues to lead Venezuela in the race to replace Argentina on the Security Council. The US is backing Guatemala's candidacy (and I am sure Israel is as well, although the article does not say that) in order to avoid giving Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez a forum for delivering diatribes like the one he delivered to the General Assembly a couple of weeks ago.

The setback for Venezuela was a distinct blow to the ambitions of Hugo Chávez, the fiery populist leader of Venezuela, who has turned the contest into a focus of his campaign against Washington, and who has traveled widely and spent his country’s oil largess liberally to promote its candidacy.

“Venezuela clearly is not doing well, but they want to bring us down with them as the proxy for the United States,” Gert Rosenthal, the Guatemalan foreign minister, said in an interview.

“This is between two Latin countries, and it is not very edifying for us to hear Venezuela claim it’s running against the United States,” he said. “It is very unfair to us; Washington did not run our campaign, we did all the work, and we have a majority of the votes.”

The balloting could last days, until one prevails or the Latin American group decides to bring forth a compromise candidate.

Francisco Arias Cárdenas, Venezuela’s ambassador, said his country was not being “stubborn” but was sacrificing itself to represent poor and weak countries against the “blackmail” of the United States.

He held up the front page of “El Pais,” the Spanish newspaper, which showed a picture of John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, leaning over and whispering to Mr. Rosenthal.

“This is the pressure we are fighting,” he said. “Why doesn’t Bolton come to this microphone and declare that the United States will remove the pressure, will withdraw the money and then countries will have the liberty to vote their conscience.”

In response, Mr. Bolton said, “Look, we have made our position clear in a very low-key way. It is motivated by our concern for Venezuela’s behavior, and that’s another example of it.”

In the 16th and latest ballot, Guatemala got 108 votes to Venezuela's 76, with 125 votes needed to win.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:40 AM