Venezuela to be elected to the UN Security Council

Venezuela is reported to be Latin America´s top candidate for their allotted  United Nations´ Security Council post coming up for election later this year. Venezuela´s selection by the Latin American group of nations is said to be  the result of a previous compromise reached when Venezuela tried to get elected a few years ago.  

However, I believe significant support is also due to the petrodollars given away and empty promises  it has made to small Caribbean nations,  and the fear of retaliation by what many consider an increasingly unstable regime. An additional consideration could be the use of blackmail to pressure other nation´s political leaders using Cuban spy service information gathered over the years on their personal lives. 

Venezuela´s election sure looks like it´s the result of unusual pressure. A Latin American nation with such a lousy human rights record hasn´t been elected for a long time…

Basil da Costa, killed by Maduro´s secret police

 during a student demonstration in Caracas

If we check the UN Security Council Membership over the last 20 years, we won´t find a Latin American nation with a lousy human rights record like Venezuela´s:

UN Security Council Elected Members 

over the last 20+ years (from Wikipedia)

The graphic shows some Council members with poor human rights records.

These include dictatorships such as Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Viet Nam, and others.  The only Latin American country with a fairly bad human rights reputation is Honduras. However, the Honduras government during that period was led by a pretty decent man Carlos Reina, who was known for weakening the Honduran  military´s political power¹.  

A Security Council seat doesn´t necessarily require a good record. Hell, most permanent members have plenty of skeletons in their closets! Go figure, these are the guys who approve “legal” wars, economic sanctions, and armed interventions….

On the funnier side I can´t wait to see Maria Gabriela Chávez², the brand new  UN Alternate Ambassador give a speech.

Mariela Gabriela Chávez, Venezuela´s Alternate UN

 Ambassador at a government ceremony (from Runrunes.es)

Maria Gabriela doesn´t have much of a record, so it´s hard to criticize her for anything. She got the job because she is Chávez daughter. I also hear Maduro is tired of her refusal to move out of the presidential residence (La Casona). Putting  Maria Gabriela and her bodyguards in a penthouse on Central Park will allow Maduro and his wife Cilia to have the house all for themselves….unless the other Chávez family members wish to use it, I suppose.

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¹…From Wikipedia: Carlos Reina became president in November 1993, with the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH, Partido liberal de Honduras). Reina inherited a relatively difficult economic situation from the existing nationalist administration. Foreign debt weighed heavily on the economy of the country: debt service represented 40% of Honduran exports. Even though approximately 700 million dollars were condoned to Honduras, the debt 'was' still higher than that it had been at the beginnings of 1990.

In his first presidential speech Reina launched his moral revolution: " I pledge my word of honor before God, before the people and before history, that we will go forward in this enterprise that we have imposed upon ourselves. We will defeat corruption; we will give currency to social liberalism. We will see the moral revolution to its end."

One of Carlos Roberto Reina's main objectives during his government was the reform of the Armed Forces. His reforms were mostly realized by the end of his first year in office. The first one was the total transfer of all power in hands of military men to civilian authorities…

²…From the BBC News in Spanish we have the following background information on María Gabriela Chávez:  She is Chávez second daugthter. Is  34 years old and studied social communications. Is two years younger tan  Rosa Virginia, the eldest Chávez heir and wife of current Vive President Jorge Arreaza.  María Gabriela Chávez has been linked to a rice import racket, but she denied having any relation to this corruption case.