Chavez And The UN
(T)Hugo Chavez has his big moment at the UN today, notes Jackson Diehl from the Washington Post. He starts off by saying he doubts that Chavez will get enough votes to get the seat on the UN Security Council, and that that would be a good thing, and potentially bad for Chavez's chance at reelection as president of Venezuela. All good things, right? Well, until he gets around to throwing blame for the whole situation.
It's election day for Hugo Chávez — not in Venezuela but at the United Nations General Assembly. Today a vote is due on his government's bid for a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council. Chávez has spent most of this year campaigning for the job, traveling the world and promising tens of millions of dollars in aid to poor countries in Asia and Africa whose votes he's counting on. His ambition is a big one: to become the leader of global opposition to the United States, or, as he puts it, to "radically oppose the violent pressure that the empire exercises."
There's a fair chance he'll lose. Most vote counters at the United Nations think Venezuela will fall short of the 122 General Assembly votes it needs on the first ballot, as will its opponent for the seat, Guatemala. One of the two might win on subsequent ballots, but Latin American governments are already anticipating that a third candidate from the region — such as Uruguay or the Dominican Republic — will end up getting the job. If so it will be a wounding rebuff for Chávez following his Bush-as-devil tirade before the assembly last month, and one that could hurt him in another vote, if it is free and fair: his bid for reelection as president in December. His opponent in that race has been hammering home the point that Chávez is squandering the country's oil revenue on foolish foreign adventures.
A Chávez defeat would save the Bush administration from embarrassment and spare the Security Council a nuisance factor. Still, there won't be much to celebrate. The fact that a clownish populist who has eagerly embraced the presidents of Iran, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Libya could even come close to getting two-thirds of the votes of the 192 U.N. members is testimony to how low U.S. prestige has sunk around the world. More specifically, it's a measure of how twisted U.S. relations with Latin America have become — and also, how fragile the appeal of democratic values is in that region.
Diehl lays the blame at Washington's feet. More specifically at the administration. What he does not do - as is usual in these cases - is actually come up with anything the administration could have done differently. Chavez, as Diehl himself points out, has been trying to spread as much cash around to buy support all over the world. Might it not be a good idea to look to that as being a proximate cause rather than Washington? The fact that there has been a merciless assault on the US in the world press, regardless of what the US does or does not do, also has a lot to do with perceptions in Latin America, does it not?
That merciless assault has been going on for years upon years. Remember when Clinton was in office and the rioting was over "globalization"? Disapproval focused on the Kyoto silliness that Clinton never even presented to the Senate. Because he knew full well it would be voted down, promptly and across the board regardless of party. Years before that there have been repeated challenges to Latin American relations. Administration after administration has struggled with the same issues.
In other words, this has been going on just about forever. Frankly, if the Bush administration manages to head off Chavez's goal to become a member of the UNSC, it should be considered a success. Period. No qualifications. US relations with Latin America have been twisted for generations now, it is not all the fault of Bush.
Media, World news | Gaius Monday, 16 October , 2006
By syn, Monday, 16 October , 2006 @ 5:54 am
If the Aleutian Pribolof Islands Association can stand up to Chavez who needs the loser dictator-supporting UN around.
Last Friday I sent a big donation to the Unangan Energy Assistance Fund for having the guts to poke Chavez in his populist, power-hungry eye. I will continue to send a donation to my fellow freedom fighters on a yearly basis for their inspiration to patriotism and liberty.