UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will not stand in the way of Venezuela securing a temporary seat on the UN Security Council in 2015-16 after Latin American and Caribbean states unanimously endorsed its bid, UN diplomats and US sources say.
The US stance is in sharp contrast to its position in 2006, when Washington successfully campaigned against Venezuela’s drive to join the 15-nation council, the only United Nations body that can authorize sanctions or military force. At that time, Venezuela failed to secure the requisite two-thirds majority of votes in the General Assembly for its bid after dozens of rounds of secret-ballot voting. The US campaign against Venezuela came after late President Hugo Chavez compared former US President George W. Bush to the devil, saying on the podium of the 2006 General Assembly in New York that he could still “smell sulfur” a day after Bush addressed member states.
Campaigns intended to block countries’ aspirations to join important UN bodies are not uncommon. Washington was also among the countries that lobbied last year to block Iran’s and Syria’s ambitions to join the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Both withdrew from the race.
But things are different this year. Venezuela is unopposed in its regional group and is set to join the council for the next two years providing it can secure the required two-thirds majority of votes in the 193-nation General Assembly when the election is held in October.
A senior US congressional aide said Washington was not going to make an effort to keep Venezuela off the council. “People are resigned to it,” the aide said. UN diplomats and other US sources also said there was no US campaign.
