What Venezuela's Security Council Seat Means for the United States
What Venezuela's Security Council Seat Means for the United States
Latin America may suffer by having Venezuela represent it on the U.N. Security Council, points out COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
In an election sure to be a thorn in the side of the U.S., Venezuela on Thursday won the non-permanent member seat on the U.N. Security Council for the Latin American region. The country, which has had frosty relations with the U.S., is unlikely to be an ally on key issues involving Syria, Iran and Russia in a time of global turmoil....
Relations with former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013 of cancer, were strained, and things have not improved under Nicolas Maduro. In February, the current president expelled three American officials, charging that they had recruited students to take part in protests that were spreading across the country....
Latin America may suffer by having Venezuela represent it on the Security Council, says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society. Allowing Venezuela to be the nominee doesn’t mean its regional neighbors support the country’s ideology, but simply that they support Venezuela because it’s a Latin American country.
“If Venezuela chooses not to play a responsible role on the Security Council, it just means that Latin America loses influence,” Farnsworth says. “It’s just not a country that they’re going to pay much attention to. From that perspective, it’s really a missed opportunity for Latin America to play a larger role on the world stage.”
Also joining the five permanent Security Council member countries (China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.) will be newly elected Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand and Spain, who along with Venezuela begin their two-year terms in January....
