Voting is deadlocked among the Latin American and Caribbean UN delegates who get to pick the next Security Council member. Anyone have any heated opinions on a decision in which ordinary geeks like us Dopers have no say whatsoever?
Guatemala has been getting more votes (albeit not a 2/3 majority). And the guy who’s currently running Venezuela is a loon.
OTOH, Guatemala’s human rights record is nothing to admire.
Given the often bizzare way such things are done in the UN, this probably won’t be a show stopper.
-XT
Uruguay! 
No really, my country has been suggested to take the place and break the tie.
AFAICT from the OP’s link, the contest seems to have turned into a pissing match between Venezuela’s Chavez and the Bush Administration. The Administration loathes Chavez and has been campaigning hard for Guatemala. Chavez, a consummate political grandstander, has been presenting Venezuela’s campaign as David battling the big bad Goliath of the US, but it apparently hasn’t overcome the negative impact of his inflammatory speech the other day calling Bush “the devil”, which most UN reps thought was tasteless.
Apparently, Guatemala might have won without a deadlock if the US hadn’t been pressing so hard in its favor, and Venezuela might have won if Chavez hadn’t done so much flamboyantly anti-US posturing. I kind of get the impression that at this point the voting members are holding their noses about the whole thing.
IMO, it would probably make for more entertaining political theater if Venezuela got the seat, but it would be a very contentious and frustrating two years. On the other hand, many voters now may feel that if they elect Guatemala, they will appear to have bowed to US pressure. A compromise candidate like Ale’s Uruguay may be the best bet.
Either way, it’s a win of some kind for Chavez. If Venezuela ends up actually winning, he can go on with his anti-imperialist act and make a splash on the Council. If Venezuela loses or bows out to end the stalemate, he can paint it as the crushing of democracy by the bullying US puppetmasters. In both cases, Venezuela gets attention and recognition as a prominent voice in regional and even international politics, which is what I think Chavez is mainly after here.
While I reckon that Chavez is a bit of a dick head
- he does seem better than his predecessors
Someone should come up with ‘The Axis Of Drivel’
Somehow I find it rather comical that a stooge of Chavez could disrupt the UN talking shop while Iraq is being sorted out by Iran and Syria.
We live in interesting times.
When Le Figaro thinks Hugo went too far, he went too far.
Money quote:
It’s interesting to see how this will play out.
The Wikipedia article suggests a compromise candidate will emerge. I think that’s likely, given the deadlock that seems to have developed.
I would support Uruguay, but if and only if Ale is appointed to serve as the Uruguayan ambassador.
Oh mercy no!
Thinking about it a little more I should point out that my current goverment´s foreign relations minister is an incompetent boob of the highest order; I bet that if he would have the chance to talk to the Dalai Lama for twenty minutes, Tibet would declare us war the next morning. Weak, meek, fumbling and self contradictory are good adjectives for my country´s international relationships lately; it´s a real shame because we used to have top notch diplomats not so long ago.
There´s also the problems associated with that position for a small country, big players like to push, press, huff and puff to get what they want, like Bush´s “give us support for the Iraq war or else…” of some years ago.
Just to give you an idea, the USA is our largest market for meat, and Iran is our largest market for rice; the issue of Iran´s nuclear proliferation comes to the SC one day and both countries through your weight around to get a resolution that favors them; it´s a lose-lose situation, we´d be a punching ball for big players without getting any benefit.
I also have the suspicion that in any case my leftist* current goverment would be all too happy to play water boy for Chavez anyway.
*Leftist as in like, for example, you can see Cuban and URSS (:rolleyes: ) flags on its political rallies.
Oh, I don’t know, Ale, at least you could help spruce up the visuals on UN documentaries and webpages
My gut reaction: ugh, NOT Chavez. The guatemaltecos have been doing quite nicely lately, this could be helpful.
Next gut reaction: ugh, Bush has been pushing for Guatemala. Actually, he’d push for What-the-worse so long as it wasn’t Chavez. Heck, it would have been cute if the choice was Chávez or Castro, MWAHAHAHAHA! Ugh, I really should cut on the caffeine. Pity that a lot of people now would be willing to vote for What-the-crazy just to piss Dubya off…
Third reaction: Uruguay, uh? Hmm… not bad… which is better than I can say about Chávez…
Looks like they’ve decided to put the next round of voting on hold until Wednesday.
Tsk! Still deadlocked!
But it looks like Guatemala and Venezuela might compromise on some third country to fill the seat.
And it looks like a compromise has been reached and Panama is going to take it tomorrow on the 48th round of voting. It’ll be their 9th time on the Security Council.