Uruguay, not Bolivia
10.25.2006Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales
MABB posted his reaction to the suggestion by (Venezuela's) Chavez that Bolivia should fill the UN Security Council seat. Overall, I agree w/ his assessment: This seems to confirm speculation that Evo is a Chavez pawn. Worst, I think Evo publicly referring to "el Comandante Chavez" suggests a subservient relationship. That's just bad PR.
But I'm skeptical of a Bolivian bid for the UNSC. First, the vote for the "Latin American" seat seemed to go decidedly against Venezuela. In a contest w/ US-backed Guatemala, not only did Venezuela not win the required two-thirds majority (despite a whirlwind international PR blitz), it lost 109-76. If so many countries in the General Assembly voted against Venezuela, I'm not convinced that they'd vote for a Venezuela-backed candidate.
And. Seriously. Do we really want Bolivia helping decide crucial issues like a nuclear North Korea? Frankly, I don't think this current administration (or any to come in the near future) has the political gravitas to be taken seriously on such matters.
The possibility of a stalemate had already floated two potential compromise candidates: Uruguay & Costa Rica. In my opinion, I think Uruguay'll get the seat. I could be completely wrong. But I suspect that the better compromise candidate is a South American country in Mercosur (perhaps Uruguay gets some votes as incentive not to leave Mercosur?) that's not closely tied to the United States but has a long tradition in international diplomatic circles.
Posted by Miguel at 02:48 PM
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