Venezuela doesn’t belong on the Security Council

Venezuela doesn't belong on the Security Council
BY DIEGO ARRIA DIEGO.ARRIA@GMAIL.COM
10/05/2014 3:00 PM 10/05/2014 7:00 PM

The Latin American and Caribbean governments represented at the United
Nations have endorsed the candidacy of the Venezuelan tyranny created by
the late Hugo Chávez and continued by his appointed successor, Nicolás
Maduro, to represent them for a non- permanent seat at the Security
Council for the period 2015-16.

It could not come at a worse moment for world peace. Dangerous forces
are threatening global security, and unity is required to face these
emerging threats. Venezuela is not a reliable ally in these times.

For example: The Security Council has unanimously agreed that countries
should pass laws against traveling abroad to join terrorist groups or
financing those efforts. Yet Venezuela's regime is known for providing
passports to those from the Middle East belonging to radical groups,
including Hezbollah, as well as cooperating and providing logistics for
the narco-terrorist group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC).

The government is so deeply implicated in these shady affairs that five
Venezuelan generals have been included on the U.S. Treasury Department's
"kingpin list." Two of them are state governors and active members the
ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).


ARRIA

It is shameful and irresponsible for regional governments that pride
themselves on being democratic, some of which have suffered military
dominance in the past, to support a regime that for the last 15 years
has been associated with the likes of Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi,
Bashar Assad and Robert Mugabe.

These governments know about the collapse of democracy in Venezuela, as
well as its terrible human-rights record, including a wave of arrests of
hundreds of political protestors earlier this year. The government's
actions have been denounced by all the major human-rights organizations
in the region. This reality, together with the absence of the rule of
law and of free speech, does not make Venezuela an appropriate candidate
to represent Latin America and the Caribbean.

These countries must also know that the Venezuelan regime is under the
control of the Cuban government, and that Cuba will be the de facto
representative in the Security Council. They also know that more than
half of the Jewish community in Venezuela has been forced to leave the
country because of the harassment inflicted on them after the regime
broke diplomatic relations with Israel, calling it a genocidal state.

So why do Latin American and Caribbean governments support Venezuela's
bid? Some to repay favors received through Venezuela's petro-dollar
diplomacy, which consists of providing oil at concessionary prices.
Others want to please domestic leftist groups, and still others to
strike at the United States in the Security Council through Venezuela

Two cases are illuminating:

President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, when he was minister of
defense in a previous government, documented the criminal role played by
the Venezuelan regime with the narco-terrorist FARC. Yet even knowing
that, he has decided to endorse the Maduro regime's U.N. effort.

Chile, which benefited when earlier Venezuelan democratic governments
helped liberate prominent Chilean democratic politicians held by the
dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet, did not hesitate to endorse
the U.N. effort of the non-democratic regime in Caracas.

Venezuela has held a Security Council seat four times. During its last
tenure, in 1992-93, I had the privilege of being Venezuela's
representative. Our country distinguished itself as a reliable and
trustworthy member of the international community and an active promoter
and defender of human rights and respect for international law.

The U.N. General Assembly, which has the final say on Security Council
membership, should know that it is not in the interest of the
international community for Venezuela to succeed. It should not provide
the two-thirds majority vote necessary, because Venezuela does not
deserve a seat on the most important arm of the United Nations.

DIEGO ARRIA IS A FORMER VENEZUELAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article2501847.html