Que Lastima!

After 7 rounds of voting, the world can still not agree on who should have the "Latin American" elected seat on the U.N. Security Council being vacated by Argentina: Guatemala or Venezuela. I think that the U.S. has done Guatemala a disfavor by lobbying on their behalf, and it just plays into Chavez's North-South rhetoric. No one dislikes Guatemala, but by supporting the central-American country, the US has allowed Chavez to turn this into a proxy contest between the US and Venezuela.

I think it is high time that developing countries have a permanent place on the Security Council, not just an elected spot. However, I think it's pompous on Chavez's part to proclaim that he should be the porte-parole for all of the economically disadvantaged countries just because he's apologetically anti-American. While I'm sure that sounds refreshing to a lot of people on this earth, it should not in and of itself suffice.

Apparently China supports Venezuela because Guatemala has stronger diplomatic ties with Taiwan (yeah, real mature China). Russia is also supporting Venezuela because of "high-level" contracts Venezuela has with them to buy weapons (See petro dollars). Arab countries support Venezuela because of Chavez's anti-U.S. stance, and Mercosur wants to keep Venezuela in the fold even though its support of Bolivia's nationalization of its oil and gas assets is in direct opposition of the free-market principles Mercosur is founded on.

A compromise candidate might be necessary if this continues.

Tout cela dit, je suis très content que personne n'ait mis en question la candidature de la Belgique, un pays qui me sera toujours très chere. Le plat-pays qui a connu la perspective de Magritte mérite bien une place sur le Conseil de sécurité.

UPDATE 10.17.06: After 14 Rounds, Guatemala 108, Venezuela 76. Rumors of a new compromise candidate are getting louder.

UPDATE 10.18.06, 16.21 PT: After 22 Rounds, we're still in deadlock.