November 4, 2006
Neighbors Endorse Panama for U.N. Council Seat
By REUTERS

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (Reuters) — Latin American and Caribbean nations unanimously endorsed Panama on Friday as their candidate for a two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council, after weeks of deadlock between Venezuela and Guatemala.

The agreement cleared the way for Panama’s formal election to the 15-nation body on Tuesday.

“It was unanimous,” the Argentine ambassador, César Mayoral, told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the group of 35 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The deadlock was broken Wednesday after Venezuela and Guatemala agreed to withdraw their candidacies and threw their support behind Panama. But it took two more days for the Latin American and Caribbean bloc to endorse that move.

Venezuela’s failure to win the seat, which opens up in January, was a setback for President Hugo Chávez, who saw a seat on the council as another way to further his efforts to establish himself as a leading anti-United States voice on the world stage.

The Venezuelan leader portrayed the contest as a battle against efforts by President Bush to dominate the United Nations.

The Bush administration, for its part, warned that Venezuela would use the Council seat to obstruct international initiatives.

The United States Ambassador, John R. Bolton, said this week that a September speech to the United Nations in which Mr. Chávez cast Mr. Bush as “the devil” was a critical factor. The speech, Mr. Bolton said, “was taken by many of the members of the General Assembly to be indicative of how they’d behave on the Council.”

“It was an act of ‘podiacide’ — shooting yourself in the foot,” Mr. Bolton said.

The contest between Guatemala, which had the backing of the United States, and Venezuela went through 47 rounds of balloting in the General Assembly before the two countries gave up and agreed on a compromise candidate. Guatemala led by 20 to 30 votes in all but one of those rounds, but fell short of the required two-thirds majority.

The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China hold the five permanent seats on the Security Council. Ten other nations sit on the council for two-year terms, five elected each year. Guatemala and Venezuela were vying for a seat earmarked for a Latin American or Caribbean state and now held by Argentina.