Caracas Seeks UN Security Council Seat, Irking US 
By Reuters
February 15, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-un-council-venezuela.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Venezuela is stepping up a previously low-key drive for a seat on the U.N. Security Council beginning next year, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday, prompting criticism from U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.
``I don't think it would be conducive to an effective and well-functioning Security Council,'' Bolton told reporters when asked about the campaign by Venezuela, whose president, Hugo Chavez, has been positioning himself as the standard-bearer for growing anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America.
Candidates for a seat on the 15-nation council, the pre-eminent U.N. body on matters of war, peace and international security, are often unopposed as they are selected in advance by U.N. regional groupings.
The 191-nation U.N. General Assembly formally elects five nations to two-year terms on the council every year. The United States is one of five permanent members, with Britain, France, Russia and China.
Venezuela, in shifting its drive for a council seat into high gear in recent weeks, is directly challenging Guatemala, a fellow member of the group of Latin American and Caribbean states.
While Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, first signaled its interest in running in 2004, Guatemala declared its candidacy two years earlier, the diplomats said.
Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary allied with Cuba, has clashed frequently with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which he accuses of trying to topple his government. Venezuela, for example, has strongly backed Iran in a dispute with Western powers over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Washington in turn accuses Chavez of becoming a negative influence in the region and undermining Venezuelan democracy.
Venezuelan authorities this month accused the naval attach De at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas of spying and expelled him from the country. The United States responded by sending home a Venezuelan diplomat.
Bolton said that while Washington traditionally did not disclose how it voted in the General Assembly, where council members are elected by secret ballot, ``I don't think there is any mistake that Venezuela would not contribute to the effective operation of the Security Council.''
``I think we can see that from their actions in the past six months in the General Assembly, which have been unhelpful,'' he said. Venezuela last September condemned as ``grotesque'' and illegal a U.N. blueprint for enhancing international cooperation that was adopted at the close of a summit of world leaders in New York.