Guatemala pushes bid for Security Council seat

By Mica Rosenberg
July 24, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400843.html

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan president Oscar Berger said on Monday his Central American nation is closer to getting the votes needed to beat U.S. antagonist Venezuela for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
We have 98 countries backing us, I'm not going to mention names, Berger told reporters.
Guatemala needs a two-thirds majority vote among 192 members of the U.N. General Assembly to replace Argentina as a non-permanent representative on the 15-nation Security Council. The voting is by secret ballot, so any public commitment may come undone.
Latin America as a region this year gets one seat on the council for a two-year term that starts in 2007 and Guatemala has been fighting a diplomatic battle against Venezuela for the slot. The second Latin American seat is occupied by Peru for another year.
The United States is backing Guatemala as a way to block the government of Hugo Chavez from winning the seat, although Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is seen as the likely victor.
Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary allied with Cuba, has clashed frequently with the administration of President Bush and strongly backed Iran in a dispute with Western powers over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
A vote for Guatemala is seen as a vote for the Bush administration, and globally that's not very popular these days, said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.
Guatemala is a small country that will have a hard time trying to compete with Venezuela, a player on the global stage with enormous resources, he said.
Venezuela has shifted its drive for a council seat into high gear in recent weeks, with Chavez traveling the world to promote its candidacy.
In response, Berger enlisted vice president Eduardo Stein and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, both with significant experience in international circles, to campaign on Guatemala's behalf.
The aim is to convince member states that Guatemala is an independent candidate and not a U.S. proxy.