Andean Group - November 2006 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Given the amount of effort President Hugo Chávez expended in his bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Venezuela's failure to win two-thirds of the vote in the General Assembly must have been particularly galling. Venezuela's ambassador to the UN, Francisco Arias Cardenas, refused to acknowledge it as such, describing US-backed Guatemala's failure to win as a lesson for Washington. The US, however, was clearly delighted; its ambassador, John Bolton, labelling Chávez 's "devil" speech at the General Assembly a few weeks earlier an act of "podiacide", a word meant to signify shooting oneself in the foot.

After 47 rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela were able to break the deadlock, though Guatemala was ahead of the South American country in all but one round, which was tied. Panama emerged as a consensus candidate as the result of a meeting held on 1 November between the Guatemalan and Venezuelan foreign ministers, who in previous meetings had been unable to come to an agreement over a course of action acceptable to both countries. Previous countries mooted for the post included Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.

Although there was some dissension from Chile and the English-speaking Caribbean, Panama appeared set to become the new member of the UNSC after the Brazilian and US governments backed its candidacy. The Brazilian government "congratulated Guatemala and Venezuela for its spirit of agreement". In a race which has been portrayed by the media as a battle of competing visions for the future of the UN between US and Venezuelan allies, it is fair to say that with the election of Panama, whose government is pro-US and pro-Cafta, Venezuela clearly lost.