It seems that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s theatrics at the General Assembly have backfired. After 36 rounds of voting, Venezuela still cannot garner the support of 2/3rds of member states necessary to win a seat on the Security Council. In the New York Times today, Warren Hoge explains that member states — particularly in Latin America — were none too happy with Chavez’s anti-U.S. diatribe.Says the Mexican ambassador to the UN, “The speech really hurt his case … Most members don’t want this place to be turned into a mockery. In the General Assembly, there are limits, and he went way beyond them.”
Following the summit in September, UN detractors used Chavez’s speech to cast aspersions on the organization as a whole. At the time, I tried to point out that Chavez speaks for Chavez, not the United Nations. The General Assembly has now spoken and it’s clear that they do not approve of impolitic antics in their chamber.