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Chavez in final push for Security Council seat

Rory Carroll

It has become a personal battle with George W. Bush.

VENEZUELA'S CAMPAIGN for a seat on the United Nations Security Council is reaching a climax in the face of fierce resistance from the Bush administration.

Hugo Chavez has invested billions of dollars and a year of globetrotting in trying to cement his position as a global player. Venezuelan diplomats now predict they will win a General Assembly vote this month on their country's bid for a two-year spot on the 15-member council, giving Mr. Chavez a platform to assail the U.S. and champion his ally, Iran.

Victory is not assured because the vote is secret and countries can break promises to vote a certain way. But analysts agree that Caracas, awash with oil wealth and a leading critic of the White House, is well positioned. "It would be a big psychological defeat for the US and be recorded as such," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington-based think-tank.

Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, said Mr. Chavez was determined to extend his influence beyond Latin America.

The contest has become a personal battle between the former paratrooper and George W. Bush. Mr Chavez used a General Assembly address in New York last month to brand his foe a "devil" and said the podium still reeked of sulphur from Mr. Bush's address a day earlier. Later he called Mr. Bush an alcoholic.

Mr. Bush reportedly speaks in private about "beating" the self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary. "He speaks very personally about it," said Mark Feierstein, a former State Department official who works for Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Washington-based political consultancy that operates in Latin America.

The U.S., along with Mexico and Colombia, has backed Guatemala to fill Latin America's Security Council seat, one of 10 rotating seats alongside the five permanent members — China, Russia, France, Britain, and the U.S. Argentina and Brazil back Venezuela. The lack of a regional consensus means there will be a secret ballot of the General Assembly's 192 members.

Caracas claims it has a two-thirds majority, citing support from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Iran, China, and Russia, all recently visited by Mr. Chavez and his chequebook. But there is no guarantee countries will honour their pledges. "Lots of people are lying," a senior European diplomat in Caracas said.

Analysts say both sides have scored own goals. Mr. Chavez's U.N. address was applauded by junior delegates but alienated some members who may otherwise have supported him, according to Mr. Birns. The White House may also have overplayed its hand in what was seen as a bullying display at a meeting of the Organisation of American States. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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