People's Democracy

Who Will India Vote For?

By Our Commentator

ELECTIONS for five non-permanent seats of the UN Security Council will be held during the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly session in October. One of the seats to be filled up is from Latin America. Venezuela is aiming for this Security Council seat. The United States is opposed to Venezuela’s membership and is working overtime to block Venezuela’s bid. It is backing Guatemala, which has decided to contend for the seat. The United States is aggressively canvassing support for Guatemala and pressurising Latin American and Caribbean countries not to support the Venezuelan bid.

As per the rules, if there is to be a contest, the winning country will have to muster two-thirds majority by secret ballot in General Assembly.

Venezuela under the leadership of president Chavez has emerged in the forefront of defending the sovereignty of Latin American countries and pushing for an alternative which includes close cooperation between Latin American countries through trading blocs like Mercorsur and Caricom. As a major oil producer, Venezuela is an important country which deserves to be in the Security Council, representing Latin American and Caribbean interests.

The United States is rallying support for Guatemala which is notorious for being the country with the worst human rights record in Latin America 

Between 1962 and 1996, at least 200,000 Guatemalans were killed in a state-sanctioned war involving at least 626 massacres documented by the United Nations. Human rights organisations estimate that Guatemalan military forces carried out 90% of the atrocities.

Guatemala is the centre for drug trafficking. Since 1999, the US State Department has reported that “Guatemala is the preferred transit point in Central America for onward shipment of cocaine to the United States.” According to the US embassy in Guatemala, fully 75 per cent of the cocaine that reaches the United States passes through Guatemala.

Since 1954, when the CIA engineered a coup to remove the country’s elected president, successive Guatemalan regimes and the military have been fully backed and closely tied to the United States.

While major countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia have come out in support of Venezuela’s membership, the US has put pressure on Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia and such pro-US regimes to back Guatemala.

So far India has not decided whom to support. The United States is totally opposed to an independent voice on the Security Council which will not line up with its unilateralist and aggressive actions around the world. But why has the Indian government not decided to support Venezuela? Venezuela is an important member of the G33 developing countries and the non-aligned movement. As a country with huge oil reserves, it will be in India’s interests to develop close ties with it. There can be no question of India voting for Guatemala with its shocking record of human rights violations and state-sponsored genocides. Yet, the delay in taking a firm decision gives rise to suspicions that the US pressure being mounted worldwide is also affecting India.

The UPA government should make a categorical announcement that it backs Venezuela for the Security Council seat. The best time to do this would be during the prime minister’s visit to Brazil and Cuba.