UN Vote: Does anyone care?

At the United Nations, countries are passing vote after vote to try and find the newest Latin American member of its security council. It's the second day of non-stop voting. The numbers change slightly, but nobody is winning the two thirds majority needed.

The contenders: Guatemala and Venezuela.

Guatemala is heavily supported by the United States, since Washington would support anyone over Hugo Chavez. It's being played out as a battle of the "imperialist Yankees" (a term Chavez loves to use) vs the 'evil communists who are a little too close to Fidel.' Does this vote really have anything to do with Guatemala or is it just about any representative that's not Hugo Chavez?

Here's Guatemala's member placing his vote.

So is Guatemala just a pawn of the United States once again, just like it was at the beginning of this country's civil war? Not according to some analysts I've spoken to here; they say Guatemala is independent in this case and has a good candidate. I was surprised by the lack of criticism against what's going on. Maybe Guatemala is just too excited at the possibility of finally having a UN member of the security council, something that wasn't going to happen during the brutal war years.

And here in Guatemala? Does anybody really care what's going on? Not that I can tell. People don't see this directly affecting them. They're more worried about the price of pollo and verduras and whether they have a job.

If you don't know a thing about this issue, here's an article from the New York Times and here's one from the BBC.

Totally clueless when I mentioned the US using Guatemala as a pawn in the past? Learn more about US interference in Guatemala. Check out this book, Bitter Fruit.

Feliz dia!