An international victory for Nicolás Maduro | Chronic

Despite strong opposition from the United States and some Latin American and European countries, the United Nations General Assembly, with a force of 105 votes, today chose the Venezuela as a member of the Human Rights Council of this body. the vote in Costa Rica, which had proposed to represent the countries that planned to close the passage to the arrival of a representative of the government of Maduro, who is not recognized as president in one hundred countries.

The other seat available to the Council of Latin American and Caribbean Countries was left in Brazil, which was endorsed by 153 votes. Venezuela will replace Cuba on January 1, ending its term. The members of the Human Rights Council are appointed for a period of three years and can not be re-elected immediately after two consecutive terms. Latin America is currently represented by Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

Several governments and international organizations have publicly expressed their opposition to Venezuela's candidacy. Last June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, He had published a very difficult report in which he reported hundreds of cases of extrajudicial executions, torture, persecution and ill-treatment of opponents of the Maduro government.

The result of the vote contrasts with the announcement made last week by the UN Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), Louis Charbonneau "Venezuela does not portray anything in the Human Rights Council"He risked.

"We can only emphasize that it would be a discredit for the UN and for the whole world that Venezuela could join the Human Rights Council"Chilean Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera said Thursday. In addition to Venezuela and Brazil, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, Namibia, Indonesia, Japan, the Marshall Islands, South Korea, Armenia, Poland, the United States of America. Germany and the Netherlands were elected.

The Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human Rights, abolished after 60 years of work because of the legitimacy crisis in which it had fallen as a result of decisions considered partial, politicized and unbalanced.