by Stephen Lendman

No nation is more deserving. None less so than America. Bolivarian social justice warrants representation.

Permanency would be ideal. So voiceless interests are heard. Imperial ones opposed.

Right over wrong forthrightly supported. Views needing to be heard expressed on a world stage.

America, Britain, China, France and Russia are permanent Security Council members. Each year, General Assembly members choose five new non-permanent members. They replace current ones stepping down.

Seats are apportioned regionally. Five for African and Asian states. One for Eastern European nations.

Two for Latin American and Caribbean countries. Two for Western European and other states.

On Wednesday, Venezuela will learn if it's chosen to represent its region.

According to UN Charter Chapter V, Article 23:

"1. The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations."

"The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council."
er States.

New York Times editors campaigned against Venezuelan Security Council representation. They oppose it now. They shamelessly call Maduro's government "an embarrassment on the continent."

"The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution."

"The non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of two years."

"In the first election of the non-permanent members after the increase of the membership of the Security Council from eleven to fifteen, two of the four additional members shall be chosen for a term of one year. A retiring member shall not be eligible for immediate re-election."

"Each member of the Security Council shall have one representative."

Winning a Security Council seat requires a two-thirds General Assembly majority. Venezuela appears certain to have it.

It has unanimous 33-nation Latin American/Caribbean region backing. Winning gives it a voice on geopolitical issues for the first time since 1993. On January 1, new SC members begin their terms.

In 2006, Bush administration bullying, pressure and threats blocked Venezuela's bid. Dozens of secret balloting rounds were required to do so.

Panama was chosen. Doing so broke deadlock. It's government marches in lockstep with US policy. It's unfit to represent others.

At the time, Hugo Chavez compared George Bush to the devil. He could still "smell sulfur" a day after Bush addressed UN Member States.

New York Times editors campaigned against Venezuelan Security Council representation. They oppose it now. They shamelessly call Maduro's government "an embarrassment on the continent."

They support America's worst crimes. So do Washington Post editors. They shameless say "Venezuela doesn't deserve a seat on the UN Security Council."

Their reasoning includes a litany of Big Lies. They said "(t)he Obama administration could help itself and send a message to Mr. Maduro by rounding up the 65 votes needed to keep Venezuela off the Security Council."

They're concerned about Caracas being a voice for the voiceless. Expressing vital truths. Ones Washington wants suppressed.

Venezuela's opposition to America's imperial agenda. Its lawless rampaging. War on humanity. Ideological extremism.

Might over right notions. Contempt for fundamental human and civil rights.

Venezuela is polar opposite. It supports rule of law principles. Sovereign state inviolability. Equal justice under law.

Doing the right things because they matter. Supporting Iran's well-known peaceful nuclear program. Opposing US-imposed lawless sanctions.

Urging an end to Washington's half-century-long Cuban embargo. Working cooperatively with Russia, China and other nations honorably. Doing so in solidarity.

Denouncing Obama's war on Syria. Others he wages lawlessly.

Opposing Israel's genocidal high crimes against Palestinians. Forthrightly supporting universal human and civil rights.

Hugo Chavez's daughter Maria Gabriela is Venezuela's UN envoy.

She'll represent Bolivarian principles on the same platform her father used to denounce George Bush.

In the Security Council if Venezuela is chosen. Her presence keeps Chavismo alive in New York. It's needed now more than ever.

Former Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said she'll let "all the people of the world keep hearing the voice of solidarity, the fraternal voice of Commander Hugo Chavez."

According to Reuters, Washington "will not stand in the way of (its) securing a temporary (two-year) seat on the UN Security Council in 2015-16 after Latin American and Caribbean states unanimously endorsed its bid, UN diplomats and US sources say."

"No matter who is on the council, the United States will continue our engagement…in pursuit of US interests and for the prevention of conflict."

No nation is more responsible for global ones than America. None do more harm to more people.

None operate more extrajudicially. None more threaten world peace. Or humanity's survival.

None have more double standard policies. None are more self-righteous. None operate more opposite their high-minded rhetorical rubbish.

Do as we say not as we do reflects official policy. So does mandating what we say goes.

Washington is displeased about Venezuela's Security Council bid. Deputy US UN mission spokesman Kurtis Cooper said:

"Regional groups have a responsibility to put forward candidate countries that support the principles of the UN Charter, contribute to the Security Council's role in maintaining international peace and security, and uphold and advance human rights."

"Our concerns with regard to Venezuela's record on human rights and democratic governance are well known."

Its record shames America's. According to Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz:

"The behavior of all the institutions must adhere to human rights…" If they don't, "there are going to be punishments for those who are responsible."

President Nicolas Maduro was clear and unequivalent saying:

"(S)omeone who puts on a red t-shirt with Chavez’s face and takes out a pistol to attack isn't a Chavista or a revolutionary."

"I don't accept violent groups within the camp of Chavismo and the Bolivarian revolution. If you want to have arms to fight…get out of Chavismo.”

"In Venezuela, nobody ever talked about human rights until the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution."

"We're a revolution that has rescued our independence." It's here to stay. It has overwhelming popular support.

Venezuela's Bolivarian Constitution mandates human rights enforcement and much more, stating:

"The people of Venezuela, exercising their powers of creation and invoking the protection of God, the historic example of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and the heroism and sacrifice of our aboriginal ancestors and the forerunners and founders of a free and sovereign nation; to the supreme end of reshaping the Republic to establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralized State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation's territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind; promotes peaceful cooperation among nations and furthers and strengthens Latin American integration in accordance with the principle of nonintervention and national self-determination of the people, the universal and indivisible guarantee of human rights, the democratization of imitational society, nuclear disarmament, ecological balance and environmental resources as the common and inalienable heritage of humanity; exercising their innate power through their representatives comprising the National Constituent Assembly, by their freely cast vote and in a democratic Referendum…"

America and Venezuela are constitutional worlds apart. US democracy is pure fantasy. Human and civil rights violations are rife.

Venezuela is polar opposite. It's a model humanistic participatory social democracy. Mandating rights most Americans can't imagine.

Jimmy Carter calls its electoral process "the best in the world." It shames America's sham system.

Monied interests control it. People have no say. Both parties are two sides of the same coin. Not a dime's worth of difference separates them.

A permanent state of war exists. Human and civil rights are non-starters. They're disappearing in plain sight.

Dissent is increasingly criminalized. Social injustice is rife. A culture violence, secrecy and fear prevail. Torture is official policy. Guantanamo is the tip of the iceberg.

Thousands of political prisoners languish in America's gulag. It's the world's largest by far. It operates globally. At home and abroad. It does so lawlessly.

Injustice permeates daily life. Guilt by accusation prevails. Media scoundrels are government gatekeepers. They're virtual thought-control police.

Government reflects diktat rule. It never was of, by and for everyone equitably and just.

Venezuela is polar opposite. Everyone is automatically enfranchised at birth. They freely choose their officials. They do so in open, free and fair independently monitored elections.

They have fundamental rights most Americans can't imagine. They're constitutionally guaranteed. They prohibit discrimination.

Promote gender equity. Mandate free expression. A free press. Free, fair and open elections. Fundamental human and civil rights.

Equal ones for indigenous people. Social benefits most Americans lack. National referendums so Venezuelans have say on policies.

Citizen power is real. It's independent. In America, it's unimaginable. Nonexistent. Democracy exists in name only. It's pure fantasy.

Which system is more equitable? Which one more fit to live under? No nation more deserves Security Council representation than Venezuela.

Imagine if all countries operated the same way. Imagine a world at peace. With constitutionally guaranteed equal rights and social justice.

Human and civil rights with teeth. Enforcing them officially mandated. Government of, by and for everyone equitably and just.

It bears repeating. Fundamental rights most Americans don't have. Ones they can't imagine.

Chavez long sought a Security Council seat. His dream was unfulfilled.

What he couldn't achieve as president appears likely posthumously. Chavismo lives!

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.t]