The United Nations Security Council held an open debate Monday on the topic of "Respect for the Principles and Purposes of the Charter as a Key Element for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security." Venezuela holds the presidency of the Security Council this month. Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy RodrÃguez, sitting in the Security Council president's chair, delivered remarks in her national capacity that channeled the spirit of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Her self-righteous appeal for adherence to the UN Charter was an exercise in hypocrisy.
Ms. Rodriguez denounced interference in the sovereign affairs of any member state as inconsistent with the principles of the UN Charter. "Sovereign equality," she said, must be maintained as an important principle under the UN Charter. Sounding just like the dedicated Marxist that she probably is, Venezuela's minister of foreign affairs declared that conflicts today are not only of a military nature. "They also include economic killing, psychological war, social tensions, and financial and economic strangulation, which results in instability in the countries."
Without naming any countries explicitly, Ms. Rodriguez condemned the capitalist "neo-colonial powers" who seize natural resources and use "unilateral coercive measures" to extend the "hegemony" of their "capitalistic system." Oppose the "factional powers who make their own rules," Ms. Rodriguez proclaimed, and "preserve the rule of law."
Not surprisingly, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rodriguez omitted to mention Venezuela's own aggressive acts against a neighboring state. Venezuela has threatened Guyana's territorial sovereignty, including by unilaterally expanding its claimed "integral maritime zone" into waters belonging to Guyana. Venezuela seeks to control oil resources recently discovered by Exxon off of Guyana's coast, interfering with Guyana's territorial sovereignty over waters near the Essequibo, an area that had been awarded to Guyana by an international tribunal way back in 1899. Venezuela in recent years has sought a reversal of that decision and has claimed portions of Guyana as its own. The matter has now taken on new urgency since oil was discovered in Guyana's territorial waters. Venezuela is evidently prepared to use its military to interfere with Guyana's ability to develop its newly discovered offshore natural resources. Venezuela is not bluffing. Back in 2013, for example, Venezuela's navy intercepted an oil exploration vessel operating in an offshore concession that Guyana had granted to a Texas oil company.
"Venezuela's behavior towards Guyana is a festering wound to peace and to the stability of the region--it is an affront to the rule of law," Guyana's Foreign Affairs Minister and Vice President Carl Greenidge said in response to a provocative speech earlier this month by none other than Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rodriguez. Ms. Rodriguez has blamed the "imperialist powers of an American transnational" for instigating its maritime dispute with Guyana, uttering more Marxist rhetoric to rationalize Venezuela's blatant acts of aggression against another sovereign state. If Venezuela were truly interested in upholding the UN Charter principle of sovereign equality and territorial integrity under the rule of international law, it should have had no problem accepting Guyana's long-standing suggestion that the matter be brought to the International Court of Justice to decide. But Venezuela is not interested in the rule of international law if it would interfere with its grab of natural resources belonging to another country. Instead, Venezuela is hiding behind a UN mediation process that has gone nowhere for years.
Venezuela is violating the territorial integrity of another sovereign nation--Guyana--in order to control its oil resources
In addition to trying to control natural resources in an area declared to be part of Guyana over 100 years ago, Venezuela has sought to extend its influence by force to another neighboring country. It has provided money, arms and logistical support to Marxist terrorists operating inside Colombia. Last September, in the midst of Venezuela's mass deportation of Colombian migrants from Venezuela back to Colombia during which Venezuelan soldiers were reported to have sexually abused Colombian women and children, two Venezuelan military aircraft entered into Colombian airspace, according to Colombia's Ministry of Defense.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rodriguez denied that the alleged incursion into Colombia's airspace ever happened, but she neither confirmed nor denied the allegations of sexual abuse by Venezuelan soldiers against Colombian women and children. Despite her high-minded talk about the "rule of law" in front of the Security Council, Ms. Rodriguez may find her own country being charged with a violation of international law. Colombia's president said that his attorney general "is seriously considering presenting a complaint to the ICC against members of Venezuela's civilian and military leadership, who may be responsible for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute."
Venezuela's disregard for international law
Another example of Venezuela's disregard for international law involves its brush-off of the international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in 2009. The Venezuelan regime, a member of the International Criminal Court, has sought closer relations with al-Bashir. Alluding to the dictator wanted for heinous international humanitarian and human rights crimes against his own people, Venezuela's ambassador to Sudan said in March 2015 that "all of us know that President Beshir (sic) has exerted tremendous efforts in the service of his people and his country."
Venezuela is an economic basket case. While inflation rages, Venezuelans have to line up for hours to buy basic foods. Its oil revenues have plummeted as a result of sharply falling oil prices. Its currency has been rapidly losing value.
Venezuela's economic failures are largely of its own making. It insisted on following a Marxist model that has proven over and over again to be unworkable. Rather than adapt and try to embrace a more open market economy that has helped spur growth elsewhere in Latin America, the Venezuelan regime blames the external phantom enemies of "capitalism" and "neo-colonialism." In desperation, Venezuela is doing the very thing that its minister of foreign affairs so strongly condemned in her remarks to the UN Security Council. Venezuela is violating the territorial integrity of another sovereign nation--Guyana--in order to control its oil resources.
The United Nations Security Council held an open debate Monday on the topic of "Respect for the Principles and Purposes of the Charter as a Key Element for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security." Venezuela holds the presidency of the Security Council this month. Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy RodrÃguez, sitting in the Security Council president's chair, delivered remarks in her national capacity that channeled the spirit of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Her self-righteous appeal for adherence to the UN Charter was an exercise in hypocrisy.
Ms. Rodriguez denounced interference in the sovereign affairs of any member state as inconsistent with the principles of the UN Charter. "Sovereign equality," she said, must be maintained as an important principle under the UN Charter. Sounding just like the dedicated Marxist that she probably is, Venezuela's minister of foreign affairs declared that conflicts today are not only of a military nature. "They also include economic killing, psychological war, social tensions, and financial and economic strangulation, which results in instability in the countries."
