Panama Wins U.N. Security Council Seat

Panama won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on the 48th ballot Tuesday after U.S.-backed Guatemala and Venezuela, led by leftist anti-American President Hugo Chavez, dropped out to end a deadlock.

Panama got 164 votes in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win a two-year term starting Jan. 1 on the U.N.'s most powerful body; Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 votes, and Barbados 1 vote.

General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, who announced the results, said she was "delighted" that all five new members of the Security Council - Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa — had now been chosen.

Diplomats in the assembly chamber burst into applause when Panama's election was announced.

The vote ended weeks of deadlock at the U.N. caused by Venezuela's refusal to withdraw their bid for a seat despite repeatedly coming in behind Guatemala in previous ballots — but short of the necessary majority for an outright victory.

Fiery Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez repeatedly accused the U.S. government of waging a behind-the-scenes diplomatic battle against his country's quest to sit on the U.N.'s most powerful sub-group.

Chavez, who has lambasted President Bush for years as an "imperialist," famously called Mr. Bush "the devil" during a U.N. speech several weeks ago.

That speech — criticized by many, including some of Chavez's friends in the world of geo-politics, as being in extremely poor taste — is believed to have influenced some voters in the General Assembly as dozens of ballots were held to decide the new Security Council member.

Panama was eventually put forward as a compromise by the 34 Latin American member nations when it became clear that neither Venezuela nor Guatemala was going to achieve the necessary majority of votes to win, nor were they going to back down.

In the final ballot count, Venezuela still got eleven votes, and Guatemala got four.

The five permanent members of the Council — which wield veto power on internal ballots related to matters of global security, including punitive sanctions for countries such as North Korea and Iran — are the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.

Panama's U.N. Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias has said his country presented its name in "a spirit of understanding the different conflicts that there are in the world, especially those caused by cultural and religious differences."

Because of Panama's very diverse culture and its different races and religion, he said the country can "contribute to peace and international stability."

Arias stressed that together with Peru, whose term on the council goes through 2007, Panama will defend the interests of Latin American and Caribbean countries.