U.S. aims to block Venezuela from Security Council seat

Dear Editor:

Despite the article’s ability to illuminate the acute tensions between the United States and Venezuela, Richter and Farley fail to address the nature of a potential major Latin American division perpetuated by the U.S. opposition to Venezuela’s membership on the UN Security Council (“U.S. aims to block Venezuela from Security Council seat,” June 19). While the U.S. is now not-so furtively attempting to coerce Latin American countries and its allies elsewhere into blocking Venezuela’s admission, the pressure could cause the revival of a Cold War type of attitude to spread throughout the region, which would prove foolish and irrelevant. The Bush administration’s caveman mentality of “either you are with us or against us” towards left-leaning government threatens to plunge Latin America back into the same divisive and unstable polarization between the left and right that was characteristic of the 1960s to 1980s.
Instead of focusing on the root cause of the leftward shift in political orientation – clearly a response to the region’s pervasive poverty and violence – the U.S. is abrasively confronting the rising leftist regimes. By pressuring Latin American states to vote against Venezuela’s bid for UN Security Council membership and back the approval of U.S.-friendly but violence-prone and drug sodden Guatemala in its place, the Bush administration risks polarization in the place of constructive dialogue, leaving little room for a compromising middle ground.