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Nikki Hailey’s human rights op-ed

U.S. ambassador to the UN writes at the WaPo: The U.N. Human Rights Council whitewashes brutality

The president of Venezuela, whose government shoots protesters in the street, recently thanked the international community for its “universal vote of confidence” in that country’s commitment to human rights.

The Cuban deputy foreign minister, whose government imprisons thousands of political opponents, once said Cuba has historic prestige “in the promotion and protection of all human rights.”

How can these people get away with saying such things? Because they have been elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose members are — on paper — charged with “upholding the highest standards” of human rights.

On paper only, since

Venezuela is a member of the council despite the systematic destruction of civil society by the government of Nicolás Maduro through arbitrary detention, torture and blatant violations of freedom of the press and expression. Mothers are forced to dig through trash cans to feed their children. This is a crisis that has been 18 years in the making. And yet, not once has the Human Rights Council seen fit to condemn Venezuela.

Cuba’s government strictly controls the media and severely restricts the Cuban people’s access to the Internet. Thousands are arbitrarily detained each year, with some political prisoners serving long sentences. Yet Cuba has never been condemned by the council; it, too, is a member.

Read the whole thing.

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Colombia: Santos presents FARC peace agreement to UN Security Council

LAHT reports,

Santos submitted the document to the Security Council’s president in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who confirmed that he would travel to the northern Colombian city of Cartagena next week for the signing of the peace agreement.

It’ll be interesting to see who actually gets to sign the agreement; the document I read last month (which is titled “final agreement”) did not show President Santos or Timoleón Jiménez a.k.a. Timochenko (who will remain as FARC leader) as signatories.

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Venezuela: Argentina’s OAS tit-for-tat

As mentioned earlier, OAS chief Luis Almagro called for a meeting to discuss Venezuela’s human rights violations of the Democratic Charter.

Almagro needs at least eighteen votes to sanction Venezuela, which may prove difficult.

Caricom countries are still hopeful they could continue their very profitable Petrocaribe arrangements with Venezuela, as described in this article from Jamaica,

In essence, when the market price of oil exceeds $40 per barrel, the monetary value representing between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of each sale is loaned to the Government of Jamaica. This loan is to be repaid over a period of 25 years at the rate of 1 per cent per annum. Where the market price of oil is below $40, the monetary value representing between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of each sale is available to the Government of Jamaica as a loan for 17 years at 2 per cent. In either case, therefore, Jamaica receives a loan from Venezuela on concessionary terms.

Whether their hopes are realistic remains to be seen, but for now they are siding with Venezuela.

Another hurdle comes from Argentina. Casto Ocando, writing at Vértice (link in Spanish), reports on the internal battle lead by Argentina against the OAS sanctioning Venezuela.

Ocando has the documents,

Venezuela is trying to buy time and calls for “dialogue”; John Kerry, consistent with the Obama administration’s never-ending streak of “smart diplomacy“, supports this call for “dialogue,” and so does Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, Juan José Arcuri.

Why Argentina?
Diplomatic sources revealed to Ocando that Argentina’s current foreign minister and former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, Susana Malcorra, has pledged to support to Venezuela at the OAS in exchange for Venezuela’s vote at the UN.

in practical terms this means that Malcorra will block OAS sanctions against the Venezuelan communist regime so she gets to be chief of the United Nations. Great values for a Secretary General at the UN cesspool.

And she has Macri’s backing because it will add to his administration’s “achievements.”

H/t Alek Boyd’s FB feed.

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.



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Venezuela: Central Bank head Merentes lost his cash

A 17 year old girl stole $300,000, along with €40,000 and three Rolex watches from Central Bank president Nelson Merentes, who has not reported the theft. Whether you call that much money lying around petty cash or bug-out moolah, Merentes doesn’t want to answer questions.

The story came to light after Merentes, age 61, allegedly hired a private detective to find out who took the cash, according to Runrunes (link in Spanish).

As it turns out, 17 year old Hyser Betancourt was one of a long string of young girlfriends that, according to journalist Manuel Isidro Molina, include the current Miss Venezuela Mariana Jimenez.

Molina reports that Merentes paid Osmel Souza (president of the Miss Venezuela pageant) $500,000 to secure the Miss Universe title for Mariana Jimenez, but she did not win.

For now, Betancourt says her cousin is the one who took the money, Betancourt and her mom are working Instagram for all it’s worth wanting to be known as the Venezuelan Kardashians, and Merentes is not talking.

Meanwhile,

The United Nations General Assembly has identified Venezuela among nine countries that are not allowed to vote in the current 70th Session because of arrears in paying their dues.

But look at the bright side: Hugo Chavez’s daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez, is now just another billionaire in the Big Apple and unable to vote in the Security Council.

That’s another day in the Bolivarian Revolution.



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Colombia: Good luck with the U.N. monitors

UN to monitor end of Colombia-Farc conflict. Peace talks to end decades long war have made progress with a final deal due to be signed in March

“One for all, and all for one?”

Yes, the U.N., one of the most corrupt organizations in the world:

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that, at the request of the two sides, establishes a “political mission” with unarmed international observers.

The mission will be in place for at least 12 months to supervise and check the laying down of arms, and be part of a tripartite body to “monitor and verify the definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities” between Bogota and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels, the resolution said.

Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian President, said: “The Security Council’s decision means we are no longer going alone, but hand in hand with the UN, the entire world, towards the end of this war.”

Alvaro Uribe strings on Twitter (my translation),

“1. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the risk is, from which countries!”

“2. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the grave problem is that those responsible for atrocities won’t be going to jail!”

“3. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the grave problem is the terrorist leaders’ political eligibility!”

“4. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the grave problem is equating the Armed Forces with terrorism!”

“5. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the grave problem is no extraditions or punishment in Colombia, plus electing the world’s largest cocaine cartel!”

“6. Having the U.N. supervise is not the issue, the grave problem is using the U.N. to cover up surrendering the country to the FARC”

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Venezuela: Lopez, the lying prosecutor, and the UN

As you may recall, last September dissident leader Leopoldo López was sentenced to 13+ years in jail following a sham trial. He was jailed on February 18, 2014.

Now the case’s prosecutor, Franklin Nieves, is saying the case was 100% fabricated:
Case against Venezuelan opposition leader fabricated, ex-prosecutor says 

Ex-prosecutor Franklin Nieves, who fled Venezuela last week, told CNN en Español on Tuesday that “100% of the investigation was invented” around false evidence in a sham prosecution allegedly orchestrated by President Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly.
. . .
The former prosecutor said that “after examining each and every piece of evidence it was shown that this person had at no point made even a single call to violence.”

It would make for a Capt. Louis Renault moment, but the actual surprise is that Nieves confessed.

The WSJ has the motive behind the confession (emphasis added):
Venezuela Prosecutor Franklin Nieves Says Opposition Leader’s Trial Was a Sham. Leopoldo López’s conviction last month was ordered from above, prosecutor says after escaping to Miami

“Leopoldo López is innocent,” Mr. Nieves said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, his first since fleeing Venezuela late last week and releasing a video saying the proceedings were bogus. His about-face is causing a political uproar in Caracas and a thorny problem for the embattled administration of President Nicolás Maduro, the heir to the late populist Hugo Chávez.

Dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief, Mr. Nieves apologized for his actions as the prosecutor who detained Mr. López and jointly supervised his trial. “From my heart, I want to ask for forgiveness from Venezuela, Leopoldo López’s, López’s wife, the López family, and especially from their children,” he said.

After claiming they were heading for a vacation in Aruba, Mr. Nieves brought his wife and two daughters with him to Miami, where the family is seeking asylum in the U.S.,

Here’s Nieves’s recorded statement (in Spanish),

The WSj points out,

But it is one thing for human rights groups to say the trial was a farce, and quite another for the prosecutor to admit it. The statements by the prosecutor, a brief version of which surfaced in a video released last week, have underscored the lack of an independent judiciary in Venezuela.

“The lack of independence and autonomy of the judiciary from political power is one of the weakest points of democracy in Venezuela,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an independent arm of the Organization of American States, said in its 2014 annual report released in May of this year.

That same year, the United Nations Committee Against Torture found that some 62% of judges in Venezuela are in temporary posts, meaning they can be removed at the will of the state, raising concerns over their impartiality.

Not that such thing matters at the UN;

UN Watch today urged member states of the UN General Assembly to oppose the re-election on Wednesday of egregious human rights abusers Venezuela, Pakistan and UAE to the UN Human Rights Council, as well as Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Lao, and Togo, due to widespread criticism of these governments’ violations of fundamental freedoms.

Sure enough, Venezuela was elected to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, proving once more that the U.N. is immune to irony (and ridicule).

At the blogs:
Caracas Chronicles: Nieves the Victim. Leopoldo López’s prosecutor, Franklin Nieves, wallows in self-pity as he tells the world he participated in a plot to fake the evidence used against Lopez.

Venezuela News and Views: The banality of evil, Caracas style

Breitbart: VENEZUELA: LEOPOLDO LÓPEZ PROSECUTOR DEFECTS TO U.S., CASE WAS ‘100% FALSE’

HACER: #Venezuela Fiscal del caso de Leopoldo López admite que usó pruebas falsas bajo presión



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Bolivia: Ban Ki-moon visits

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was a speaker at the Peoples World Conference on Climate Change and the Defence of Life,

He then commended the Government of Bolivia and President Evo Morales for introducing International Mother Earth Day to the United Nations General Assembly in 2009.

Bolivia, he said, had also inspired the discussions on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the principle of “vivir bien.”

“Vivir bien”, living well, eludes Bolivia, with a GDP per capita of $4,843, 118th in the world.

Continuing,

The Secretary-General noted that, in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly, President Morales had explained the concept as “living in solidarity with people and in harmony with Mother Earth,” a reminder “that well-being is not only about material advantages, but social and spiritual well-being” and that “well-being cannot be achieved without respecting and protecting our planet.”

That “social and spiritual well-being” better go a long way, but it’s no coincidence that Communism uses a lot of old Catholic memes.

Speaking of Communists, Ban Ki-moon arrived in Bolivia rallying the troops to Che Guevara’s old slogan, “Patria o muerte” (Motherland or death), to which the troops enthusiastically replied, “Venceremos” (we will win)!

A real trooper, while in Bolivia he wore ponchos and a bread wreath when visiting a government project with Evo Morales in Cochabamba,

Morales-ONU-Ban-Ki-moon-Cochabamba_LPRIMA20151012_0063_24

What a guy.

The UNSG committed to eradicating world poverty by 2030, which is barely 5 years after Evo finishes implementing his “13 pillars of action.” Maybe Ban Ki-moon ought to consider moving UN headquarters to La Paz or Sucre in order to stimulate the local economy.

—————————————

Elsewhere, Michael Ledeen looks at The New Axis of Evil,

We now face a more potent Axis of Evil that includes two of the original three (North Korea and Iran, with Iraq up for grabs), plus Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, and terrorist groups including al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State. With the exception of their hatred of the West, there is no single ideology that unites them. The new Axis includes Sunni and Shi’ite radical Muslims, Communists and other radical leftists, and nationalistic secular tyrants like Vladimir Putin. They have certainly succeeded in wrecking hopes for a peaceful world.

That’s what John Perdue wrote about a few years ago in The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism.

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