Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named powerful Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafael Ramirez to a new post as envoy to the UN on Friday, saying that the appointment would strengthen the nation’s voice on the UN Security Council starting on Thursday.
Venezuela’s socialist government sees its imminent two-year seat on the council as a chance to raise its international profile and counteract the US’ influence.
Ramirez, a former minister of energy and head of state oil company PDVSA, has headed the foreign ministry since September and has continued to be Venezuela’s representative in OPEC.
Photo: EPA
Former Venezuelan minister of Popular Power for Communications and Information Delcy Rodriguez, a lawyer who stepped down from that post in October, is to take over at the foreign ministry, the president said.
Ramirez’s appointment to the UN post would likely be interpreted by government opponents as a further demotion for one of the most powerful men in Venezuela.
He was moved from the twin oil posts and another role as vice president for the economy after proposing reforms — such as a unified currency rate and a rise in gasoline prices — that did not win approval.
Photo: Reuters
Maduro, who made the announcement via Twitter, said that the move was a direct result of Venezuela’s heightened UN status.
“We believe in a multipolar and multicentric world, and from the UN Security Council we are going to fight for a new 21st-century world,” said Maduro, who became president last year after former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez died.
“With Chavez’s Bolivarian vision, we are going to fulfill our task of defending the right to peace and sovereignty for the peoples of the world,” he added, in a reference to Chavez’s inspiration, Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Foreign critics of the Maduro government, particularly US legislators in the nation’s Republican Party, say that Venezuela should never have been awarded a UN Security Council seat, given this year’s repression of opposition-led street protests.
Maduro termed the protests — which sparked violence that killed 43 people, including demonstrators, government supporters and security officials — a US-fanned coup attempt.
Venezuela was elected to the Security Council in October by the 193-member UN General Assembly with 181 votes. Malaysia, Angola, New Zealand and Spain were also elected to the council.
Chavez’s daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez, is the nation’s deputy ambassador to the UN.
It was unclear whether Ramirez would continue in his OPEC role.
“I accept with revolutionary discipline President Maduro’s decision,” Ramirez tweeted. “From any place or position that the revolution decides, I will battle to defend our fatherland with honesty and firmness.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese