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.”
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS