Caracas Chronicles

So, it turns out that silly oppo commentators like me had it all wrong: the reason Chavez spent the last few months visiting some 30 capitals and handing out over a billion dollars sweetening up developing country governments was not to get a UN Security Council seat at all. Heavens no! The point, it turns out, was to demonstrate we could block a US-backed bid if we wanted to, to teach the empire a lesson. An objective, you’ll agree, that “we have fulfilled.”

Sigh.

So is this a sign that Chávez is ready to declare victory and move on from this embarrassing episode? Not at all. His acknowledgement that Venezuela will not get a rotating UN Security Council seat was followed not by acceptance of the need for a consensus candidate, but by a vow not to give up.

Pardon me if I fail to see any logic in this one. Once you’ve fessed up that you’re not going to get the UNSC seat, what possible point is there in “not giving up”? To make sure they’ve learned their lesson extra good? Or to annoy the shit out of 192 UN ambassadors?

It’s almost churchillian, the sentiment…

We shall annoy them on the seas and oceans, we shall annoy them with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall annoy them on the beaches, we shall annoy them on the landing grounds, we shall annoy them in the fields and in the streets, we shall annoy them in the hills; we shall never surrender.