WSJ editorializes:

To understand why so many Americans dislike the U.N., consider that Venezuela, of all countries, stands a chance today of being elected by a vote of the General Assembly to one of the 10 non-permanent seats on the 15-member Security Council.

This is the same country whose megalomaniac ruler, Hugo Chávez, ranted against the U.S. last month to the laughter and applause of the assembled General Assembly grandees at Turtle Bay. His international initiatives this year have included warmer ties with North Korea and Iran, buying weapons from Russia and sowing revolution throughout Latin America.

Venezuela’s competition for the Latin American two-year seat that opens next year is Guatemala, a democracy that has never had a seat on the Security Council and is active in peacekeeping in Haiti and Africa. Guatemala signaled its intention to seek this seat in 2002, only to watch as Mr. Chávez jumped in the race in 2005 to get a larger megaphone for his radical views. The Caracas strongman has since played his oil card around the world to buy support, and he has the backing of the world’s club of dictators…

…With a two-thirds majority required to declare a winner in a secret ballot, more than several rounds of voting are expected. If Mr. Chávez wins, we’ll know that most U.N. members prefer anti-American posturing to a credible Security Council.

But we already knew that, didn’t we?

***

More on Chavez’s efforts to buy a Security Council seat with oil money via AP:

At Uruguay’s Hospital de Clinicas, a state-of-the-art transplant unit is being built with Venezuelan money. The emergency ward’s leaky roof and exposed cinderblocks have given way to freshly painted walls, windows in rust-corroded frames are being replaced, and new elevators are on order.

Hospital director Graciela Ubach put a hand over her heart to show her gratitude to Chavez.

“I thank him with my soul,” she said. “Honestly, it’s been a dream for the country.”

The public hospital struggled for funding for years until Venezuela came through with $20 million half in donations and the other half to be paid off in reciprocal training and other services.

Other Chavez pledges include: $260 million in financing to repave a Jamaican highway and $17 million in upgrades to airports on the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Dominica.

Chavez also came up with $5 million for an Uruguayan tire plant, glass business and leather factory as part of a $400 million flow of aid since March 2005, when Uruguay’s leftist President Tabare Vazquez took office, according to the Venezuelan Embassy in Uruguay…

…Ten of the Security Council’s 15 seats are filled by the regional groups for two-year stretches. The other five are occupied by its veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Chavez’s aid pledges, meanwhile, have come under attack ahead of Venezuela’s Dec. 3 presidential vote by opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, who says poor Venezuelans need the money.

Chavez points to government-funded improvements at Venezuela’s universities, medical clinics, subsidized food markets and train lines, and insists his foreign aid is aimed at countering the effects of U.S.-inspired capitalism.

Ironically, this aid is bankrolled in large part by oil sales to the United States.

Venezuela also bought or pledged to buy more than $3.6 billion in bonds from Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia to help them cover deficits. Most of that $3.5 billion went to Argentina, helping a leftist ally pay off its World Bank and International Monetary Fund debts. Venezuela then recycles the bonds though its own banks and ends up with a profit that between early last year and July 2006 totaled $200 million.

Stay tuned.