Colombia is set to win a rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council to represent Latin America and the Caribbean at the body in 2011 and 2012, President Juan Manuel Santos announced Saturday.
The president, speaking at a meeting in Medellin, said that Colombia’s candidacy gained the support of 140 of the 192 member nations of the U.N. The Andean nation will assume the seat, currently held by Mexico, on January 1.
“There has been a permanent effort these years, together with the 192 members of the U.N., seeking to secure the confidence in Colombia as a country that in the past decade has consolidated security and democracy,” Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S., Claudia Blum, added.
Colombia’s ambition to sit on the Security Council for the sixth time in the country’s history was opposed by Bolivia, which said that Colombia’s presence on the Security Council would expand the power of the United States, a permanent member of the council.
The Security Council has five permanent members, who can veto any resolution, and ten non-permanent members. Five of these rotating seats are changed each year. Colombia won the Latin America and the Caribbean nomination, and will join India, South Africa, and two countries out of Germany, Portugal, and Canada.
