The failing socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
At a U.N. General Assembly meeting in Geneva on Friday, the Latin American country was elected to one of 14 new seats on the 47-member body.
Maduro’s government, BBC News reported, hailed it as an “important achievement.”
But his administration is accused of jailing, torturing and arbitrarily arresting opposition figures. And more than 50 countries, including the United States, no longer recognize Maduro as the country’s legitimate leader.
Members of the council, BBC News noted, work to uphold and promote human rights around the world.
Scattered applause was heard in the General Assembly chamber in response to Venezuela winning one of two Latin American seats. Brazil garnered 153 votes, followed by Venezuela with 105 votes and Costa Rica with 96.
Prior to the vote, Louis Charbonneau of the non-profit group Human Rights Watch urged member states to oppose Venezuela.
“A vote for Venezuela is a vote for the torture, murder, and impunity that have become trademarks of President Nicolás Maduro’s government,” he said.
Charbonneau called it a “slap in the face to the millions who have fled the country.”
In its 2017 annual report, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights found nine members of the U.N. Human Rights Council were violators of human rights.
The countries are Burundi, Egypt, Rwanda, Cuba, Venezuela, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Maduro’s victory “proves that the United Nations is fundamentally broken,” wrote Washington Examiner columnist Tom Rogan.
“Under his authoritarianism, Venezuela’s child mortality rate has skyrocketed and medicines have disappeared,” he said. “Instead of exporting oil, of which it has the greatest proven reserves of any nation on Earth, Venezuela now turns its professionals into prostitutes and expels them to Colombia.”
Rogan also noted that simultaneously with the vote, the United Nations’ Twitter feed was proclaiming its struggle against child poverty.
He urged the U.S. to continue withholding funding “until the organization agrees to fix itself with serious and systemic reform.”
