The vote for Venezuela was said to have been unanimous. It was held under the auspices of the ILO electoral board chaired by Juan Arias, a top Venezuelan diplomatic representative to the United Nations and international organizations based in Geneva.
Venezuela has been a member of the council for three successive terms – 1999-02, 2002-05 and 2005-08.
The council consists of 28 government members, 14 representatives of employers and 14 acting on behalf of employees, and its role is to discuss and reach decisions on ILO policy. It was evidently a day of double triumph for the government at the ILO. A proposal to bring Venezuela before a high committee at the ILO for allegedly not abiding by the organization's conventions was voted down by a council of workers and employers.
Mussa and Eduardo Sanchez, the coordinator of the National Workers Union (UNT), said the proposal had been put forward by the Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV) and Venezuela's biggest business organization, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Fedecamaras.
The CTV and Fedecamaras have long been active critics and opponents of President Hugo Chavez and his political project. In an unholy alliance, both were protagonists of the two-month national strike against Chavez from December 2002 until early February the following year. The strike failed, and both groups went on to play key roles in the campaign -- in partnership with the political opposition -- for the referendum which failed to end Chavez' mandate in August 2004. Since then, the CTV and Fedecamaras have been less active in politics.
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