Mexico Breaks Voting Record; Becomes UN Security Council Member

Yesterday, Mexico was elected by the member states of the UN as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the period 2021 to 2022. It should be noted that this is the only UN body whose decisions, according to the Charter, member states are obligated to comply with. Its primary responsibility is maintaining international peace and security. Also, during this vote, the next President of the General Assembly was also elected, as well as 18 countries that will form part of the Economic and Social Council.

Mexico had a spectacular performance in the voting, since according to UN data, it obtained 187 of the 192 possible votes to enter the Security Council. In addition, India, Norway and Ireland will accompany Mexico as non-permanent members of the Security Council. In comparison, Norway and Ireland were elected with 130 votes, just two votes above the required 128 votes, while India got 184 votes.

In the event that any country in the world is threatened, the Security Council is the first to seek a peaceful resolution through investigations, mediations, dispatching of Blue Helmet missions, appointing special envoys, economic sanctions, an arms embargo, financial restrictions and other means. 

Mexico will act as the regional representative of Latin America and the Caribbean. It will be able to suggest topics to be discussed in the Security Council and will act as a counterweight to make sure that the permanent members do their job following international interest. This is not the first time Mexico is elected a non-permanent member of the Security Council, since on four previous occasions the country has occupied a seat on the council in 1946, 1980-1981, 2001-2002, 2009-2010 and now in 2021 to 2022.

According to a Milenio note, the first time that Mexico participated in the Security Council was during the condemnation of the Franco regime in Spain, as it put regional peace and security in danger. Another key moment was the vote to decide whether to support the US in 2003 to inspect Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Mexico abstained from voting, although it did support the Coalition of Provisional Authority in Iraq to replace Saddam Hussein, according to the same note.

Mexico will now be part of the current Security Council agenda that has human rights issues in Syria on the table, as well as acts of terrorism in Northeast Nigeria, atrocity crimes in Iraq, stabilization of Mali in the global framework of the pandemic and a severely affected world economy.