With the Chilean Michelle Bachelet, the interpellation hearings began for the four candidates to succeed António Guterres as the general secretary of the United Nations. There are less than a third of the candidates from 10 years ago, when the Portuguese was elected, with the organization's role as a geopolitical actor severely undermined. Bachelet could face a veto from the United States for her pro-abortion position.

First modification: 04/22/2026 - 04:00Last modification: 04/23/2026 - 00:03

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The process for the election of a new UN Secretary General began this April 21 with several more or less clear consensuses.

First: it is more than likely that the time has come for a woman to head the organization. Second: Latin America (which presents three of the four candidates) seems poised to benefit from the rotation. Third: whoever is elected will find a panorama in which the weight of the United Nations and multilateralism itself has been reduced to historic lows.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was the first of those questioned, with the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Argentine Rafael Grossi, the former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan and the former Senegalese President Macky Sall scheduled for the following sessions.

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He spoke before an audience that brought together member countries and representatives of civil society who asked him about various topics on his program if he reached the top of the multilateral organization.

Bachelet: between vetoes and calls for dialogue

The former left-wing Chilean president, who initially looked like the great favorite, after her role as high commissioner for Human Rights, faces two challenges: that of her own country, which withdrew its support as soon as the far-right José Antonio Kast came to power, and that of American conservatism, which will seek to veto her for her position in favor of abortion.

A group of 28 Republican legislators wrote a letter at the end of March to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to veto Bachelet, for being "a pro-abortion fanatic determined to use political authority to override state sovereignty in favor of extreme agendas."

The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, has not officially commented on the matter, but last week, during a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he confessed to Republican Pete Ricketts that he shared his “concerns” about Bachelet's suitability.

The prospect of the United States exercising its veto power in the UN Security Council (which is responsible for making recommendations on the new secretary general to the General Assembly) has not shaken Bachelet's position.

"I firmly believe in women's rights, and I don't think they can be separated. I don't think you can say that women have the right to A, B and C, but not D, E and F. I think women should decide about their own lives. They should also decide how many children they want to have," she said when asked by journalists after three hours of interactive dialogue.

In her presentation, Bachelet called for “redesigning the architecture” of the UN, as a way to overcome the weakening of multilateralism, and defended dialogue as an alternative to conflicts.

He avoided commenting on the Palestinian situation or on Donald Trump's threats against Cuba, about which the island's ambassador asked him, and cited Nelson Mandela and the Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra to reinforce his defense of understanding.

Meanwhile in Chile, Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna elaborated on the reasons for the Kast Government's decision to withdraw support for the application that Gabriel Boric made together with Brasilia and Mexico City.

"When we decided what to communicate, it was basically due to the perception that the probability of success was very low due to the fragmentation of candidates in the region and because we also had information that it was likely that important actors in the process were not supporting," said the head of Chilean diplomacy.

Is Russia starting to move its chips?

Although it is not written, the principle of alternation has been observed more or less rigorously in the last elections. The European Guterres followed the Asian Ban Ki-moon and the latter followed the African Kofi Annan, but before the Ghanaian there was another secretary general of his continent, the Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The last (and only) Latin American in office was the Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who headed the organization from January 1, 1982 to December 31, 1991, dates of entry and exit of the five-year periods, which can be extended for another five years.

He had to manage the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, the Iran and Iraq War, the beginning of the Balkan conflict, supervise the departure of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan and play a crucial role in the end of the civil war in El Salvador.

Now, with 75% of the candidates born in the region, it is taken for granted that the new secretary general will be a Latin American, and one of the countries with veto power in the Security Council, Russia, has allowed its sympathies for the Argentine Grossi to transcend.

"We know many of the potential candidates. We have a good opinion of Grossi," Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said during his regular exchange with the media.

As director of the IAEA, Grossi has been instrumental in guarding the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, threatened in the context of the war in Ukraine, and the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, built and managed largely by Russian engineers.

Grossi was the second to appear to present his management program and defended his proposal for a more “active and pragmatic” role for the UN in the face of the global escalation of conflicts.

"The general feeling is that war is prevailing and that it is reaching Europe, Africa and even, in a certain sense, America. There is no continent that is not experiencing this return," acknowledged the Argentine diplomat, who some time ago had warned that the United Nations ran the risk of falling "into inconsequentiality."

"I believe that, as an international community, we have not lost faith in international law as a universal principle that guides us all. As secretary general, working with you, we will be able to strengthen the credibility of this institution, making it more in line with the challenges we face," he said during his presentation.

Grossi advocated for a UN with decisive capacity. "Principles should be the compass, but this house was not created to issue messages from an ivory tower, but to solve problems on the ground," he said.

This April 22 will be the turn of Grynspan, who was secretary general of the United Nations agency for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Ibero-American secretary general, and Sall, a former Senegalese president who did not have the support of either his country or the African Union and was nominated by Burundi.

After these presentations, the 15 members of the Security Council must begin debating behind closed doors at the end of July, to define the candidate they will nominate.

At some point between August and October, the General Assembly will be convened to make the nomination of the nominee official.

With EFE, Reuters and AP

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