The fact that multilateral bodies are rife with admirers of tyrants is well known. That some rise to the highest positions within those globalist structures? Nothing new under the sun.

What is incredible is witnessing, in real time, the promotion of one such figure — as is happening today with the rollout of candidates to succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations (U.N.).

One of the frontrunners, having prevailed in the Security Council’s second straw poll on August 21, is Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. A former Guyanese ambassador to the U.N., she has a troubling history of championing some of the darkest groups and figures of the last century.

While the media praises the fact that — if confirmed — Rodrigues-Birkett would become the first woman and the first person of indigenous descent to lead the organization since its founding in 1945, they seem to overlook truly important issues. One of these is her understanding of democracy — not in theory, but in practice.

In January 2013, for instance, while serving as foreign minister (a post she held from 2008 to 2015), Rodrigues-Birkett presented a motion to Guyana’s National Assembly commemorating 40 years of diplomatic relations between the Cuban socialist tyranny and her country.

In the text, she paid tribute to “Commander Fidel not only for what he has done for Guyana, but also for humanity in general” and wished “long life and good health” to both Fidel and his brother, Raúl Castro. The motion also called for an end to the U.S. embargo against the island.

In that very year, 2013, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) documented more than 3,600 arbitrary detentions between January and September. These detentions were frequently used to prevent peaceful marches, opposition gatherings, activities by independent organizations, or events organized by the mothers, sisters, and wives of political prisoners — known as the Ladies in White.

During her recent tenure on the Security Council, Rodrigues-Birkett repeatedly accused the State of Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.

As Guyana’s representative on the Security Council, her remarks regarding Israel were consistently critical. In April 2024, during a debate on the Middle East, she maintained that “the current crisis cannot be limited to October 7” and that the occupation of territories and the displacement of the Palestinian population since 1948 constitute “the root cause of the current conflict,” according to the official record of the session.

In August 2024, she called on the Council to act “in the context of its own responsibility to protect innocent civilians from genocide,” according to the session summary published by Security Council Report, an independent organization that monitors the body’s work. In subsequent statements, she described the Israeli army’s conduct in Gaza as “mass atrocities” and characterized attacks on civilian infrastructure as part of a “pattern” she termed a “senseless massacre of the Palestinian people.”

Rodrigues-Birkett has not made similarly vehement comments regarding Islamist terrorism against Israeli citizens.

Her candidacy has the formal backing of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and she is competing against seven other aspirants for the U.N. secretary-general post, including Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan — current secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development — and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Rodrigues-Birkett is a familiar face in the corridors of the U.N. A few years ago, she headed the Geneva liaison office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and as Guyana’s ambassador to the U.N., she served on the Security Council for the 2024-2025 term.

However, that technical knowledge — and her understanding of the multilateral organization's inner workings — might not be enough for her to reach the top spot.

According to the newspaper Infobae, the United States — a key ally of Israel that exerts extreme pressure on the Castro regime and (crucially) holds veto power — has not revealed its position on Rodrigues-Birkett; however, her statements regarding Gaza and Havana contrast with the somewhat more moderate tone adopted by Grynspan and Grossi.

The selection process could drag on for weeks or months before the Council submits a recommendation to the U.N. General Assembly. Hopefully, the Trump administration will also pay attention to this matter amidst the storm of the midterm elections.