Guyana’s UN ambassador enters race for secretary-general

Guyana has nominated its ambassador to the United Nations to run for secretary-general of the global body, the president of the South American nation announced late Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of Portugal will step down at the end of the year from the post he has held since 2017, after two terms.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Burkett has been Guyana’s representative to the UN since 2020. The Atlantic coastal nation tucked between Venezuela and Brazil has a population of fewer than one million people.

“Ambassador Rodrigues-Burkett’s vision for the United Nations centers on strengthening multilateralism, enhancing effectiveness and responsiveness of the organization, promoting inclusive global governance and ensuring the United Nations remains capable of addressing contemporary challenges,” Guyana President Irfaan Ali said in a broadcast.

He touted the 52-year-old ambassador’s leadership during Guyana’s two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“Our successful election to the United Nations Security Council, and the successful completion of our 2024-2025 term on that body, have demonstrated to the world that Guyana can provide leadership at various levels of the global system,” Ali said.

Rodrigues-Burkett served as Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2015, when she moved to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as Special Coordinator for Parliamentary Partnerships.

In 2017, she became head of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, Switzerland, where she remained until 2020.

To date, no woman has held the post of UN secretary general.

Many countries are advocating for a woman to head the UN for the first time, and Latin America is claiming the position based on a tradition of geographical rotation, which is not always strictly followed.

Michelle Bachelet, who served as president of Chile and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); and Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former foreign minister of Ecuador, are among those vying to succeed Guterres.

Other declared candidates are Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the former president of Senegal, Macky Sall.