Nicaraguan US critic made UN assembly president

A former Nicaraguan foreign minister who has been a sharp critic of the US was elected as the next president of the UN General Assembly.

Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann was elected by acclamation by the 192-member assembly after standing unopposed as candidate of Latin American and Caribbean countries, whose turn it was to hold the post. He will assume the year-long job on September 16.

The assembly president has little power but chairs an annual gathering of world leaders in late September. He or she also presides over regular assembly debates, many on development issues, and oversees a long-running drive to expand membership of the powerful UN Security Council.

Mr D’Escoto, 75, was foreign minister in the leftist Sandinista administration that ruled Nicaragua from 1979-90, during which time it fought against an insurgency by US-backed Contra rebels.

He succeeds Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia.

In an acceptance speech in Spanish, Mr D’Escoto made no direct criticisms of the US but made a barbed reference to “acts of aggression” in Iraq and Afghanistan, where US forces are fighting insurgents.