MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No end in sight for Guatemala/Venezuela UN stalemate

Guatemala and Venezuela's Foreign Affairs ministers are scheduled to meet Wednesday following another day of inconclusive voting on Tuesday which failed to choose who will be occupying the non permanent seat of the United Nations Security Council.

Guatemala garnered 105 votes and Venezuela 75, but still short of the UN General Assembly's two thirds 125 votes. However, unexpected votes went for Uruguay, one, Ecuador, two, and Jamaica, one.

Given the no win situation following five days of voting Guatemala's Gert Rosenthal and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro will be meeting to find alternatives to the current situation and possibly agree on a consensus candidate.

Latinamerica has two non permanent seats in the UN fifteen Security Council, one is currently occupied by Peru that still has another year, and Argentina's which expires next December. The two year seats are renewed alternatively every year.

However in spite of the meeting Guatemala sees "no conditions" to give up its claim to the seat since "we've been ahead in the more than forty voting rounds with the exception of a draw", said Guatemala's Rosenthal.

In Caracas, Venezuelan vice president Jose Vicente Rangel said his country was ready to support a third Latinamerican candidacy, if voting remains stalled.

"We want to find a definitive option to end the stale mate", but "Guatemala must also give up its candidacy".

Rosenthal argued that traditionally the runner up in the voting rounds drops out and recalled that Guatemala has never been a member of the UN Security Council, while Venezuela has been in four occasions.

Venezuela which has strained relations with the US Bush administration underlines that Guatemala is the "White House candidate" and therefore insists they also give up their candidacy.

Some of the countries named as options are the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia plus Mexico and Brazil which have rejected the idea.