Venezuela Favors Bolivia for U.N. Seat

AP ^ | 10/27/6 | EDITH M. LEDERER

[SmithL]

UNITED NATIONS -- Venezuela accused Guatemala on Friday of bowing to U.S. pressure and backing out of talks on a compromise candidate to break a deadlock in their battle for a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said if talks resume his government will again propose Bolivia as a compromise nation "because it is an emerging country with a new leadership representing very well South America."

Latin American diplomats had hoped that high-level talks on Thursday between Maduro and Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal could break the impasse after 41 ballots failed to produce a winner, but both countries refused to withdraw.

Guatemala has led Venezuela in all but one of the votes, where they tied, but it has been clear since the early ballots that neither can muster the needed two-thirds support in the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly.

The United States backs Guatemala, and leftist Venezuela is led by the fiercely anti-American President Hugo Chavez.

Maduro said that between Monday and Tuesday several countries were contacted as possible alternatives as agreed by the two countries. Some said no and some agreed to be considered as a possible compromise, he said.

But at Thursday's meeting "they said they were canceling all the talks and they did not recognize the agreements made on Monday and Tuesday," he told two reporters after meeting Arab nations to campaign for additional votes.

"The Foreign Ministry of Guatemala is changing its mind because they are following the signal sent by the U.S. administration," Maduro said.

Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, rejected Maduro's claim.

"Venezuela's stragegy has always been to make this about the United States. This issue is about who would serve best on the Security Council. Clearly, it is our opinion that Guatemala...

[StJacques]

A Latin American Left Watch ping for you all.

Anyone wishing to be included on the ping list may either ping me from this thread or contact me via Freepmail.

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And by way of comment; Bolivia will NOT get the seat. The U.S. and its allies recognize that Evo Morales is a Chavez lapdog. If a compromise candidate is found -- and Guatemala may actually end up staying in the race to eventually win -- look for the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica (both acceptable to the U.S.) or possibly Uruguay (less desirable to the U.S. but a solution we could eventually live with if it comes down to it).

[Alia]

I concur with your assessment: I don't think Bolivia is going to get the seat, either.

[SAJ]

Ditto your analysis. The new gov't in Uruguay, however, takes its cue from daSilva, and that is not any sort of good news.

[3AngelaD]

The sock puppet's sock puppet, as someone on another post described Evo Morales. I'm sure Hugito's friends will long remember how he screwed Guatemala on this one.