Five more rounds of voting in the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday failed to produce the winner of the non-permanent Latin American seat in the U.N. Security Council, and voting will resume again on Wednesday. After 43 rounds of voting, there was no agreement from the 192 member states over the candidacy of either Venezuela or Guatemala. Neither candidate obtained the necessary two-thirds majority, so voting was opened up to include candidates from all the Caribbean and Latin American countries, excluding Peru and Argentina, who are currently on the council. Barbados, Ecuador, and Uruguay were proposed by secret ballot along with Venezuela and Guatemala, but they each received less than three votes, assuring U.N. members that the voting process will continue. Chile s U.N. Ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, said there is a strong possibility the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Guatemala will meet Wednesday in New York City, and he said Latin American and Caribbean nations hope they will come up with a political solution and compromise candidate. So long as they re talking, there s a possibility that we may arrive at a solution of consensus. That s what we hope, but in the meantime, we re voting, Munoz said. The Dominican Republic appeared to be emerging as a leading alternative to serve a two-year term on the most powerful U.N. forum. Venezuela said Monday that while the country has offered close ally Bolivia as an alternative, it is also open to others. Guatemala said it also would consider backing a third country. Guatemala has led consistently on vote after vote, and we ll vote again today and see what happens, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. As long as Guatemala's in the race, we support Guatemala, we think that they've got good substantive arguments for their candidacy, and we've expressed our concerns about Venezuela.
