U.N. votes remain split on Security Council seat
UNITED NATIONS – Venezuela and Guatemala hit a deadlock Monday in their battle for a seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council, after 10 rounds of voting failed to anoint a winner to fill the spot reserved for Latin America.
Guatemala led in nine of the 10 ballots but could not get the two-thirds majority necessary to win. Nonetheless, the results were a defeat for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had campaigned by railing against the United States and promised to use his nation’s voice on the 15-member council to counter Washington’s influence.
The other four seats that will come open on the council were filled easily. South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium will start their terms on the council on Jan. 1, replacing Tanzania, Japan, Denmark and Greece.
Neither Venezuela nor Guatemala appeared willing to drop out of the election, which resumes today with another round of balloting. Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Francisco Arias Cardenas complained the United States has pressured countries worldwide to prevent Venezuela from winning the two-year rotating seat.
“Venezuela will not withdraw – we’re fighting until the end,” Cardenas said. “We are fighting against the first power of the world, the owners of the universe. We’re happy, we’re strong and we will continue.”
The voting pattern fluctuated through the day. In the early rounds, Guatemala got 116 votes and Venezuela just 70. Then, in the sixth round of voting, they tied at 93 each. On the last vote, Guatemala led again, with 110 to Venezuela’s 77. That was still short of the 125 needed to win.
Diplomats said Chavez may have hurt his nation’s chances with a bombastic speech at the General Assembly debate in September, when he railed against the United States and called President George W. Bush “the devil.”
Yet the vote also reflected the ambivalence toward Guatemala, the candidate preferred by Washington. Even Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal had earlier expressed discomfort about the highly public American campaign against Venezuela and in support of Guatemala.
After the voting ended Monday, Rosenthal said his nation was an “independent voice” that would vote according to its own policies.
Diplomats said it was far too early to think of a compromise candidate to come forward to fill the seat that Argentina will vacate at the end of the year. Peru holds the other seat reserved for Latin America until Dec. 31, 2007.
The record number of ballots for a Security Council seat occurred in 1979, when the General Assembly held 154 unsuccessful votes to choose between Cuba and Colombia. Mexico was then put forward and won in the 155th round.