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REGIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT IN DOUBT IN MARATHON GUATEMALA-VENEZUELA GENERAL ASSEMBLY BALLOTING.

Article Excerpt
After 35 successive ballots Oct. 17-18, the UN General Assembly was not able to give the decisive 128 votes either to Guatemala or to Venezuela to fill the Latin America regional seat on the Security Council. Guatemala led on all but one of the ballots but despite intense lobbying was not able to convince a two-thirds majority of member countries that it deserved the position. Guatemala has never won a place on the Security Council, whereas Venezuela has done so four times. By most accounts, this has been one of the most contentious electoral battles since the end of the Cold War, occasioned by the vast difference in visions between leftist Venezuela and a Guatemala that is widely regarded as a US surrogate (see NotiCen, 2006-07-27).

The vote was taken by secret ballot, meaning that both countries were disappointed by countries that might have committed to them during the preceding weeks of lobbying at the UN and high-level visits to world capitals.

Several countries' diplomats expressed the hope that one or the other of the contestants would drop out. Argentina's UN Ambassador Cesar Mayoral began talking to the Guatemalan press about the possibility of a third...

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