Guatemala, Venezuela choose Panama for UN seat

Guatemala and Venezuela agreed to support Panama as a consensus candidate for a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council, Ecuador's UN Ambassador Diego Cordovez announced Wednesday evening.

They agreed to give up their own bid for the seat and supported Panama as a compromise candidate for the 35-member Latin American and Caribbean group, said Cordovez, who hosted two rounds of talks between Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.

Cordovez said the two ministers will present the choice to a meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean group on Thursday for approval. After that, the UN General Assembly must vote.

Guatemala and Venezuela were vying for the Latin American seat that Argentina will vacate on Dec. 31. Guatemala, backed by the United States, led Venezuela by about 25 votes in all but one of the 47 rounds of balloting that started on Oct. 16. But Guatemala fell short of a required two-third majority to secure the seat.

Earlier on Wednesday, the assembly decided to suspend a new round of voting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and postponed the balloting to next Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua