At the United Nations, the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Guatemala are expected to meet today in attempts to resolve the stalemate in their race to assume Latin America’s open seat on the Security Council. Guatemala leads Venezuela after forty-one rounds of voting but has yet to attract a two-thirds majority. Guatemala has reportedly dismissed Venezuela’s proposal to choose Bolivia as a compromise candidate. A meeting Wednesday between the countries’ ambassadors to the UN failed to reach a solution. On Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government was open to another candidate so long as it was independent of the United States.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “They suspended the vote for a few days, until today. They called a meeting, and someone said the two candidates will have to be withdrawn to find a consensus candidate. They proposed another country, that I am not going to name, but another country whose government will do what the U.S. government tell them. No — We will not accept that.”