In UN political drama, it's all about the US

"All I can say is that back in 2000, I spent 31 days in Florida," said John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, at one point on Monday, referring to his role in the legal wrangling that ultimately won the presidency for Bush. "This has just begun."

Mr. Bolton's words suggest the importance the US is putting in the outcome.

By the seventh vote on Monday, talk had shifted to the goodies the candidates were passing out to secure any wavering votes: chocolates with "Venezuela" wrappers from one side, woven friendship bracelets from the other.

But others alluded to much more heavy-handed tactics than those quaint campaign tools. Venezuela's ambassador, Francisco Javier Arias Cárdenas, said the people of the world were "resisting with dignity the pressures of the imperial power." He claimed the US was seeking to sway the vote by issuing both promises of aid for supporting Guatemala and threats of financial retaliation against any developing country siding with Venezuela.

Yet other diplomats referred to Chávez's nearly two-year-long campaign to win a Council seat and noted that Chávez, as leader of a major oil- producing nation, had signed numerous bilateral trade pacts while pursuing his campaign. As one diplomat noted in a tongue-in-cheek explanation for the sudden spurt in support for Venezuela in one ballot: "They upped the ante – now it's a full tanker in every port!"

Yet kidding aside, some diplomats noted there is precedent to suggest that the balloting might not be nearing a quick denouement. UN officials did some digging and found that in 1979, another vote on a Security Council seat – again involving Latin America's slot – had taken 155 ballots stretching from October to January.

In that case, a battle pitting Cuba against Colombia was resolved when Mexico finally emerged as a compromise candidate.

While Venezuela's ambassador didn't want to hear any talk of a consensus candidate to break a deadlock, the names of nations like Uruguay, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic floated around the hall.

And Mexico's ambassador, Enrique Berruga, said that Mexico was pressing for a meeting of Latin American countries Tuesday, to find a solution to the deadlock.

At the same time, Guatemalan officials insisted they were in the fight to stay. But their delegation's leader suggested Monday afternoon that he understood a continuing stalemate could not be allowed to go on forever.

"We are not obstinate," said Guatemala's foreign minister, Gert Rosenthal, at the end of voting Monday. "If after two, three, four days, neither country has arrived at the two-thirds needed, logically we have to consider a third candidate."

And then he continued with words that, either by design or not, contrasted with the politicking that has dominated the voting. "This has never been a national crusade [for us] to be on the Security Council." Noting that the UN spearheaded the peace process that ended Guatemala's civil war in 1996, he added, "We are giving back to the UN what the UN gave to Guatemala."

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