Venezuela to give up UN candidacy for Bolivia: Morales

[There is also this story, which claims the bid to drop out for Bolivia is not true...so we'll see]
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LA PAZ

Venezuela has agreed to drop out of the hotly contested race for Latin America's open seat on the UN Security Council and asked Bolivia to run in its place, Bolivia's president said Tuesday.

"The comrade (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez says that to find a consensus he leaves the candidacy to Bolivia," President Evo Morales said.

US critic Venezuela has battled for the seat against US-backed Guatemala but neither country was able to win the two-thirds majority needed to win the spot after three-dozen polls at the UN General Assembly.

Despite trailing Guatemala in nearly all the votes, Caracas has refused to drop out.
"We are candidates for the Security Council," Morales, one of Chavez's closest allies, said. "Hopefully we will obtain a consensus."

"Last night, Venezuela's ambassador called me first. Then commander Chavez called me and told me that since he was unable to get two-thirds for the Security Council," Caracas was giving up its candidacy for Bolivia, he said.

The General Assembly was scheduled to resume voting on Latin America's non-permanent, open seat on Wednesday.

The United States has campaigned for Guatemala, fearing that the leftist Chavez government would use the seat to be disruptive, routinely oppose US measures and openly attack the United States.

Chavez used an address to the UN General Assembly last month to call US President George W. Bush the "devil" and said the podium still "smelled of sulphur" a day after the US leader had used it.

The Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five veto-wielding permanent members -- China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia -- and 10 non-permanent members, five of which are replaced every year.