At the UN, a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Venezuela and Guatemala has failed to resolve the impasse in their race for an open seat on the UN Security Council. Both sides say they’ll withdraw their candidacy if they can compromise on a replacement. In an interview with the Reuters news agency Thursday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Venezuela would rather lose outright than drop out the race under pressure from the US.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro: “We are not going to tolerate any blackmail by a given president or accept any pressure from any country. And for the first time in sixteen years since the unipolar world started, the United States has clearly demonstrated that they have a fatal obsession against Venezuela, they want to prevent Venezuela from becoming a member of the Security Council. No one is going to humiliate Venezuela, Venezuela is going to struggle to the end.”

Maduro went on to say his government has the support of eighty percent of Latin American and Caribbean countries at the UN.