CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — Foreign ministers from throughout the Americas struggled Wednesday for a third day with Venezuela's intractable political crisis, looking for ways to make some minimal contribution to mediating the dispute.

The United States is strongly pushing the idea of creating a "group of friends" like the one that mediated in the Central American civil wars of the 1980s. The U.S. views that as the least the OAS can do after a stronger resolution on Venezuela failed to pass on Monday.

But diplomats at the General Assembly of the Organization of American States meeting in Cancun said the U.S. and its allies probably don't have the two-thirds of votes needed to put the issue on the agenda again.

The mediation group proposal could still be piggybacked on an existing resolution that might win approval with a simple majority of the 35 members.

"The possibility is open of creating a mediation group or group of friends that is acceptable to both sides," said Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz, who added the idea "is supported by a significant number of countries in the hemisphere."

The challenge, he said, is picking members that both sides are comfortable with.

The increasingly bloody political strife in Venezuela has left at least 70 people dead and more than 1,300 injured, and the country's economy is in tatters.

The resolution that failed to gain enough votes on Monday was a relatively strongly worded proposal calling on the Venezuelan government to "reconsider" its call for an assembly to re-write the constitution, when masses of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to call for elections to replace the unpopular government.

The proposal got 20 votes in favor, five against and eight abstentions. Venezuela was counted absent. But according to special rules for the session, 23 votes were required to pass it.

The resolution would also have called for an end to violence, and for President Nicolas Maduro's government to respect the separation of powers. He has been criticized for subjugating the judicial and electoral powers, even while losing control of the country's legislature