A special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States was held on 11 April 2005 at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, United States. The meeting was called for the member states to elect a new Secretary General of the Organization. It resulted in deadlock and an unprecedented stalemate regarding the appointment of the chief executive of the hemispheric body. The meeting concluded by scheduling a second round of elections for 2 May 2005.

Candidates

On 8 October 2004, facing corruption allegations in his home country, newly elected Secretary General Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (a former president of Costa Rica) announced his resignation from the OAS position, effective 15 October. Assistant Secretary General Luigi R. Einaudi (a U.S. career diplomat) assumed the office as a temporary measure. After a period of uncertainty lasting several months, it was decided that rather than wait until the regular General Assembly (slated to take place in Fort Lauderdale, USA, in June 2005), a special session of the General Assembly would be held at OAS headquarters on 7 April 2005; that date was later changed to 11 April, due to Pope John Paul II's funeral. At that meeting, the foreign ministers of the American nations (or their plenipotentiary representatives) attempted, unsuccessfully, to elect a new Secretary General from the following two candidates:

• Luis Ernesto Derbez, foreign minister of Mexico. President Vicente Fox officially launched Derbez's candidacy on 7 December 2004. Besides Mexico, Derbez claimed to have the support of Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Honduras and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
• José Miguel Insulza, interior minister of Chile. His nomination was announced on 9 December 2004 and made official four days later. Besides Chile, Insulza claimed the support of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and Uruguay. CARICOM officials stated Insulza had strong support among the Caribbean member states.

A third candidate, former president of El Salvador Francisco Flores, withdrew from the race on 8 April 2005, alleging that such a contested election was dividing the Mesoamerican region. He also had the fewest supporters of the three. In the beginning, he was supposed to be a "joint Central American" candidate to replace Rodríguez, given that consensus was that it was Central America's "turn" to head the OAS. Although Flores initially appeared a promising choice, as the negotiations progressed Ricardo Maduro of Honduras said his country would be unable to support him, and no alternative consensus candidate emerged. Up until Flores's withdrawal from the race, the U.S. State Department maintained that it wanted a Central American ex-president, and that Flores was its choice. Flores also had the endorsement of El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.

Breakdown of support

This is a list of the member countries according to their statements of official support for one or other of the candidates, together with inferences of the voting intentions of the other states as reported in the international press. All 34 active member nations of the OAS were entitled to one vote each. An absolute majority (18 votes) was needed to win the election.

For the purposes of the following table, the OAS member states have been grouped into four regional blocs:

• CARICOM member states (14) are highlighted in green.
• South American Community of Nations member states (10) are highlighted in blue (Guyana and Suriname are members of both the SACN and CARICOM, but are grouped with the former.)
• North American Free Trade Agreement member states (3) are highlighted in pink.
• The Spanish-speaking nations of Central America and the Caribbean (7) are highlighted in yellow.

First round election results

On 11 April 2005, representatives of the OAS member states gathered to elect the new Secretary General. Three successive rounds of voting resulted in a tie, with 17 votes going for each of the two candidates. After a recess of slightly over two hours, fourth and fifth ballots were held. A press report published in the Buenos Aires daily La Nación on 12 April indicated that during that break, Roger Noriega of the U.S state department and the foreign ministers of the Mercosur countries had been able to convince Grenada and Paraguay, respectively, to change their votes. Thus, although the fourth and fifth rounds also resulted in ties, the distribution of votes was allegedly different from the breakdown in the first three.

In a private 30-minute gathering, the states' representatives decided that a new vote would take place on 2 May 2005.

Second round election

The 2 May re-run of the election will allow new contenders to stand in addition to the two existing candidates; if any choose to do so, this would presumably break the deadlock. The press has speculated that Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros , the current foreign minister of Peru, might be a likely "consensus" candidate in this new scenario, and on 12 April, the Lima daily Perú 21 gave the name of former transitional president Valentín Paniagua as another option. [1] Canadian media has suggested that their foreign minister Pierre Pettigrew may be a candidate in the second round as well. Both Derbez and Insulza have confirmed they will remain in the race.

External links

Prior to the election

• English language
  • Chile leads race for OAS top post with backing from 11 CARICOM members (AFP via Caribbean Net News, 4 April)
  • Caricom split on backing Chile (Trinidad and Tobago Express , 4 April)
  • America: Region Divided in Three by Race for OAS Leadership (IPS, 17 March)
  • Mexican-Chilean Partnership – "No matter the outcome of the OAS race, one of its certain casualties has been the Mexican-Chilean partnership." (Council on Hemispheric Affairs , 7 April)
  • Insulza Likely to Become New OAS Sec-Gen (Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 11 April)
• Spanish language
  • Da Ecuador su voto a Insulza para dirigir OEA (El Universal , Mexico City, 12 February)
  • Prevén ventaja de Derbez en OEA por renuncia de Flores (AP via El Universal online, Mexico City, 8 April)

First round of voting

• English language
  • OAS stalemate in leader election (BBC News, 11 April)
  • Deadlock in Ballot for New Secretary General (VOA, 11 April)
• Spanish language
  • Se consagra empate entre Insulza y Derbez en la OEA (La Nación , Santiago, 11 April)
  • Opción de Insulza queda en suspenso en la OEA tras cinco empates seguidos (El Mercurio en Internet, Santiago, 11 April)
  • Ni con el apoyo tardío de EU logra Derbez más votos (La Jornada, Mexico City, 12 April)
  • Insulza: entre el triunfo y el abismo (El Mercurio, Santiago, 12 April)
  • Inesperado traspié de EE.UU.en la OEA (La Nación , Buenos Aires, 12 April)

Preparations for the second round

• English language
  • Thwarted Election Hurts OAS (Oxford Analytica via Forbes, 18 April)
• Spanish language
  • Evalúa Perú si presentará candidato a OEA (AP via El Universal online, Mexico City, 12 April)