Weekly Report - 12 July 2005

The competition to succeed Enrique Iglesias as president of the Inter-American Bank (IDB) is already being likened to the recent squabble-ridden election of a new secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS). If anything it is messier as a result of bickering within one of the big voting nations, Mexico, over who selects the country's nominee. The outcome is no minor affair, as the president of the IDB has traditionally been much more than the head of a regional development bank.