IADB's Iglesias seen announcing departure in weeks
By Laura MacInnis
Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - Inter-American Development Bank President
Enrique Iglesias may within weeks announce his plans to leave the regional lender he has
led for 17 years, sources close to the matter said on Monday.
Bank staff and outside analysts, speaking on condition they not be identified, said Iglesias
was looking to leave the bank by the end of 2005, before the end of his fourth five-year
presidential term which expires in 2008.
"He may announce it and then it would take several months to find somebody to take the
position," one source said.
Iglesias, 74, told Reuters last month he was considering opportunities outside the bank
but declined to give details.
IADB spokesman Santiago Real de Azua said on Monday that Iglesias has been
approached about leading a Madrid-based group seeking closer ties among Spain,
Portugal and Latin America.
"Iglesias has been approached by the Ibero-American foreign ministers to head this new
organization called the General Secretariat of the Ibero-American Summit," Real de Azua
said. "He is studying the proposal. He is very honored."
The announcement that Iglesias is joining that group may come as early as a May 28
Ibero-American foreign ministers' meeting in Lisbon, informed sources said. Real de
Azua said Iglesias was not planning to attend that meeting.
A phone call and e-mail to the Ibero-American Secretariat seeking comment were not
immediately returned.
Iglesias is only the third president in the IADB's more than 45-year history. His similarly
long-serving predecessor Antonio Ortiz Mena of Mexico was in charge from 1971 to
1988, and Chile's Felipe Herrera ran the bank between 1960 and 1971.
The Washington-based IADB funds economic, social and institutional development in
Latin America and the Caribbean. Its 47 member countries are represented by a 14person executive board, which will vote to select a successor to Iglesias.
Unlike the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are by tradition headed
by an American and a European, respectively, there are few strict protocols for the
selection of an IADB president but the top job normally goes to someone from Latin
America.
Liliana Rojas-Suarez, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and former
advisor to the IADB's chief economist, said she expected a drawn-out selection process in
which candidates' nationality will play an important role.
"I have heard that there is already a number of candidates, and you could expect that the
major countries are going to be pushing for their own candidates," Rojas-Suarez said.
"I would give a large probability for a Brazilian to be the next president," she said.
"Brazil is well placed right now to take the leadership."
Informed sources pointed to Brazilian Joao Sayad, the IADB's vice president for finance
and administration, as a top candidate for the presidency after Iglesias.
Other names in circulation include former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, former
Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Chile's president Ricardo Lagos and
Colombia's ambassador to the United States Luis Alberto Moreno.
Iglesias was born in Spain and is a naturalized Uruguayan citizen. He is a former
economics professor and served as Uruguay's minister of foreign relations between 1985
and 1988.