WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- The election for the new head of the Organization of American States ended in a tie Monday, prompting officials to open the race to other candidates.
Both Chilean Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez received 17 votes apiece in five separate ballots.
The race for the leadership of the 34-nation OAS -- which encompasses every nation in the Western Hemisphere, except Cuba -- was thrown into disarray last week when leading candidate Francisco Flores, former president of El Salvador, withdrew from contention.
Flores was believed to be the favored candidate of the United States.
Monday's stalemate is the latest setback for the OAS. In October, former OAS head an ex-Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez was arrested for accepting a bribe during his tenure as leader of the Central American nation.
He had been in office as OAS president for only two weeks when he stepped down before the arrest.
