Leading from the south.

The article looks at the election of José Miguel Insulza to be the secretary-general for the Organization of American States. Having tried fruitlessly to secure the election of two other candidates, the Americans finally threw their weight behind José Miguel Insulza, Chile's interior minister. The United States backed Mexico's foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, after its original candidate, a former president of El Salvador, failed to gather support. Some saw the hand of Roger Noriega, America's senior State Department official for Latin America, in the ill-starred attempt to block Insulza.