September 26, 2022, 18:52 PM
September 26, 2022, 18:52 PM
The assembly of governors of the Inter-American Development Bank dismissed its president Mauricio Claver-Carone on Monday, the bank reported after an investigation concluded that he had an intimate relationship with a subordinatebreaking the rules of the institution.
Claver-Carone “will cease to function as president of the bank, effective September 26, 2022,” the IDB added in a statement. He will be replaced by the executive vice president, the Honduran Queen Irene Mejía Chacónuntil a new president is elected.
Claver-Carone was spurred into office by former US President Donald Trump in 2020thus breaking with the tradition that the position of this financial institution fell to a Latin American.
The highest authority of the IDB, made up of finance ministers from its 48 member countries, decided to dismiss him in an electronic vote that began last Friday.
In recent days, the tension in the largest development bank in Latin America reached a critical point, after it was revealed that the executive board had voted unanimously to recommend removing Mr. Claver-Carone.
The investigation, conducted by the Davis Polk law firm, established that Claver-Carone violated the institution’s code of ethics by having a romantic relationship with a bank employeeto which he would have dispensed preferential treatment.
The US official, the son of a Spaniard and a Cuban, with a career in the White House, the International Monetary Fund and the Treasury and known for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela, has always denied the accusations against him and He has pointed out that the investigation is “arbitrary” and the result of a political ruse to remove him from his functions.
The IDB was born in 1959 and has had four presidents before Claver-Carone: the Chilean Felipe Herrera, the Mexican Antonio Ortiz Mena, the Uruguayan Enrique Iglesias and the Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno.
