The member countries of Inter-American Development Bank They have a week to choose a consensus candidate who will recover the prestige of this organization, and this Sunday the process begins with the presentation of the five candidates, among whom there is not, at the moment, a name that stands out.
Behind closed doors and in a virtual meeting, the five will present before the Board of Governors -formed by the Ministers of Economy and other economic authorities of the 48 member countries of the bank– your project for the institution, in search of the necessary support for the election.
The list is made up of Ilan Goldfajn, former governor of the Central Bank of Brazil and until now head of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the former Minister of Finance and Education of Chile Nicolás Eyzaguirre and Gerardo Esquivel, deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico).
It is completed by the Argentine Cecilia Todesca, who was deputy chief of staff and, on the part of Trinidad and Tobago, Gerard Johnson, former official of the IDB who now serves as a consultant to the Jamaican Ministry of Finance.
The candidate must obtain a majority of the vote of the member countries, whose power varies according to the number of shares held by each member of the ordinary capital of the IDB. The United States has the highest voting capacity, 30%, followed by Argentina and Brazil with 11.3% and Mexico, with 7.2%.
The winner, who is elected for a five-year term (and with the possibility of being re-elected once), must also have the support of at least 15 of the 28 countries in the region.
regain prestige
Cuban-born American Mauricio Claver-Carone was elected in September 2020 and became the first non-Latin American to hold the position. He did it in the midst of controversy since the then president Donald Trumpnominated him shortly before the end of his term.
So, the Latin American countries were not able to define a joint candidate, with Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia or Uruguay supporting the US and Argentina withdrawing its candidate at the last moment, due to not having enough support.
They did all agree to dismiss him in September, after an external investigation, encouraged by some members of the IDB, show that he had maintained a love relationship with a subordinate whose salary was raised on several occasions. Since then, the Honduran Queen Irene Mejía has held the position on an interim basis.
The chosen one will thus have the responsibility of restoring the reputation of the entity, the main source of financing for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean, which offers loans, donations and technical assistance to 26 countries in the region.
A consensus candidate
To date, none of the five names sounds like a favorite to hold the position and Latin America is again divided, although as Argentine President Alberto Fernández explained on Saturday in Paris, the region is negotiating to achieve a consensus candidate, to be able to choose “the best”.
In his opinion, the chosen one should be Todesca, who “is a woman, something that the world also demands,” and “has an absolutely inclusive regional outlook.”
The candidacy of Brazilian economist Ilan Goldfajn, proposed a few weeks ago by Jair Bolsonaro, was one of the strongest due to his experience in international institutions, but in recent hours it has been clouded by the statements of former Brazilian minister Guido Mantega, who is part of the process of transition of the elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In a television interview, he questioned Goldfajn’s candidacy and claimed that Bolsonaro tried to “deal another blow” by proposing him on the eve of the Brazilian elections.
He also confirmed that he had contacted various countries in the Americas to request the postponement of the election, a possibility later rejected by the IDB. According to a spokesman told EFE, the internal regulations do not contemplate it.
Before Mantega spoke, Goldfajn himself had assured in an interview with EFE that he had the support of “everyone” in his country, including Lula’s Workers’ Party, and considered that the IDB it needs to be chaired by a “technician” like him, who does not represent any ideology or party.
no favorites
The candidacy of the Mexican Esquivel was announced a few days ago by the Mexican president himself, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and came after the withdrawal, for personal reasons, of Alicia Bárcena, former executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“We are proposing Gerardo Esquivel because he is a good economist, a doctor in economics, a Harvard graduate, deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico, honest people,” the president declared about the candidate.
Ten days ago from Chile came the proposal of Nicolás Eyzaguirre, who is the Minister of Finance who has served the longest in this position, during the governments of Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) and Michelle Bachelet (2017-2018).
In an interview with EFE, he pointed out that the crisis that the region experienced in the 1980s, in which deep social cuts were applied, “is an example of what should not happen again” and considered that in the difficult times ahead “the IDB It’s going to be much more necessary than before.”
The countries were able to present their candidatures until last Friday night, after which the IDB The list was announced, among which was a Caribbean national, Gerard Johnson, current principal consultant for the Jamaican Ministry of Finance, who knows the bank well as he worked for it. He now also assumes the mission of convincing that he can direct it. EFE
