Claver-Carone dismisses criticism of her IDB bid 1:30
Editor's Note: Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer and political analyst for CNN en Español. His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion pieces at CNNe.com/opinion
(CNN Spanish) - Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno has successfully chaired the Inter-American Development Bank, the famous IDB, for 15 years. Although he shows a youthful appearance, Moreno is 67 years old and will soon retire.
Moreno would be replaced by Mauricio Claver-Carone, a very brilliant young Cuban-American lawyer, proposed by the White House for the position given his experience at the International Monetary Fund and his work in the Treasury Department during the government of President George W. Bush. in 2003.
He appears to have strong support among the 28 regional members for the September election at the IDB assembly.
Today Claver-Carone is the National Security Advisor for the Western Hemisphere in the Government of President Donald Trump. However, he faces opposition from Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who is the vice chair of the US Senate Appropriations Committee.
Leahy argues that the Claver-Carone candidacy will not help increase US funding for the IDB. To me, that sounds like a threat.
Why does Senator Leahy oppose such a qualified person for the office? First, because it breaks with a long tradition of 60 years in which a Latin American has occupied the position that he requires, he says, a person from the region who will mainly benefit.
Leahy has also criticized the way Claver-Carone has exercised his position in the President Trump administration for his tendency to impose sanctions that "have complicated relations with our friends and allies."
But I suspect there could be something else, because Leahy's opposition cannot ignore that the candidate also has Latin American blood, since he is not 100% American. Although born in Florida, her mother is Cuban: that is why she is a “Cuban American”.
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And, in addition, I consider that Cuba has to do with this discord. Senator Leahy and Claver-Carone could not be further apart in terms of the focus of relations between the United States and the island.
When Mr. Leahy came to the Senate in 1974, it was the Watergate era, when the so-called plumbers were Cuban exiles. He was the youngest senator then. Today he is the oldest senator, having already turned 80, and he has had an uninterrupted presence in the Senate.
In Obama's time, he was the senator who took secret steps to free Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States, in exchange for the release of the American Alan Gross.
Supposedly they infiltrated a terrorist network operating in Cuba, although the truth is that they shot down several Brothers to the Rescue pilots in international waters.
It is very difficult for Leahy to change his mind regarding Claver-Carone, who has been key in the reversal of policies towards Cuba by the Donald Trump administration.
The elderly, it is known, do not like to rectify.
IDB
