The postponement of the appointment of the next president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), scheduled for September 12, continues to take shape. After the movement of the high European representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, who at the end of July sent a letter to all the countries with capital in the bank - among them, many from the Old Continent - to propose a postponement of the process until after The presidential elections in the United States, an action that was seconded a few days later by several Latin American governments, including Argentina, Chile and Mexico, this Tuesday 22 former American, European and Asian presidents have joined the motion.
- The IDB enters a zone of convulsion with a faithful to Trump close to the presidency
In a letter, the Heads of State and Government gathered under the umbrella of the Club of Madrid, believe that the circumstances do not exist to hold the election today and call for it to be postponed until March of next year, "thus giving the Member States the opportunity to have an in-depth discussion on the role of the IDB, its leadership and the appropriate institutional response to the recovery from the covid-19 crisis ″. Although they do not mention it explicitly, the postponement would also prevent Donald Trump from achieving his goal of making one of his closest collaborators and prominent member of the hard-wing of the Republican Party with Cuba and Venezuela, Mauricio Claver-Carone, president, breaking the unwritten norm that says that the presidency of the organization must fall to a Latin American. If Democrat Joe Biden prevails in the US elections in November - polls place him as a clear favorite - virtually no one doubts that he will try to temper spirits and give up running a candidacy to preside over the IDB.
The 22 presidents who sign the text, including the Spanish Felipe González, the Brazilian Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the Mexicans Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, suggest the appointment of an interim president who will hold the reins of the IDB until spring 2021 , as already happens in the World Trade Organization (WTO). “We join the call of the vice president and high representative of the European Union, several Latin American governments, former presidents, foreign ministers, deputies and academics from the region. Latin America is going through one of the most dramatic chapters in its recent history, given the devastating consequences of the pandemic (...) and the IDB is one of the most important multilateral institutions. The decision of who should lead the organization for the next five years is, therefore, one of the most relevant for the present and the future of the region ”, emphasize the ex-presidents, among whom is the also candidate for the IDB leadership and former Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla. "A hasty decision could end up weakening the institution just when Latin America and the Caribbean need it most."
Each year the IDB channels about 12 billion dollars (just over 10 billion euros) in loans for basic infrastructure in the subcontinent. If the election is held on the date initially set (September 12), Claver-Carone has all the ballots to take over the leadership of the IDB after having obtained the initial support of a substantial part of the countries that are part of the organization's capital. , including Brazil and Colombia. But with three of the five largest Latin American economies advocating for the postponement of the process (Mexico, Argentina and Chile) and European pressure doing its part, today the postponement seems closer than ever.
