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Election at the IDB: a multiple defeat for Argentina

2020-09-12T18:01:54.089Z


The Government led a crusade so that there would be no quorum in the vote. Also to be postponed. And so that Donald Trump's candidate does not win. It did not succeed.


Natasha Niebieskikwiat

09/12/2020 - 13:36

  • Clarín.com

  • Economy

More than an election, this was a lesson for Latin America, said an experienced diplomat from international organizations about the coronation this Saturday of

Mauricio Claver Carone

as the next president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

For Argentina, and for this government in particular, it is the story of a

resounding foreign policy failure,

on several fronts, in just nine months of power. 

The errors again have a source in the Casa Rosada, the scene of a strong

ideologization

 for having faced a fight with impossible objectives as they were already evident halfway: that of leading a crusade of countries against the candidate to preside over the IDB that Donald Trump imposed in the middle of the year, the Cuban American Claver Carone.

In this battle, the Government 

first tried to obtain 25 percent

sufficient

support

to not give the United States a quorum in the virtual voting scheduled for this Saturday 12;

then for a majority of countries to be able to reverse the vote by publicly asking for its postponement to March 2021 when arguing the coronavirus pandemic, and with the wish that an uncertain victory of Democrat

Joseph Biden

in the November US presidential elections would turn Clavera Carone as candidate.

Later, Alberto Fernández trusted that his secretary for Strategic Affairs,

Gustavo Béliz, a

man respected by his former colleagues at the IDB - where he worked after being expelled from the government of Néstor Kircher -, had a chance of getting support to beat Claver Carone, who he has been Trump's main adviser on security issues for the Western Hemisphere. 

During the sixty years that the IDB has had, the United States accepted an

unwritten rule

- of uses and customs - in which the presidency of the organization was

embodied by a Latin American

and Washington reserved the vice presidency for itself.

Something comparable to the distribution that is made when electing the president of the World Bank and the Europeans the director of the International Monetary Fund. 

In the midst of Trump's re-election campaign, Washington entered the race to reverse that condition in which, with a 30% share capital of the Bank, it will seek to exercise a presence that it previously neglected.

And that the Latin Americans also neglected, unable to notice the prolonged tenure of Colombian

Luis Alberto Moreno

in office, who will serve for five years this year.

On the other hand,

the region did not reach a consensus to have its own candidate, which facilitated the emergence of Claver Carone

.

It is worth noting the immense gap that separates Alberto Fernández from

 Jair Bolsonaro, Luis Lacalle Pou and Mario Abdo Benitez today

.

For the case, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay supported Claver Carone from the first hour, who obtained 17 early supports.

Beliz had no chance.

To win, a candidate must have at least 15 of the 28 American countries and the support of a number of IDB member countries that give him a 75% majority of the voting power.

A bad Argentine reading when launching an

"anti-imperialist" crusade

against the United States candidate is not to see that, as Claver Carone himself said - profoundly anti-Castro and anti-Chavista - the 

United States wants to turn the IDB into a financial heavyweight to counteract the influence of China.

Argentina today is the "spoiled girl" of the Chinese. 

The Government also lost the memory - or the memory betrayed it - on who Claver Carone is for this country.

He is, like it or not,

the man who helped Mauricio Macri get Trump's support from the IMF for the last multimillion-dollar loan

that the organization granted him and for which the country is trapped.

And it is, due to his influence in Washington, who could continue asking for help for Argentina in its debt negotiations.

Argentina has little international weight but its needs are many.

Claver Carone is also the official who

slammed

the

door

during the Kirchner party on December 10 last.

He left Argentina angry because, being a special guest of Béliz, the Government did not notify him that he had also invited a hierarch of the

Nicolás Maduro

regime

to the inauguration of Alberto Fernández. 

It fell to Foreign Minister Felipe Solá to campaign for Béliz.

Since the middle of the year, public support was obtained from Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica - former president

Laura Chinchilla

dropped out of the race for the IDB - asking for the Bank's elections to be postponed.

It was also requested by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrell.

There were public statements from former presidents and former foreign ministers on that path.

And while many newspapers around the world echoed officials who

criticized Trump for imposing his own candidate on Latin America and opening wounds, the power prevailed. 

With their different positions on what happened, this Saturday the 48 IDB countries gave a quorum for the election of the next head of the Bank.

Argentina decided to be under-presented with a second-line official from the Ministry of Economy.

And although Claver Carone accused this country of leading the "uprising" of a "minority" that wanted to "steal the ball" (the ball), he

promised that there will be no retaliation.

That's what the negotiations in Washington are now on. 

GB

Source: clarin

All business articles on 2020-09-12

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