File photograph dated August 15, 2020 of Mauricio Claver-Carone at the White House.JIM LO SCALZO / EFE
Mauricio Claver-Carone was elected this Saturday as President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for a period of five years.
Donald Trump's adviser will have in his hands a crucial entity for the recovery of Latin America after the coronavirus crisis.
His nomination and appointment have generated tensions among the institution's shareholder countries, since it breaks with the - unwritten - tradition that the bank's leader must be a Latin American.
The assembly to elect him has been held in Washington via videoconference and has brought together the 48 countries that make up the IDB capital.
“This victory is for Latin America and the Caribbean.
I want to thank all our partners in the region for maintaining the integrity of this electoral process and for sharing our common vision of a stronger IDB, ”Claver-Carone said in a message sent to the press after the election.
Trump's adviser for Latin America obtained the support of 30 countries, including the vote of 23 in the region, adding 66.8% of the support among them.
He will assume the presidency on October 1 for a period of five years.
Claver-Carone was the only candidate who stood up for the vote this Saturday.
The nomination of an American to head the IDB has generated tensions between the countries in the last two months.
Trump ignored the claims from various countries and presented the lawyer of Cuban descent as his strong man in Latin America.
The United States nominated Claver-Carone in June to run for president of the body.
The announcement raised suspicion throughout America and also in Europe: the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, sent a letter in July to the bank's European members to warn that the American candidate would break with harmony in Latin America.
So Argentina began an effort to postpone the vote to March 2021, while promoting its own candidate: Gustavo Béliz.
Claver-Carone accused the Casa Rosada of "trying to hijack the election" of the new president.
The key in the strategy proposed by Argentina was in the numbers.
At first, it was sought to avoid the quorum of this Saturday's session, which had to reach 75% to hold the vote.
Chile, Mexico and Costa Rica joined the Argentine plan and wanted other Latin American countries to be absent from the assembly.
However, in recent days, support has waned until Mexico acknowledged on Thursday that it would go to the vote.
Argentina announced on Friday that it would not nominate Béliz for the IDB presidency, that it would abstain from voting in protest at the presentation of the US candidate and that it encouraged other countries to do the same.
Argentine government sources close to the negotiations assure that 16 countries abstained from voting this Saturday - 11 of them, non-Latin American countries - and accounted for 31.23% of the vote, reports Federico Rivas.
Claver-Carone has shown its advantage since the announcement of its candidacy.
The United States had 30% of the vote and its application was supported by countries with generous stakes in the IDB such as Brazil (11.3%) and Colombia (3.1%), in addition to the fact that it had presented itself as a representative of El Salvador , Guyana, Haiti, Israel and Paraguay.
To win, the candidate only had to have the support of 15 of the 28 American countries.
Claver-Carone will relieve the Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno who was in charge of the entity since 2005.
The IDB, founded in 1959, has a capital of more than $ 100 billion.
It is the largest regional bank and has the United States as its main contributor.
With credits of 12,000 million, it leads the list of development aid in the continent.
