Trump choice  for Development Bank boss “not legitimate”

Former leaders from Latin America and Spain on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of wanting to “impose” his candidate to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in a new call to postpone an election that they said, “would lack legitimacy.” .

They had already said so in June, when the Trump administration nominated Mauricio Claver-Carone, a hard-line lawyer of Cuban origin towards Cuba and Venezuela, who currently says he has the support of 17 countries.

The US nomination constitutes an “assault on Latin American dignity,” stated in a joint statement Fernando Henrique Cardoso, from Brazil (1995-2002); Ernesto Zedillo, from Mexico (1994-2000); Felipe González , from Spain (1982-1996); Ricardo Lagos , from Chile (2000-2006); Juan Manuel Santos, from Colombia (2010-2018); and Julio María Sanguinetti, from Uruguay (1985-1990 and 1995-2000).

“The United States, without consultation or debate in the relevant bodies of the IDB, launched its candidacy bypassing agreements and regulations,” they indicated, referring to the agreement that has been in force since the founding of the Bank in 1959, by which its presidency is occupied. by a Latin American and his vice-presidency, by an American.

“The American president breaks that coexistence and seeks to impose his candidate above the historical consensus,” they said in a text posted on Twitter by Santos.

“For this reason,” they added, “the election called for September 12 and 13, if it occurs, would lack legitimacy and sooner or later should be considered void.”

The election of the successor to Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno is scheduled in a virtual meeting on those dates. It was to be last March at the IDB’s annual meeting in Barranquilla, Colombia. But due to the emergency of the Covid-19 the appointment was for September. In July, the IDB board of directors postponed it again, this time to March 2021, although the vote for the new president was maintained.

“The politically sensible thing was and is to postpone both actions,” said the former presidents, urging that an Assembly be prepared “neatly and carefully” that according to them should define the strategy to deal with the crisis derived from the pandemic, and choose who will lead it.

“Irreparable damage”

A Claver-Carone presidency “would be an arbitrary imposition” and “the damage to the IDB would be irreparable,” they said.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico also oppose an election in September, as does the head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who recommended it weeks ago to the European IDB member countries.

Last week, in an endorsement of the Washington candidate, 17 countries, including Panama, refused to postpone the vote.

The IDB, the main source of financing for development in Latin America and the Caribbean, has 48 member countries represented by governors. The voting power of each depends on the subscribed capital.

The United States, the largest shareholder of IDB, owns 30%. The other 16 countries that rejected postponing the election add another 23.9%.