Washington (EFE).- The Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn will be the new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the institution confirmed this Sunday, after obtaining sufficient support from the organization’s Board of Governors.
The finance ministers and other economic authorities of the 48 countries that make up the IDB have given their support to the Brazilian, by a large majority, two months after the scandalous departure of the American of Cuban origin, Mauricio Claver-Carone.
Through a statement, the IDB explained that the vote took place during a meeting held at the bank’s headquarters in Washington, with the virtual or face-to-face assistance of the delegations.
Goldfajn and the Assembly set the start date for his duties as president as December 19. There will be a “transition period” involving the current president, Honduran Queen Irene Mejía, who replaced Claver-Carone since her expulsion from the institution.
Although the votes were not made public, as EFE learned, Goldfajn won the support of at least 80% of those attending the Board of Governors.
It had already been made public this morning that he was the favourite, after Argentina announced the withdrawal of their candidate, Cecilia Todesca, and their support for the Brazilian in a coalition also formed by the United States and Canada.
The path to becoming IDB President
Ilan Goldfajn, former governor of the Central Bank of Brazil and until now head of the Western Hemisphere department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will succeed the American of Cuban origin Mauricio Claver-Carone, expelled from the entity for a affair with a subordinate, whose salary was increased several times.
He was one of the first candidates to be proposed and, although he started out as a favourite, his candidacy – at the hands of Jair Bolsonaro – was clouded by statements by former Brazilian minister Guido Mantega, who is part of of the transition process of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“I’m not saying he’s a bad candidate, but Bolsonaro tried to stage another coup, create a fait accompli and appoint an IDB president the wrong way. They didn’t go to negotiate with Argentina, Peru, Colombia or Uruguay. They simply launched a candidate,” said the former minister, who even acknowledged attempts to postpone the election.
Despite this, Goldfajn always maintained his political impartiality and ensured that he had the support of the country, despite the fact that Lula da Silva did not publicly give it to him.
“I can assure you that everyone to whom I showed my proposal in Brazil supports me and that there is no one who opposes it”, he stressed a few days ago during a public event.
After Todesca’s withdrawal, three candidates fought with the Brazilian: Chile’s former finance and education minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre; Gerardo Esquivel, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) and Trinidad and Tobago Gerard Johnson, a former IDB official who now works as a consultant to Jamaica’s finance ministry.
Goldfajn will assume the position for a period of five years and, as president, “will manage the operations and administration of the Bank, which works with the public sector in Latin America and the Caribbean”, the IDB said.
In addition, the statement adds, he will chair the Board of Directors of the IDB, the Board of Directors of IDB Invest (which works with the private sector in the region) and the Donor Committee of IDB Lab, the project laboratory of development and innovation. .