Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has rejected the US’ nominee to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Supporting (US President Donald) Trump’s candidate for the IDB presidency is an attack against the interests of the country and a betrayal of the region,” Morales, who was forced out by the opposition and now lives in exile in Argentina, said in a tweet on Sunday.
“The IDB will cease to be a development bank and will have a disastrous role, like that of the IMF,” should the US succeed in placing its representative at the helm of the organization, Xinhua news agency reported citing Morales as saying.
The proposed candidate is Mauricio Claver-Carone, senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the US National Security Council, a key architect of Trump’s policy toward Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
Other regional voices have also rejected the nomination, including Argentina, whose Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Sola instead proposed Argentine politician Gustavo Beliz to head the IDB.
“The figure of Claver-Carone is not questioned from a technical perspective, it is questioned from a political perspective because it expresses the most hardline US vision of the Americas,” Sola said in July.
A slew of former presidents, including those from Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as the Spanish government, have issued a statement opposing the US nominee and calling for a delay in the election of the IDB’s next head, which is due to take place on September 12-13.
Headquartered in New York, the IDB was established in 1959.
It is owned by 48 sovereign states, which are its shareholders and members. Only the 26 borrowing countries are able to receive loans.
