Senior advisor to President Trump will be the first American head of the Inter-American Development Bank

Although Mauricio Claver-Carone, a Cuban American lawyer, has plenty of credentials for the job, his candidacy has raised concerns amongst some Latin American countries since the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is seen as crucial to the economic recovery of Latin America.

When Trump decided to nominate Carone to run for the post this summer, this violated the unwritten agreement between the US and Latin American countries whereby only a Latin American could head the bank. Earlier this year, before Carone was nominated by the Trump administration, the top two candidates who had been seriously considered to take this post were the Argentine economist, Gustavo Béliz, and the Brazilian banker, Rodrigo Xavier.

This nomination is even more controversial bearing in mind the economic turbulence that has spilled over into Latin American countries as a result of the pandemic and given the fact that the IADB has a critical bearing on the prevention of a possible post-pandemic economic disaster. It is expected that the current crisis will plunge millions of inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean into extreme poverty and will halt the recent years of prosperity when the region enjoyed a period of relative economic growth.

On the one hand, Claver-Carone can count on the support of some conservative Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia, as they each have well-established ties with Washington. On the other hand, he also has strong critics too, such as Argentina or Chile, who fear Trump will use the IADB as a political tool to leverage countries and their internal policies.

The bank has been an extremely important institution in the region for many decades, lending money to poor countries which had very few options with regard to development loans. The funds provided by the IADB enabled them to construct critical infrastructure such as roads and electricity grids.

Although the bank has often been criticized for its lack of transparency and the ineffective actions undertaken to support local communities, it has been a source of basic financial aid, particularly in countries affected by the economic crisis.

Claver-Carone is well-known as a tough-minded lobbyist against the Cuban and Venezuelans regimes. In 2018, he was appointed as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the United States National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere Affairs directorate. He has also served as a U.S. Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mr. Claver-Carone will take the office on October 1, 2020, for a five-year term. He stressed that he aims to highlight the rising interest of the US administration in the region and that he intends to convince Congress to pump more money into the IADB. However, he may face obstacles as it is not yet certain that Donald Trump will manage to win re-election in November.

Mauricio J. Claver-Carone will be the IADB’s fifth President. He follows Luis Alberto Moreno (2005-2020); Enrique V. Iglesias (1988-2005); Antonio Ortiz Mena (1971-1988); and Felipe Herrera (1960-1971).