The imminent dismissal of the current head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Mauricio Claver Carone for serious ethical misconduct in the organization, has already triggered a dance of names that could replace him in office. And those three names are women of high trajectory, among them Alicia Bárcena, former Executive Secretary of ECLAC and with fluid contacts with Argentina. In parallel, the Argentine government is closely following the issue and, as learned Page I12will not advance neither plays nor evaluations until the board of the entity defines, with a deadline next Tuesday, the fate of the Cuban American who came to that chair appointed by Donald Trump.
In the Casa Rosada they assure that the decision of the United States will be the one that defines and the bets in that country have Claver virtually out. In any case, in the environment of the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, they rule out that these internal moves in the organization have a negative impact on the credits for more than 1,000 million dollars recently approved by the IDB. That management was made on Massa’s last trip to the United States. The subject was briefly crossed in the meeting that Massa and President Alberto Fernández held this afternoon, where there was some joke from the president to the minister, in relation to the recent recovery of relations with Claver.
Claver Carone had been under investigation for months for an alleged affair with a high-ranking IDB executive, with whom he works directly and already knew from his time in the White House. The official denied the charges and maintained that it is a political operation to displace him. “I would like to have the opportunity to officially respond to the investigation findings in accordance with Bank rules and international standards,” Calver Carone said at an online press conference he held to release him.
The problem is that Claver’s relationship with a person who was working for him in the organization violates the IDB’s code of ethics. The leaked information accessed by this newspaper affirm that he even increased his partner three or four times a year, going from charging 240 thousand dollars a year to 400 thousand. The investigation also observes him for abuse of power, taking into account that he would have fired employees for personal conflicts and retaliation of some kind. The results of the investigation, which took months, were presented by the legal firm Davis Polk to IDB officials this week.
The replacements if the dismissal occurs
Claver Carone was in a rough situation with Argentina when Gustavo Béliz was in charge of relations with the organization. From fluid contacts with Massa, Claver unlocked all the money that he had forbidden after the arrival of the Tigrense to the Treasury. Now, if the United States finally defines Claver Carone’s departure from the IDB, those who know the cloth told this newspaper that the replacement will be a woman.
In this scenario, three names sound with different intensity. The first is from Alicia Barcena, who was in charge of ECLAC from 2008 until a few months ago, when she was replaced by Mario Címolo. Bárcena is an old acquaintance of the region and Argentine politics. Last year, before leaving the organization, she had one of her last lunches with leaders in a meeting with President Alberto Fernández.
Those who know international relations assure that the name of Bárcena and the other two women are part of a triad that regularly competes for important positions at a global level. The second woman in the race is Laura Chinchilla, political scientist and former president of Costa Rica. and follows Rebecca Grynspan Mayufis, former Vice of Costa Rica and current SG of UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. She was taken to that position by the current head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, and she is the first Central American woman to hold a position in that organization.