Argentina was left out of the leadership of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) after the insistence of Alberto Fernandez and the chancellor santiago cafiero to give economist Cecilia Todesca Bocco a vice presidency.
The maneuver so annoyed the president of the organization, the Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, that he ended up rejecting it and now the country was left out of driving.
The president and Santiago Cafiero were the ones who would have called Ilan Goldfajn to pressure the former head of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) outside of the conversations that the Brazilian had with Sergio Massa to distribute key places in the organization.
The president had nominated Cecilia Todesca for the presidency of the IDB last year but at the last moment he lowered her to support Ilan Goldfajn, in a move that went down very badly with the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador who was pushing the candidacy of Gerardo Esquivel.
At that time, the Government assured that the decision to withdraw the candidacy of Cecilia Todesca It was in exchange for Argentina staying with the vice presidency of Sectors, the management of Infrastructure and with the Institute of Gender and Equality that would be created from the agreement.
“As negotiated, Argentina will remain with the Vice Presidency of Sectors; the Infrastructure Management and will also lead the new Gender and Equality Institute that will be part of the new IDB management, the sources had anticipated early. The names for those positions are not yet defined.
Cecilia Todesca was the Argentine candidate for the IDB but failed to be appointed
The presentation of Argentina through the candidate Cecilia Todescathe first woman to run for office, had a strong stamp on gender issues,” the newspaper ‘Clarín’ published last November. But several months after that supposed negotiation there is still not only no news about the places for Argentina, but also that Ilan Goldfajn has already decided the names of the vice presidents and none will be appointed by the Argentine government.
Who will occupy the place of Argentina in the IDB
Indeed, the Brazilian will designate the Colombian economist Ana María Ibáñez in the vice presidency of Sectors and Knowledge, which would have been “reserved” for Argentina. Meanwhile, the executive vice-president of the organization will be Jordan Schwartz, current World Bank economist and proposed for the position by the United States Treasury, and the vice-presidency of Countries will be occupied by the former Costa Rican minister and current deputy general director of the WTO, Anabel González, so the Argentine representative for any of the positions is ruled out. According to the site ‘La Política Online’, the head of the organization had been clear with his Argentine interlocutors that he would not designate any of his competitors as vice president in last year’s election.
However, Alberto Fernández and Cafiero called him so much to ask for Todesca, that they managed to stay with nothing… The Brazilian executive warned that he will only designate people proposed by Sergio Massa, who has a well-oiled relationship with the organization, and that he will give some consolation prize to Todesca. It should be remembered that Ilan Goldfajn replaced the American Mauricio Claver-Carone in the positiondismissed after an investigation concluded that he gave favorable treatment to a subordinate with whom he had a relationship.
The negotiations for the replacement of Mauricio Claver-Carone were very strong until a negotiated agreement was obtained with the United States (the largest shareholder of the IDB), Canada, Brazil and Argentina that managed to bless Ilan Goldfajn. The Brazilian, a prestigious coach who has always been the Treasury’s favorite candidate, had been proposed by outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro and that complicated things. After winning the elections and after some initial doubts, the Lula government finally decided to keep the candidate and that facilitated the negotiation
The presidency
It is the first time in the history of the IDB that it has a Brazilian president. And Argentina, which is another of the countries that has never presided over the organization, also wanted that position that Gustavo Béliz had sought unsuccessfully in the past. The government initially sought a regional consensus candidate and minister Sergio Massa was working on that in Washington last year. But Brazil, Mexico and Chile went ahead and presented their own candidates. The Government gambled to wait for Lula to win to present a candidate in conjunction with the region and sought to impose an Argentine. But the PT leader did not give Ilan Goldfajn a thumbs up, much less since he did not want to lose that precious regional position. In fact, the Brazilian was well regarded among the officials around the man who was then the future president. The only problem was that he had been chosen by Bolsonaro
In the end, the Government presented Cecilia Todesca, who was seen more as a bargaining chip. After the United States, which has 30% of the capital stock of the IDB, Brazil and Argentina They are the countries with the most voting power, since they have 11.4% each.
It is followed by Mexico with 7.3%. Time passed and Brazil did not drop Ilan Goldfajn and it was difficult for the United States to support an Argentine candidate. Argentina had no choice but to endorse the Brazilian and negotiate a vice presidency and other charges.
That is why he withdrew the application of Cecilia Todesca. When getting off her candidacy, Cecilia Todesca said: We always seek a consensus. The region has to work together, the challenges and opportunities are shared, and we have also agreed on a work agenda with a perspective and topics that we believe are strategic for the economic and social development of Mexico, which kept the deputy head of the Central Bank, Gerardo, as a candidate. Esquivel, was left out of the alliance of the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. The government of Alberto Fernández preferred to endorse Bolsonaro’s candidate and negotiate a future position, rather than endorse the Mexican.
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed its annoyance: We regret that in the IDB elections the policy of more of the same continues. The proposal of the Brazilian government was chosen, supported by the United States. IDB sources said then that Argentina’s arrangement was “good” since they participated in a majority consensus with the two most important partners of the organization -Brazil and the United States- and who also obtain an important presidency such as that of Sectors. They also said that having presented a woman for the position was valued, despite the fact that she was not elected. Finally, Ilan Goldfajn took office last December and now chairs the regional body for a period of five years.
