The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) elected the former president of the Brazilian Central Bank, Ilan Goldfajn, to chair the international financial organization, headquartered in the city of Washington, United States.
This is the first time that a Brazilian occupies the position of President of the IDB. Despite the historic feat, the choice did not please members of the PT party or Mexico.
Elections for the presidency of the IDB take place every five years, but which would have taken place in 2025 were brought forward after the resignation, in September of this year, of the former president of the IDB, the North American Mauricio Claver-Carone, after allegations of harassment.
“I will be president of the IDB in all its diversity. I will be the president of high-income, middle-income and low-income countries, the president of regional as well as non-regional members, the president of South America, Central America and North America. But also, as I said in my campaign, the president for the Caribbean”, said Goldfajn at the meeting of the IDB’s Board of Governors, in Washington, after the result.
Ilan Goldfajn was nominated by the Jair Bolsonaro government to participate in the dispute and members of the transitional government, such as Guido Mantega, former finance minister in the Dilma Rousseff government, tried to postpone the election for the presidency of the IDB and even contest Ilan’s nomination.
The idea was to seek a profile more in line with the new management, and re-discuss the nomination made by the current Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes. In the wake of Lula’s victory at the polls in October, the party’s hope was that Lula could nominate a name in January.
The IDB, however, ignored the requests, and went ahead with the elections. And Lula preferred not to influence the result.
Brazil’s main competitors for the position were Argentina, which ended up giving up running for the position and supported the Brazilian nomination, and Mexico, which showed dissatisfaction with Ilan’s victory.
Mexico’s nominee was left-wing economist and deputy governor of the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico), Gerardo Esquivel Hernández.
“It is regrettable that this continues to happen, there are no changes,” President López Obrador said in a morning conference.
Ilan was nominated on Sunday, the 20th, with 80% of the votes of the IDB partners.
“He is a member of the economic-financial group closely linked to conservatism and, above all, to the neoliberal policy promoted by the US government. There is no hope for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,” AMLO said.
The voting power of countries is proportional to the total number of shares held by each country. Therefore, the main contributors are the United States, which has the largest share (30% of the capital), Brazil and Argentina (both with 11.4% each).
With information from Veja/Luana Zanobia