Jair Bolsonaro is playing hardball in the IDP chairmanship | Before leaving the presidency of Brazil, he seeks to impose his candidacy to run the Inter-American Development Bank.

From St. Paul

Election of President of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will take place This Sunday in Washington A war ensued between Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro. In this political controversyNot just the economy, it’s obvious The outgoing president and his economy minister, Paulo Guterres, tried to deliver an exemplary defeat to Lula with the support of local bankers and the possible cooperation of the IDB nomenclature.

The president-elect and leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), who proposed postponing the IDB elections until his inauguration on January 1, met stiff opposition. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet– and representatives of the largest Brazilian private banks gathered in New York for a seminar with the head of the central bank, Roberto Campos Neto. They are all full-blown neoliberals.

Along with the outgoing government and the Brazilian banking institution, IDB officials immediately rejected the postponement proposed by Lula da Silva without providing further explanations. Bolsonaro’s support paved the way for Ilan Goldfarg’s candidacy.

Guido Montega, Developer

He has publicly mooted the idea of ​​delaying elections in IDP Guido MontegaThe PT economist was in charge of the Ministry of Planning during part of the Lulista administration (2003-2010) and later commanded the Treasury portfolio during the first years of Dilma Rousseff’s presidency (2011-2016).

For Manteca, waiting for the arrival of Lula, the president of Brazil, the continent’s second-strongest economy, was a way to lend more legitimacy to the case of the man in charge.The major hemispheric investment bank posted about $27 billion in its last annual exercise.

Bolsonaro, the former minister, charged that it would be preferable to manage the IDB with a more developmental perspective, while promoting Ilan Goldfägen, a traditionalist who currently works at the International Monetary Fund and formerly at Banco Ita.

For this reason, he defends the Bank’s promotion of an investment program aimed at the construction of infrastructure works to strengthen regional physical “integration”, “an example of what China and India are doing”, together with the two BRICS members Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

Bolsonaro, about Trump

Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn will be his first candidate for the presidency of the IDB, which, aside from being on the brink of collapse, has spent four years insulting relations with its neighbors for priority. Link to Donald Trump (2017- 2021).

Some Latin American governments “didn’t like Bolsonaro or his behavior, and he suddenly introduced Goldfagen with the intention of carrying out a coup without consulting Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay,” Mandega said.

Two years ago, in the previous IDP election, the Brazilian president voted for the American Mauricio Claver-CaronFunded by Trump. By electing Claver-Caron, who was ousted from office two months ago in a scandal, Bolsonaro helped break an unwritten tradition of not having elected a U.S. representative for nearly six decades.With thirty percent of the vote, the country carries more electoral weight than Brazil and Mexico.

Brazil and Mexico

Mexican economist Mario Gamba analyzes the “power games” ahead of this Sunday’s elections, pointing to the pressure exerted by the IDB and US interest groups on Latin American governments. submits that By rejecting the postponement suggested by Lula, the body “implicitly” supported the aspirations of “Bolsonaro’s candidacy”.

In the interview Page 12Gamba, a consultant to the International Labor Organization and a graduate student at Columbia University, talks about how he got out of the race. Alicia Barcina, The preferred candidate of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Campa says Barcena, a former head of the Economic Commission for Latin America (SEBAL), has a “respectable career with sufficient qualifications” to be in charge of the IDB. However, López Obrador, the center-left leader’s pick with the most popular approval, withdrew from the race for personal reasons.

“Mrs. Parsena is said to have been vetoed in Washington circles. I don’t know the real reasons for her resignation, but it must have been due to ideological pressure, because she lacked the orthodox economic credentials that those circles felt were necessary to take over from the IDB. From there they see it as either socialist or communist. , Republicans challenge more socially oriented people with derogatory labels, this is the rumor”.

On the contrary, there was a positive reception to the positions expressed by Goldjohn in the IDB and “Washington circles”, who said he had a “good chance” of being elected, although he could not be labeled a “favourite”, Gamba observes.

candidates

The other candidates to lead the IDB are Argentina, along with Brazilian Goldfeld Cecilia TodescaMexican Gerardo Esquivel, Representative of Chile Nicholas Issaguier and Trinidad and Tobago, Gerard Johnson.

Totesca, secretary of international economic relations at Argentina’s foreign ministry, told the newspaper San Pablo leaf what President Alberto Fernández’s aim was to present a consensus candidacy, reflecting the harmony between progressive governments that had consolidated regional hegemony after Lula’s victory. About far-right Bolsonaro.

The lack of agreement to present a common candidate from the three major economies of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina is understandable, with neither López Obrador nor Fernández Bolsonaro willing to endorse the regime or its candidate, Goldfjörn. As Chairman of the Central Bank of Govt Michael TemerA coup d’état followed Dilma Rousseff.

“Despite the vote at the IDB, the demand for Latin American integration continues, “President López Obrador has a very good relationship and political closeness with Fernández and Lula da Silva,” Gamba says by phone from Mexico.

The economist continues that the “political will” of presidents is to take effective steps towards political and economic integration in the face of frequent opposition “inside and outside” of their countries.

In the case of Mexico, pressure to deepen the free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, prioritizing rapprochement with Latin America, and in the case of Brazil, the neoliberal candidacy of Goldfjörn to head the IDB can be seen. . Questions of Mercosur (which Minister Guétés usually calls “ballast”) and attacks on Unasur’s entertainment.