Trump-backed new chief of Latin American bank vows to expand unity in region

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mauricio Claver-Carone, the first U.S. citizen elected to lead Latin America's main development bank in its 61-year history, on Monday vowed to focus on

September 14, 2020

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mauricio Claver-Carone, the first U.S. citizen elected to lead Latin America’s main development bank in its 61-year history, on Monday vowed to focus on strengthening the bank’s funding base and increase unity in the region after a contentious election.

In his first interview since Saturday’s election, Claver-Carone, a Trump loyalist and Cuba hard-liner, said his 67% victory gave him a strong mandate to lead the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) at a time when Latin America and the Caribbean have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Claver-Carone will take office on Oct. 1 and has pledged to serve only one five-year term.

He said he had already spoken with officials in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico, which had opposed his candidacy and sought to delay the vote until after the Nov. 3 presidential election. He said he assured them he would work with them to make the bank more “financially relevant” and transparent.

Claver-Carone underscored his determination to assemble a diverse leadership team to head the bank, and said he did not expect Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, whose campaign opposed Claver-Carone, to try to oust him if he won the election.

An effort to do so, he warned, would result in “a months-long acrimonious, divisive, paralyzing, counterproductive process,” he said, adding that he had a history of working across partisan lines.

“Never in the 70-year history of international financial institutions has a president of an international financial institution been removed by a board,” he said.

“After the campaign, I have no doubt that we will all govern as Americans,” he said.

Claver-Carone said the needs of the region required a more cohesive, unified response.

“I have no doubt that we will create strong cohesion. At the end of the day, the mandate that we have as a result of this election is towards making it a more financially relevant institution,” he told Reuters.

He said he would work closely with the World Bank, also headed by a Trump administration nominee, and the International Monetary Fund to better harmonize their work on countries in the region, beginning with a meeting on Oct. 2, a day after he takes office.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Jonathan Oatis)