Chile supports Nicolás Eyzaguirre, its former Minister of Finance, to lead the IDB

Chile announced this Thursday that it will propose the former Minister of Finance, Nicholas Eyzaguirrefor the presidency of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), after the notorious dismissal of its former president Mauricio Claver-Carone.

The 48 member countries of the BID They have 45 days from September 28 to propose candidates to occupy the highest position of the institution, which will be elected by the assembly of governors.

“There is a certain consensus regarding the need to have a candidate for president who has a technical profile, experience in international organizations”, expertise “in a broad spectrum of public policies and in these circumstances, with President Gabriel Boric, we have resolved present Nicolás Eyzaguiire,” Finance Minister Mario Marcel said on Thursday.

Eyzaguirre was Minister of Finance twice, first during the government of Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) and then, for a year, under the second administration of Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), where he also held the position of Minister of Education. and Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency.

Both Lagos and Bachelet define themselves as socialists.

Outside of government, he served as director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (FMI).

To be elected, the candidate must obtain a majority based on the voting rights of the member countries, which vary according to the number of shares in the institution.

The IDB’s three main shareholders are the United States, Argentina and Brazil, which together hold almost 53% of the voting rights.

In addition, the winning candidate must have the support of at least 15 of the 28 American countries (26 from Latin America and the Caribbean, plus Canada and the United States).

The president will succeed Claver-Carone in office, promoted in 2020 by the then president of the United States Donald Trump and ceased from his functions after an investigation concluded that he had an intimate relationship with a subordinate, to whom he would have treated favour.

The IDB was born in 1959 and is one of the main sources of long-term financing for the economic, social and institutional development of Latin America and the Caribbean.