IDB candidacy frustrated

Esquivel has expressed his desire to remain as deputy governor, but the intention has not been endorsed by the president…

The disagreements of Mexico as a country with respect to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have not been few. The seminal idea for the creation of this continental financial organization had been that of a Mexican, Eduardo Villaseñor (head of the Bank of Mexico from 1940 to 1946), since the Pan-American Conference in Montevideo in 1933. However, when the IDB was finally Established in 1960, Villaseñor was not even remembered, let alone invited to the inauguration.

An equally frustrating disagreement between Mexico and the IDB occurred recently when it aborted the candidacy of the Mexican economist, Gerardo Esquivel, for the presidency of the organization. The chronicles record that at the beginning of the contest, the Brazilian candidate, Ilan Goldfajn, only had 11.4% of the intention to vote. But when Argentina and the United States joined that candidacy, the intention of support rose to 52.8% to finally close at 80 percent. Sadly, Gerardo Esquivel came in third place in the election with only 8.21% of the vote.

Suspicion leads me to ask if perhaps in the upper echelons of the Mexican government the electoral result for the IDB could not have been foreseen. Has no one ever imagined that the United States government would favor the candidate of Brazil? But the worst of the case is that Esquivel’s continuation as deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico does not seem feasible either. Personally, I would have liked his redesignation. He is a competent economist, an official with good communication skills as well as a professional who had already shown insight into the complicated tasks of our central bank.

In the allusive journalistic note it is said that in high circles they did not like “Esquivel’s positions regarding the management of the international reserves of the Bank of Mexico and the use of the Special Drawing Rights (DEG’s) of the International Monetary Fund…” And Although Esquivel has expressed his desire to remain as Deputy Governor, the intention has not been endorsed by the President of the Republic. Despite there being no legal impediment. To the good understanding, few words, goes the saying. But this impasse situation does not mean that in the end Esquivel will be left without a job. However, he will clearly win something that tastes like a consolation prize: “… other possibilities in the government or in representations of Mexico abroad …”

bdonatello@eleconomista.com.mx