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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Columbian Chosen to Head IADB - win for US, Columbia |
| 2005-07-29 |
| Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to the US, was on Wednesday elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the region's main development institution, signalling a victory for Colombia and the US. Mr Moreno was the favourite candidate to replace Enrique Iglesias, the Uruguayan who resigned in May after 17 years at the helm of the bank. Candidates from five countries ran for the job. They included Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peru's finance minister; Jose Rojas, a former Venezuelan finance minister; and Mario Alonso, Nicaragua's central bank president. The result is a blow to Brazil, whose representative was João Sayad, a vice-president at the bank. Mr Sayad's chances appear to have been complicated by the simmering political crisis in Brazil. But Mr Moreno also had the advantage of full political backing from the US, which is the largest shareholder in the bank with about 30 per cent. To be elected, a candidate must secure both a majority based on voting power, which is derived from share size, and an absolute majority among the bank's 28 regional members. Mr Moreno won 60 per cent of the shareholder vote and 20 country votes. Mr Sayad received seven country votes. Uruguay and Paraguay, which frequently back Brazil, voted for Mr Moreno. The IADB disburses over $5bn in loans every year. Mr Moreno, 52, will begin his five-year term on October 1. The election of Mr Moreno, as the US-preferred candidate, is a symbolic victory for Washington, which has experienced a decline in its influence in the region. This year the US backed two candidates from El Salvador and Mexico for the position of secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, both of whom failed. Mr Moreno is well known on the Washington political and diplomatic circuit, and he is widely seen as a highly competent operator. As Bogotá's ambassador to the US since 1998, Mr Moreno is credited with successfully lobbying Congress to approve Plan Colombia, the $3.5bn package of US counter-narcotics and military aid. Such was Mr Moreno's perceived value that Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's current president, retained him as ambassador in Washington after Mr Moreno had served as Colombia's most important diplomat during the previous government. As head of the IADB, Mr Moreno's primary task will be to select, back and finance development projects in a region that is marked by poverty and a highly unequal distribution of income. |
| Posted by:rkb |