The government suffered yet another defeat in the fight for the presidency of the second regional bank

The government suffered a diplomatic defeat on Monday when it was elected the new president of the Development Bank of Latin America, the former Andean Development Corporation, the Colombian Sergio Díaz-Granados, former Minister of Commerce and Popular Industry under the government of Juan Manuel Santos.

On the way was the Argentinian candidate Christian Asinelli, current Undersecretary for International Financial Relations, whom Alberto Fernández appointed a few weeks ago to head the former CAF, which is the second largest banking entity in the region and has a box for infrastructure projects for $ 28,000 million.

Ten supports were necessary to win among 19 members That they have the right to vote and Diaz Granado – who now represents his country before the IDB – obtained them. The vote of the Andean countries which have two votes per country was decisive. It was supported by Colombia itself, Ecuador, and at the last moment also Peru, Panama and private banks, which have a voice. But with the majority vote, Díaz Granado, Argentina – withdrew and reached a consent for the Colombian to have paved the way, which only Venezuela was opposed to, he transcended him.

It was reported around this time that Asinelli could be one of CAF’s vice-presidents., with the creation of a new vice-presidency based in Argentina, which turns out to be a less bitter end. They call it a “programmatic deal”. But that will be decided at a later session.

The Colombian had the support of Argentina’s partners in Mercosur – each country a voice – which shows the Kirchner administration’s bad relations with Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, i.e. with Jair Bolsonaro and Luis Lacalle Pou, with whom there are ideological and personal differences who also crept into this election.

The government had the voices of Bolivia, Mexico and Venezuela – where the headquarters of CAF Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina is oddly located – and they were impatiently awaiting the positive vote from Peru where an unprecedented situation occurred. But at the last minute Argentina saw that they had no chance.

Argentina had the support of Pedro Castillo, winner of the elections in Peru, but who could not be reconfirmed by the electoral courts of his country in the midst of the battle waged by his rival, Keiko Fujimori. Hence the expected greeting that Alberto F. gave him on Twitter.

Pero el presidente saliente de Perú, Francisco Sagasti, ya habia compromometido su apoyo a Diaz-Granados, por quien Ivan Duque libró una fuerte batalla diplomática despues de withdrawar a un primer candidato su ex ministro de Economia Alberto Carrasquilla, arrastrado por las protestas sociales en Colombia. Sagasti never officially announced that he was going to support Asinelli.

In addition, he strongly criticized the expected salvation of Alberto Fernández to Castillo, which he saw as interference in the affairs of his country. In Peru, there is resentment against the Argentine government as it was crucial in the fall from pardon of former CAF president, Peruvian Luis Carranza, although in truth he resigned in virtue before d ‘complete his term because of the series of harassment complaints against him.

Argentina tried unsuccessfully to postpone these elections. This is the second international race that Argentina is playing after the frustrated attempt to overthrow Donald Trump’s candidate in 2020, during the election of the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the region’s largest entity.

Then the Argentine candidate was Gustavo Beliz, Secretary of Strategic Affairs. He couldn’t achieve it and today Cuban-American Mauricio Claver-Carone heads the entity for five years, a period similar to what Diaz-Granados, 52, would have to head the Development Bank of Latin America.

One of the most curious situations of the election is that Beliz and Asinelli had to travel to Mexico – where the election was half face to face and half virtual – in a plane loaned by the government of Chaco, since there are no flights between Argentina and this country due to the restrictions of the pandemic as they have reduced flights from all sides.

In the government, there were internal criticisms on Monday. In the same way that they considered that Alberto had to consolidate once and for all the link with Mercosur, of which Argentina is an outcast, he also reigned against the Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Solá, accused of a lack of diplomacy. The same happened in the fight for the IDB, where neither the minister nor Beliz would have fought too hard for a frustrated candidacy that would later cost the Fernández government. Anger also prevailed at his absence from the country for two weeks, during a trip where in a pandemic situation, only the Decolonization Committee in New York and the G20 in Italy were deemed important. Solá just returns this Tuesday, during a tour including a trip to Tunisia and a stopover in Vienna, during meetings with ambassadors from Argentina.