Alberto Fernández was unable to secure the CAF presidency for Argentina, but he will remain as vice-president of a key financial organization for the region

The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) is a regional development bank that manages funds for 28,000 million dollars. It is a key financial player in Latin America, and even more so in times of economic and social crisis caused by successive waves of COVID-19. Alberto Fernández wanted to appoint Argentina as head of CAF, but his geopolitical goal was not achieved due to his diplomatic clashes with Jair Bolsonaro, Luis Lacalle and Mario Abdo Benítez. that on behalf of Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay finally supported the Colombian candidate Sergio Díaz-Granados. Faced with the lack of support and to “facilitate the bloc’s consensus”, Argentina finally negotiated to lower its nomination, in exchange for the vice-presidency.

Before the final negotiation that took place this afternoon in Mexico, Alberto Fernández relied on Bolivia, Mexico and Venezuela to achieve this goal Christian Asinelli – Under-Secretary for International Financial Relations – will reach the direction of CAF. Due to the inflexible rejection of the majority bloc, Argentinian diplomatic negotiators ultimately lowered the nomination in order to reconcile positions. CAF has a total of 19 votes, 10 of which belong to the five founding member countries, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia. To reach consensus, they offered Argentina the best vice-presidency. With this agreement, finally all the countries – except the Maduro regime which decided not to vote – approved the formula of the agreement and the definition was 17-0.

The negotiators reached a “Programmatic agreement», To which he had access Infobae, to define the new authorities which had the following points:

1) The appointment of Sergio Díaz-Granados Guida as the new Executive President of CAF for the period 2021-2026 is decided, with the spirit of working for the institutional framework and in the best future of one of the most important entities. more important for regional development. The above responds to a spirit of consensus in a setting where the region faces difficult times related to the impact of the pandemic and building unity amid differences.

2) The candidate Sergio Díaz Granados thanks the support of the different delegations and also thanks the Argentinian candidate, Christian Asinelli, for having reached this consensus for the benefit of the future of the institution and of the region.

3) The program prepared by the Argentinian candidacy will be taken into consideration for the construction of vision 21.26 in the search for a major program agreement to strengthen CAF and better meet the needs of all its partners. As part of the above-mentioned agreement, the creation of a programmatic Vice-Presidency is established, headed by Mr. Christian Asinelli, based in Argentina, whose terms and scope will be defined by mutual agreement, within an ad hoc Committee of the elected Executive Chairman, Sergio Díaz Granados, with Christian Asinelli, and with the advice of the management, to be presented and approved at the meeting of the Board of Directors on July 8, 2021.

4) Finally, within the framework of this Agreement-Program, as proposed by Mr. Sergio Díaz Granados in his candidacy speech, and as provided for in the founding Agreement of the Bank, the new administration will tend to be fair and inclusive. taking into account all the shareholder countries.

Another defeat

Beyond the negotiations and the diplomatic consensus obtained, the result showed that Argentina did not achieve, once again, a geopolitical objective that was proposed in the region. It had happened before with the Inter-American Development Bank. If the president -with this antecedent- would have maintained institutional relations with Bolsonaro, Lacalle and Benítez, Asinelli would have had a better chance today of defeating the Colombian Díaz Granados, which was promoted by Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – all members of Mercosur -, Ecuador, Peru and the financial entities that make up the CAF board of directors.

Pero Alberto Fernández has deep personal and ideological differences with Bolsonaro, he clashed with Lacalle Pou over the economic future of Mercosur and could not convince Benítez, who bowed to the position of the Presidents of Brazil and Uruguay.

Diplomacy is a political art which serves to appease differences in the search for a common objective, and in this case, the Chancellery was a spring of the State which again failed to crown a regional line of action. While Gustavo Béliz -Secretary of Strategic Affairs- and Asinelli used the batteries of their mobile phones to collect votes, Felipe Solá participated in meetings in Austria related to Argentina’s external relations in central Europe.

There is no manual of global diplomacy that obliges leaders not to expose their ideological and personal positions, But all foreign relations textbooks teach that in calculating costs and benefits it is necessary to seek a balance that allows – in this case Argentina – to achieve the geopolitical goals set by the respective government.

In this context, the circumstantial absence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is aggravated by the trajectory of the road map drawn by Alberto Fernández for the country’s foreign policy. The president isolated himself from Mercosur members when the human rights violations of Venezuela and Nicaragua were discussed in the Organization of American States (OAS), he failed a tactical approach with the liberal governments of Colombia and and it relied too much on the continental strategy applied by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

Conclusion: Asinelli was only supported by Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela and Trinidad Tobago. Very little compared to the agreement that Iván Duque-President of Colombia- has managed to integrate with three Mercosur countries -Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay-, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and the banks that make up CAF .

Although he did not achieve the goal at CAF, Alberto Fernández believes that his international agenda is correct. The Head of State considers that his position at the OAS was appropriate when the condemnation of Nicaragua and Venezuela was discussed, and that now is not the time to articulate a pricing flexibility for Mercosur, as required by Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Alberto Fernández is satisfied with the diplomatic relations he maintains with the United States, China, Russia and the European Union, and he commented in Balcarce’s private life 50 that he did not intend to change his strategy in Argentina’s foreign relations.

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