Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jul 22 2005 (IPS) — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is expected to name a new president on Jul. 27 as competition for the job intensifies between five member nations and the U.S.-backed candidate, who appears to be the favourite to win.

IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias, who held the job since 1988, is leaving his post in September, setting in motion a crucial political battle for the presidency of one of the most influential institutions in Latin America.

The IDB is the main source of multilateral development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Washington-based bank gave six billion dollars in loans last year, more than what the World Bank lent to the region.

The United States dominates the IDB’s board, with 30 percent of the shares. Argentina and Brazil have 10.7 percent each; Mexico has 6.9 percent and Venezuela 5.7 percent.

Five candidates have been nominated for the post. The United States is backing Colombia’s ambassador in Washington, Luis Alberto Moreno, a staunch supporter of the U.S. drug war in his country, or the so-called Plan Colombia. This has sent ripples among watchdog groups and anti-poverty campaigners who fear that Moreno, if chosen, will be heavily influenced by Washington.

The Colombian ambassador is well connected in Washington as a diplomat who has spent the past nine years pushing Plan Colombia and building strong relations with the U.S. Congress and many in its leadership.

But several other heavyweight countries have put forward their preferred choices, making the competition surprisingly intense. Brazil’s nominee is Joao Sayad; Peru’s is Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; Venezuela’s is Jose Rojas, and Nicaragua’s is Mario Alonso.

The candidates from Brazil and Venezuela are seen as the most serious threats to the U.S. favourite. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and has increasingly been trying to run an independent foreign policy and carve out greater regional influence. The country has taken an assertive position in face of U.S. pressure and managed to win a few small battles.

Its candidate, Sayad, is already the IDB’s vice president.

Venezuela’s Rojas, a former finance minister, is a serious contender as well. Pres. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has sought to confront the United States on many occasions and appears willing to use the free oil his country gives to Latin nations to win their support for his candidate.

But some activists say the name of the new president will not make a difference in an institution that already has a well-defined economic agenda in the region.

"The kind of work that we do on these institutions really has shown us that the candidate has little to do with how the institution runs," said Nadia Martinez, a research fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies and director of Latin American Projects for the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (SEEN).

"The bank itself is already going in a direction where I do not think one person or another would make a big difference," she told IPS.

In fact, all of the candidates favour the new direction of the IDB, adopted under Iglesias, to finance huge infrastructure projects and facilitate the integration of Latin American countries through the controversial Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), a massive effort to link up country infrastructure into a pan-American network.

The Venezuelan candidate, as the executive director for his country on the IDB’s board, and the Brazilian, as the current vice president, are insiders who have been part of its past work, including the approval of some environmentally and socially controversial projects, according to SEEN.

While both showed some independence from the United States compared to the Colombian candidate, they have made only marginal changes.

The IDB’s orientation has been backed by Latin American governments themselves, with countries like Brazil and Argentina, and even Venezuela, pursuing greater "physical" integration of the Latin nations through massive cross-border projects.

Still, some independent groups say they think a president with fewer connections to the United States would perhaps work harder for the benefit of Latin American nations.

"Of course, a president alone, independent of name and country, cannot change the policies, decision-making structure and projects of the bank, especially since the bank is governed by its country members," said Fabrina Furtado, political advisor for Rede Brasil, a network of over 80 non-governmental organisations and social movements.

"We have to admit that there is a big difference in the relations that the governments of Brazil and of Venezuela have with the international financial institutions and between blindly accepting, supporting and applying U.S. policies, which have historically harmed Latin Americans, compared to the government of Colombia," she said in an email interview.

"The more democratic and ‘sovereign’ to U.S. influence the government is, the more possibilities there will be for change."

Much to the dismay of civil society groups across the region, the bank has lent to contentious projects like Camisea Natural Gas Project in Peru and Cana Brava Project in Brazil, which are accused of harming local indigenous people and the environment.

To be elected president, a candidate must obtain support from countries that represent the majority of the IDB shares and also an absolute majority of at least 15 votes of the governors of the 28 member countries from the Americas (26 borrowing countries, Canada and the United States). The IDB has 47 member countries in total.