Regarding the election of the next President of the Interamerican Development Bank the Grupo de Puebla states as follows:
1. The Interamerican Development Bank, created on 1959, is the most important development financial instrument that Latin America can rely on. It has an average of 37 billion dollars of funds of its own and 2 billion dollars of funds of third parties. It has financed the most important projects of the region in terms of infrastructure, social and productive development in the last 60 years.
2. Since its creation, the Presidency of the Bank has been occupied by relevant Latin American figures: Felipe Herrera from Chile (1960-1970); Antonio Ortiz Mena from Mexico (1970-1988); Enrique Iglesias from Uruguay (1988-2005); and Luis Alberto Moreno from Colombia (2005-2020). This tradition has been kept as part of a non-written agreement with the United States, which, in addition, accepts that the second position of the Bank is filled by a representative of that country.
3. Maintaining such balance in the direction of the Bank, while adapting the agenda of priorities to the demanding circumstances of the post pandemic is vital on the road to strengthening the future relationship between Latin América and the United States.
4. In consequence, the Grupo de Puebla supports the petition elevated by a large number of counties, congresses and relevant figures in the region to postpone the election of the President of the Bank, which is supposed to take place on September, until March of next year. In the upcoming months the governments who are associates of the Bank can work on the search of a Latin American candidate they can all agree on. They can also take time to work on a new agenda which guides the credit policy of the IDB in accordance to the rebuilding of the economy and the social fabric after the pandemic.
Signers:
1) Rafael Correa
2) David Choquehuanca
3) Ernesto Samper
4) Marco Enríquez-Ominami
5) Aloizio Mercadante
6) Mónica Xavier
7) Guillaume Long
8) Jorge Taiana
9) Carlos Sotelo
10) Carlos Ominami
11) Iván Cepeda
12) Hugo Martínez
13) Esperanza Martínez
14) Daniel Martínez
15) Verónika Mendoza
16) Celso Amorim
17) Gabriela Rivadeneira
18) Fernando Lugo
19) Carlos Tomada
20) Clara López
21) Carol Proner
22) Karol Cariola
23) Camilo Lagos
24) Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
25) Jorge Taiana
26) Adriana Salvatierra
27) María José Pizarro
28) José Miguel Insulza