IDB election

That's right, nothing as exciting as hemispheric politics. Marcela Sanchez outlines the race for the head of the Inter-American Development Bank. The leading candidates are Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to the United States, and Joao Sayad, the current IDB vice-president from Brazil.

Sanchez explains the election as an ideological division between the US and South American countries. She questions whether Chavez will play a role, because up to this point he's been uncharacteristically quiet. There is also a question of whether a third candidate from Central America or the Caribbean will take enough votes to force everyone to find a consensus candidate.

Most importantly, Sanchez also gives the real stakes in this election:
...Income disparity in Latin America is the largest in the world and 222 million people live in poverty, 96 million of whom live on less than one dollar a day.
Anyone running for IDB president should not forget that.


UPDATE (27 July): Being that this post has become a popular Google hit, I'll note that Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to the United States, won the election for the IDB presidency. Christian over at Juanson World did a great roundup of events leading up to the election.

1 comments:

Christian said...

Honestly, who cares what Chavez thinks. Why does every member of the media give the buffoon a mouthpiece on every issue of hemispheric significance. If he didn't have oil no one would care what he had to say. Luckily the IDB has been removed from any sort of Hugo meddling. His take on this election has no significance.