By The Opinion
Dec 22, 2024, 10:13 PM EST
US President-elect Donald Trump announced the appointment of Mauricio Claver-Carone, former president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).as the person in charge of the State Department for Latin America.
The American of Cuban origin Claver-Carone took over at the IDB in October 2020, nominated by Trump in his first term (2017-2021), and was dismissed from the institution after an ethics investigation for having an affair with a subordinate and giving him a raise.
Former President Trump, who takes office on January 20, recalled today that Claver-Carone was the White House’s senior director for Latin America during his first term.
“Mauritius knows the region and knows how to put US interests FIRST. He also knows the terrible threats we face from illegal mass migration and fentanyl,” Trump said on the Truth Social social network.
“Over the past four years, chaos and anarchy have taken over our borders. It is time to restore order in our own hemisphere. Mauricio knows the region and knows how to put the interests of the United States first,” he continued.
Claver-Carone, 49, was elected in September 2020 as president of the IDB and became the first non-Latin American to hold the position.
He did so in the midst of controversy since then-President Trump nominated him shortly before the end of his first term. The Latin American countries were not able to define a joint candidate, with Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia or Uruguay supporting the US and Argentina withdrawing its candidate at the last moment, not having sufficient support.
These nations did agree to remove him in September 2021, after an external investigationencouraged by some members of the IDB itself, demonstrated that she had maintained a romantic relationship with a subordinate whose salary was raised on several occasions.
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