Mauricio Claver-Carone, the current senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the U.S. National Security Council and an adviser to President Donald Trump, was elected Sept. 12 to be the next president of Latin America’s top development bank.
The Treasury Department nominated Claver-Carone for the position in June.
National security adviser Robert C. O'Brien and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo applauded the election of Claver-Carone, the first American to lead the organization.
O'Brien praised him for his “strategic vision for accelerating best-in-class private investment in the region,” while Pompeo said that Claver-Carone has been a visionary leader in advancing prosperity in the Western Hemisphere and a strong advocate for the democratic institutions and security cooperation that underpin economic growth and development.
“The United States looks forward to working closely with him during his tenure as president of this essential organization as it revitalizes economies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.
The confirmation of Claver-Carone, a Cuban American, as IDB president is a major step forward of the Trump administration’s Western Hemisphere strategy of confronting the increasing influence from the Chinese regime in America’s neighborhood.
The National Security Council listed four strategic goals in the framework including securing the homeland through preventing illegal and uncontrolled human migration, smuggling, and trafficking, advancing economic growth and expanding free markets in the Americas, reaffirming the region’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law, countering economic aggression and malign political influence, and expanding and strengthening the regional community of like-minded partners.
“The Western Hemisphere is a geopolitical priority for the United States,” reads the framework.
