Claver-Carone opposed the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the U.S. under Barack Obama.
during the Barack Obama administration. Photo taken from Cubadebate

By Roberto Morejón 

Donald Trump's main man -- known for his right-wing radicalism -- the president of the IDB, Inter-American Development Bank, Mauricio Claver-Carone is back.  He says he holds what he calls "an apolitical position."

During a suspicious visit this month to Paraguay and Uruguay, the lawyer who was a member of the group closest to the former Republican president, elaborated on what he describes as competent management at the head of the IDB.

It would be a mistake to circumscribe the trajectory of this standard-bearer of rampant neoliberalism to the economic sphere, given his links with retrograde political currents.

Before being imposed by Donald Trump as head of the IDB, in contravention of a tradition that favors the appointment of Latin Americans, this Miami-born man, with a Cuban mother and Spanish father, served as deputy to the President of the United States on the National Security Council.

Previously, he was director of an organization that claims to promote human rights and attacks progressive governments.

Linked to the lucrative anti-Castro industry, Claver-Carone opposed the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States during Barack Obama's term and gained proximity to Senator Marco Rubio, of rabid inclination against the Caribbean archipelago.

Already in Trump's team, to whom he whispered to tighten the blockade against Havana, Claver-Carone traveled to Buenos Aires as U.S. representative at the inauguration of President Alberto Fernandez.

He left abruptly when he learned that among the guests were Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Venezuela's Jorge Rodriguez.

Under the reins of the IDB, the new official confesses to be opposed to China's investments in Latin America. 

The president of the IDB, who holds the purse strings for the granting of loans, praises and rewards governments that apply the free market in an orthodox manner.

Like those of Paraguay and Uruguay, countries that Claver-Carone visited in September, when he praised the respective presidents, Mario Abdo Benítez and Luis Lacalle Pou.

Strikingly, they made interventions at the VI Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States contrary to the majority positions of containment, of integrationist vision.

Many analysts wondered if these statesmen were responding to signals from Claver-Carone, who claims to maintain an apolitical behavior, although nobody believes him.