Salazar Expresses Concern to Secretary Yellen About Mexican Banking Candidate

Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R) has issued a letter to Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary. The letter urges by the Biden administration to make sure the United States votes against Alicia Ibarra for President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

Last month, Mexican President Lopez Obrador proposed that Alicia Ibarra would be the Mexican candidate to head the Inter-American Development Bank. The proposition has been met with some criticism, but Obrador maintains that Ibarra is principled.

“She worked for the UN and headed ECLAC for a long time. Besides, she is an exceptional woman, highly respected, with good relations with all the governments [in the region],” said Obrador.

However, lawmakers have taken issue with Ibarra’s past, and this culminated in Salazar penning a letter and asking for the United States to vote against the nomination.

“We cannot allow a communist sympathizer to lead the Inter-American Development Bank,” said Salazar, adding that “at a time when socialists are taking over Latin America, it would be incredibly dangerous to the United States and the cause of freedom in our hemisphere for them to have an ally strategically placed in the heart of Washington D.C.”

At once, Salazar called for the Biden administration to “oppose her candidacy.”

According to a press release from Salazar, while Ibarra served as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, “she repeatedly signaled her lack of faith in free markets and her admiration of authoritarian dictators.”

The previous head of the Development Bank was Mauricio Claver-Carone, but he was removed after being found guilty of having a relationship with an employee.

President Joe Biden (D) also announced that he would not be proposing a candidate to fill the vacancy.