“I have full confidence in Rodrigo Valdés to lead the work of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department. He is an outstanding economist, a dedicated international official, and a wonderful colleague,” Georgieva said in a brief statement.
Regarding Valdés’ disengagement from the supervision of the Argentine case, despite being the highest authority in the Western Hemisphere, Georgieva said: “I trust in Rodrigo’s opinion in all aspects, including the decision to delegate the negotiations of the IMF program with Argentina to his deputy, Luis Cubeddu.”
The organization’s support for the Western Hemisphere director is logical, as is the decision that the official will no longer have dealings or interference with Argentina given the harsh accusations of bias expressed by President Javier Milei on more than one occasion.
This Thursday, when the IMF’s decision to remove Valdés was announced, the Casa Rosada could not deny its satisfaction. At the same time, they noted that the organization’s decision was logical given that, according to those close to the president, the official had “a philosophical problem, he is a leftist who does not understand our economic program and worked against the negotiation of the new agreement all the time,”. Also, they accuse him of being the one who “leaked information.”
Official satisfaction also led to the statement that “Now a more fruitful dialogue can begin,” are enthusiastic. It should be noted that the Minister of Economy, Luis “Toto” Caputo and his team have a good relationship with Luis Cubdeduwhile President Milei maintains a fluid dialogue with the head of the Fund.
The fact is that the tense relationship between the top authority on the IMF Board and the Argentine president was unsustainable, official sources say, and the conflict needed to be resolved.
The announcement of Rodrigo Valdés’ departure
It should be remembered that the decision was announced this Thursday during the traditional press conference of Julie KozackDirector of Communications at the International Monetary Fund, announced: “To best support constructive engagement with the Argentine authorities, Western Hemisphere Department Director Rodrigo Valdés has fully delegated program negotiations to Luis Cubeddu, Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere Department, and Ashvin Ahuja, Chief of Mission for Argentina, whose work is being overseen by Fund authorities.”
At the end of July, President Javier Milei stated: “I am convinced that this person (Valdés) does not want the best for Argentina,” and accused him of following a political agenda contrary to that of the libertarian leader. The head of state indicated that this official “was absolutely considerate” with the government of Alberto Fernández and instead “every day he is putting buts” to his government that is “an example of fiscal effort never seen in the history of humanity.”
Despite Milei’s criticism, Valdés was supported at the time by the Fund’s board of directors and by managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
However, the IMF could not ignore the president’s harsh accusations and opted to remove the person in charge of the region from dealing with Argentina, which is the organization’s largest debtor. In this way, Valdés is in charge of the entire American hemisphere, except Argentina. In another order, the Fund also endorsed the decision of the Executive Branch to veto the Pension Law.
Source: Ambito
