Hit by the Argentine Crisis, IMF Western Hemisphere Director Seeks Support from López Obrador

This week the IMF will have its usual fall conference in Washington D.C. There, the Fund specialists will discuss the main perspectives of the immediate future and it will feature Kritalina Georgieva's debut as the new Managing Director. For Mexican Alejandro Werner, an influential official inside the organization who is in charge of Latin America, it will not be a regular week. 

Werner understands that the incoming director will seek to remove him for the failure of in Argentina, a program that had to be revised three times and whose last disbursement of just over USD 5,000 billion was suspended despite the attempts of President Mauricio Macri in his most recent conversation with Christine Lagarde.

That is why Werner hopes to arrange a meeting with Arturo Herrera, Mexico's Secretary of Finance, to get the support of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration. It doesn't seem easy: Mexico doesn't have a debt with the IMF, and Werner is identified as an economist from the neoliberal era. For the Mexican government, there is no benefit in sustaining him in his current position.

When Agustín Carstens left his post as Mexico's Central Bank governor, Werner was one of the strongest candidates to succeed him but had the legal impediment that despite being Mexican, he was born in Argentina and that might ultimately cost him the position.

Herrera recently confirmed that he would revalidate Mexico's line of credit with the IMF and that it is available for any type of contingency. That agreement was made with Werner. Based on their good relationship Werner hopes to get backing from the Mexican administration.

According to sources inside the IMF, Georgieva's argument to remove Werner and other directors will be that a new gender quota in the top of the organization that would force her to incorporate women in top positions.

A few days ago, Argentine newspaper Clarín revealed that the IMF European directors want someone to take responsibility for the failure of the Argentine debacle and that Werner is a promising candidate to fulfill that role. It is not surprising, out of every ten dollars the IMF loaned worldwide, six were given to Argentina.