May 27, 2008 (LPAC)--The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) announced today that it is extending a $500 mn. credit line to assist its member countries in dealing with the food crisis afflicting the region. In a press conference announcing the initiative, IADB president Luis Alberto Moreno warned that unless action is taken, all the economic advances achieved by the region in recent years could be wiped out by the impact of rising food prices, throwing millions back into poverty.
The credit line has yet to be approved by the Bank's board, and details as to what it will offer remain to be seen. But it's worth remembering that Moreno sits on the board of the Inter- American Ethanol Commission (IEC) founded by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and that during his tenure as head of the IADB, he's made the Bank synonymous with biofuels development. The IADB is up to its ears in a host of projects that Bush's IEC and other financial predators are setting up in Central America.
Asked by one reporter whether the Bank had "reevaluated" its support for ethanol production, given the severity of the region's food crisis, Moreno defensively responded that the Bank was taking proper steps to make sure that ethanol projects it financed wouldn't exacerbate the food crisis. In fact, he insisted, the Bank only funds ethanol programs based on sugar-cane (!), pointing to Brazil as the great leader in this area, but then lamely admitted that the region wants to see "standards established" for biofuels production, to take into account the concerns of the most-affected nations.
Another aspect of the IADB's announced "assistance" program is its recommendation that governments use the Bank's credit line to encourage expansion of "conditional cash transfer" programs, first developed in Mexico under the name "Opportunities," and later enthusiastically embraced by New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. These "CCT's" reward the poor for "good behavior"--they get stipends if they keep their children in school, have them vaccinated, or successfully perform mundane tasks. They are intended to keep the poor impoverished, and nothing else.
