Mauricio Claver-Carone is an American attorney and government official. He is known for advocating a hardline policy against Cuba and influencing the Trump administration's policy towards Venezuela.
He was the founder and host of the bilingual foreign policy show "From Washington Al Mundo" on Sirius-XM's Cristina Radio, led by the Emmy-award winning journalist and media personality, Cristina Saralegui. Poder Magazine recognized him as one of 20 entrepreneurs, executives, leaders and artists under 40 who are shaping the future of the U.S. and the world. Claver-Carone has written regularly for HuffPost, and has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and World Affairs. He has also published in academic journals, including the Georgetown Journal of International Law and the Yale Journal of International Affairs. Claver-Carone has provided congressional testimony before the Committees on Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary and Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives. He also served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Columbus School of Law and as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School.
Government positions
Claver-Carone served as the U.S. Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund. In the role, he represented the United States, as the largest shareholder, on the IMF's Executive Board. During his tenure, Claver-Carone led U.S. support for the IMF's $57 billion stand-by loan, the largest in its history, for Argentina. He was previously Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Earlier in his career, he had served as an Attorney-Advisor for the United States Department of the Treasury, where he provided counsel on banking laws and securitizations. In 2016, Claver-Carone was named a member of the Donald Trump transition team. On September 1, 2018, he was appointed as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the United States National Security Council's Western Hemisphere Affairs directorate. On June 16, 2020, Trump nominated Claver-Carone to serve as President of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Cuba policy
Claver-Carone is a known advocate of the policy positions that the United States has taken against the Cuban government. He has written numerous columns in support of foreign policy towards Cuba, particularly the United States embargo against Cuba, and in favor of a transition on the island towards democracy, free markets and the rule of law. He has also been a prominent critic of the current government of Venezuela. He has taken part in various televised debates on policy towards the Western Hemisphere and Cuba–United States relations. Claver-Carone was Executive Director of Cuba Democracy Advocates. In an independent capacity, he also served on the Board of Directors of the US-Cuba Democracy PAC, which purports to be the largest, single foreign-policy political action committee in the United States, and the largest Hispanic political action committee in history. He was editor of the blog Capitol Hill Cubans.
