The race for the top job at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) officially gained a new candidate last week, when the Honduran government formally announced the nomination of its secretary of agriculture and livestock, Laura Suazo.

With Suazo in the race, there are now three contenders to succeed Argentine veterinarian Manuel Otero at the helm of IICA, a key agency for agricultural policy and health in the Americas, the world’s largest food exporter.

Guyana, a South American and Caribbean country experiencing an unprecedented economic boom thanks to oil exploitation, and Uruguay also presented candidates to succeed Otero. They are agricultural engineers, Muhammad Ibrahim of Guyana, and Uruguay’s Fernando Mattos.

Ibrahim, nominated by Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, and with more than 30 years of experience in management leadership — he was Director General of the prestigious Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) and Director of Technical Cooperation at IICA — keeps the Caribbean Community (Caricom) solidly unified around his candidacy, as reflected in the recent Montego Bay Declaration.

“The Caricom heads of government reaffirmed their full and unequivocal support for the candidacy of Dr Muhammad Ibrahim of Guyana as eminently qualified for the position, and urged other hemispheric partners to lend their valuable support for his election,” the Caribbean leaders said in July when they met in Jamaica, calling on the rest of the Americas to support their candidate.

A senior Caribbean Community source said that this “massive support” will be reiterated in September, when the region’s agriculture ministers meet in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Otero’s successor will be elected in November.