The United States has appointed a new diplomatic chief for Latin America

After six months of delay, The Senate completed the confirmation hearing of the senior American diplomat in charge of relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. Brian Nichols is the first African American in this role in over four decades.

The Republican opposition, with the senator Ted cruz At the head, he has blocked the appointment of diplomats for the past six months, but in these weeks the processes have started to take shape.

Democratic Senator Bob menendez, who is also chairman of the upper house’s foreign relations committee, pointed out that Nichols’ role is crucial at this time due to the great instability that exists in various parts of the region.. Menéndez, as a Cuban American, spoke about the current crisis in Cuba, where on July 11 the population took to the streets to demand freedom and the end of the dictatorship, generating a wave of repression on the island. Added to this is the constant instability in Nicaragua and the institutional precariousness in Haiti after the assassination of the president and the earthquake.

“With a extensive experience in the Americas, Ambassador Brian Nichols, a career foreign service official, will skillfully advance the national interests of the United States, ”Menendez told colleagues in the Senate.

Nichols began his career in the diplomatic service in 1989 in Peru, where he learned to speak Spanish fluently. Among 1991 and 1993 was a politician in El Salvador. For three years, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was deputy political adviser in Mexico. In 2007 and until 2010, it was Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in Colombia, and between 2014 and 2017 returned to Peru as ambassador.

Back in Washington, from State Department headquarters, he was responsible for drug trafficking programs in the region and chaired the offices of Caribbean Affairs and Central American Affairs.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have serious social and economic consequences in countries in the region. And there are the ongoing security and governance challenges in Central America that fuel irregular migration, ”Menéndez explained while pleading for Nichols’ confirmation.

Born 56 years ago in Rhode Island, he studied at the prestigious university of tufts and has been married for over two decades to Geraldine Kam, also a United States Foreign Service official, with whom she has two daughters.

His diplomatic career took him to live, in addition to Latin America, in Southeast Asia, where he served as a senior diplomat in Indonesia, and in Africa, where he was until a few weeks ago ambassador to Zimbabwe.

After being confirmed in office, one of the first to publicly congratulate him was Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), who, through a message on the social network Twitter, said he looked forward to “continuing the partnership between the United States and the OAS to promote more of democracy, human rights, sustainable development and security for all in the Americas ”.

Already confirmed in your position, Nichols will immediately be sworn in to head the office which until now had no designated chief.

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