Earlier this year, President Barack Obama designated James Nealon as his choice to be the next US Ambassador to Honduras. Nealon is a career diplomat who has served as chief of mission to Ottawa, Montevideo, and Peru. He currently serves as Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor at the U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida. On June 24, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee cleared his nomination and his name will now be added to the backlogged list of nominations awaiting a Senate vote. Perhaps early 2015?
Nealon had previously been nominated by the president to serve as ambassador to Bolivia but comments he made about the Bolivian and Venezuelan governments and released by WikiLeaks while he was serving as ambassador to Peru torpedoed his next posting.
No word yet on who the presidents hopes to fill the ambassadorial appointments to Guatemala and Costa Rica. I don't buy the US doesn't pay attention to Central America meme traveling the blogosphere but the lack of urgency to filling our ambassadorial posts in the region doesn't help. Given the tide turning against US policy towards Cuba, however, perhaps it is now possible to nominate someone to the region who has criticized the embargo or who has in the past not shown themselves tough enough again the Castro government. In the past, those characteristics or experiences made one's appointment unlikely.
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