New US Ambassador to Panama gets Senate Approval

The US Senate confirmed Thursday the Puerto Rican Mari Carmen Aponte, as Ambassador to the Republic of Panama.

Aponte is a lawyer and career diplomat. She served as Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department under President Barak Obama, with Joe Biden as Vice President.

The new ambassador had been waiting for the ratification for several months, after President Joe Biden nominated the Puerto Rican to occupy the post which had remained vacant after the resignation of John Feeley in January 2018.  During that period the Embassy in Panama has been directed by several chargé d’affaires

Aponte, who was ambassador to El Salvador and acting assistant secretary of state for Latin America during the Barack Obama administration, had been favorably recommended, without opposition, by the Committee on Foreign Relations.

A lawyer by profession, Aponte was director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) during the administration of Sila María Calderón. She was also appointed in the past as ambassador to the Dominican Republic and to the Organization of American States (OAS), although these designations did not complete the legislative process.

Accordingto the newspaper El Nuevo Día , from Puerto Rico, in 1997, then President Bill Clinton appointed Aponte as ambassador to the Dominican Republic. But the Republicans blocked her appointment using as an excuse an affair she had with a Cuban businessman who frequented the Cuban Interests Section in Washington DC. Amid renewed Republican criticism, Aponte was appointed by President Barack Obama as ambassador to El Salvador and confirmed by the US Senate in June 2012. This time, with the appointment of Biden, although she faced a slow confirmation process, she had no stumbling blocks.