Senior official at U.S. Embassy in Caracas to lead U.S. mission in Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tuesday, 04.26.11
Senior official at U.S. Embassy in Caracas to lead U.S. mission in Cuba
Veteran diplomat John Caulfield to move over from Venezuela to represent U.S. interests in Cuba.

By Juan O. Tamayo
[e-mail]

John Caulfield, the veteran diplomat running the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela amid Washington’s testy relations with President Hugo Chávez, has been picked to head the American diplomatic mission in Cuba, according to U.S. officials.

Caulfield will replace Jonathan Farrar, who has been named as ambassador to Nicaragua after a three-year assignment in Havana marked by complaints from some Cuban dissidents that he did not meet with them often enough and criticized them too harshly.

~snip~
“He is the only one (USINT chief) who has not communicated well with us,’’ said Havana dissident Martha Beatriz Roque. “I’ve only seen him two or three times in my life. It seems that it’s hard for him to communicate.”

“My impression was always that he’s a very professional diplomat, and therefore very discrete,” said Havana human Rights activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz. “But he was also personable, affable and kind. And that’s my opinion, in public and in private, even though I know his opinion of us.”

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/26/2186649/senior-official-at-us-embassy.html

http://caracas.usembassy.gov.nyud.net:8090/images/website/john_caulfield.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/4011/4477386676_16a14c3e5f.jpg

John Caulfield, going to Havana, Jonathan Farrar, leaving Havana, standing next
to Cuban "exile" Republican Representative, Miami's beastie Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.