Mari Carmen Aponte

Mari Carmen Aponte (born 1946) is an American attorney and diplomat who is the current nominee to be the United States Ambassador to Panama in the Biden administration. She previously served as acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs on May 5, 2016.[1] She also served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador from August 2010 until December 2011 and again from June 14, 2012, until December 2015.[2][3] Before that she was serving as a member of the board of directors of Oriental Group, a major financial and banking services enterprise in Puerto Rico. President Obama also nominated her as the United States' permanent representative to the Organization of American States,[4] but the Senate had not acted upon that nomination upon adjournment in December, 2014.

Mari Aponte
United States Ambassador to Panama
Nominee
Assuming office
TBD
PresidentJoe Biden
SucceedingStewart Tuttle
(Chargé d’Affaires ad interim)
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
In office
May 5, 2016 – January 20, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byRoberta S. Jacobson
Succeeded byFrancisco Palmieri
United States Ambassador to El Salvador
In office
June 29, 2012 – December 9, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded bySean Murphy (Acting)
Succeeded byJean Elizabeth Manes
In office
September 27, 2010 – January 2, 2011
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byRobert Blau (Acting)
Succeeded bySean Murphy (Acting)
Personal details
Born1946 (age 75–76)
Santurce, Puerto Rico
Political partyDemocratic
EducationRosemont College (BA)
Villanova University (MA)
Temple University (JD)

Early life and education

Aponte was born in Puerto Rico in 1946. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Rosemont College, a Master of Arts in theater from Villanova University, and a Juris Doctor from the Temple University Beasley School of Law, one of a few female law students enrolled under an affirmative action program, after serving a stint as a public school teacher.[5]

Career

In 1979, she was appointed as a White House Fellow by President Jimmy Carter, serving as a special assistant to former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Moon Landrieu.

Clinton administration

In 1998, President Bill Clinton nominated Aponte to serve as the United States' ambassador to the Dominican Republic. However, Aponte asked that her nomination be withdrawn from consideration by the Senate after her involvement with Roberto Tamayo was made public.[6] After Aponte's nomination was withdrawn, Clinton designated Aponte a special assistant in the Office of Presidential Personnel.[7]

Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration

In 2001, Puerto Rico Governor Sila Calderón appointed Aponte to be executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, a post she held until 2004.

Obama administration

Aponte was serving as a member of the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission when President Obama nominated her in December 2009 to serve as the United States Ambassador to El Salvador.[2] After the Senate failed to act upon her nomination over a period of eight months, Obama gave Aponte a recess appointment to the post in August 2010 and she stayed until 2011.[8]

In 2011, Aponte helped organize and hosted President Obama's state visit to El Salvador as part of a Latin American tour that also included Brazil and Chile.

In August, 2011, she personally hosted a visit from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was meeting with Salvadorean counterparts.[9]

In December 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Aponte's nomination, in an effort to break Senate Republicans' filibuster of her nomination. However, the cloture vote failed by a vote of 49–37.[10]

Aponte returned to the United States at the end of December 2011, when her recess appointment expired.

On June 14, 2012, the Senate confirmed Aponte to be the ambassador by voice vote.[11]

Aponte was also nominated by President Obama as a permanent representative to the OAS, but the Senate adjourned in December 2014 before taking up her nomination.

Biden administration

On October 8, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Aponte to be the next U.S ambassador to Panama.[12] The Senate Foreign Relations Committee did not act on it for the rest of the year, and it was returned to President Biden on January 3, 2022.[13]

President Biden resent Aponte's nomination the next day. Her nomination is currently pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[14]

Private sector

Aponte has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Oriental Group, a major financial and banking services enterprise in Puerto Rico, from 1998 to 2001 and from 2005 until appointed as ambassador to El Salvador.

In addition to decades of law practice, she was a vice-chair of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health and a consultant to the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN).

She served as a director at the National Council of La Raza, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the University of the District of Columbia and Rosemont College. She presided over the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Personal life

In the early 1990s, Aponte dated insurance salesman Roberto Tamayo. Tamayo was accused by a Cuban intelligence defector of spying for the Cuban government. Tamayo was alternately accused of being an FBI informant by a U.S. intelligence source. Aponte's relationship with Tamayo, which ended in 1994, was brought up by Republican Senator Jim DeMint as a reason to stop her confirmation as ambassador to El Salvador in 2011, however, she was confirmed as no "nefarious connection was found".[15]

Aponte speaks Spanish and French.

See also

References
  1. "Aponte, Mari Carmen".
  2. "President Obama nominates Mari Carmen Aponte as new Ambassador to El Salvador". Embassy of the United States San Salvador, El Salvador. 2009-12-09. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  3. "US ambassador leaves El Salvador after Senate fails to ratify her". Washington Post. December 30, 2011.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2015-01-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Archived March 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Obama Pick for Salvador Post Withdrew Prior Nomination Over Cuba Concerns". Fox News. 17 December 2009.
  7. "Aponte, Mari Carmen". AllGov. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  8. "President Obama Announces Recess Appointments to Key Administration Posts". whitehouse.gov. 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2013-12-16 – via National Archives.
  9. "U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor Visits El Salvador". Embassy of the United States San Salvador, El Salvador. 2011-08-15. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  10. "On the Cloture Motion (Cloture on the Nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of El Salvador)". US Senate. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  11. "PN267 — Mari Carmen Aponte — Department of State 112th Congress (2011-2012)". US Congress. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  12. "President Biden Announces Key Nominations". The White House. 8 October 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  13. "PN1251 — Mari Carmen Aponte — Department of State 117th Congress (2021-2022)". US Congress. 3 January 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  14. "PN1565 — Mari Carmen Aponte — Department of State 117th Congress (2021-2022)". US Congress. 4 January 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  15. Collins, Gail (9 December 2011). "The Ghosts of Boyfriends Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
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