Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the new ambassador to El Salvador, Maria del Carmen Aponte. She was taking a morning to come visit the Peace Corps headquarters in San Salvador, and our boss Jaime invited any of the volunteers in the area to stop by and meet her. Aponte is a Puerto Rico-born attorney. She has a BA in political science from Rosemont College, an MA in theatre (seriously, theatre!) from Villanova University, and her Juris Doctor from Temple University. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the University of the District of Columbia. She has practiced law in Washington D.C. for twenty years, and in 1979, was a White House Fellow under Jimmy Carter. From 2001-2004, she was the Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration.
Aponte was actually appointed as ambassador by President Obama back in December 2009. Unfortunately for us, her Senate confirmation was held up by Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), because of a relationship she had with a Cuban-born boyfriend who had contact with the Cuban interests section in Washington. This relationship ended in the early 90’s, and Aponte was cleared by the FBI and her appointment was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last spring. Despite this, Senate Republicans fought her appointment, and Obama eventually had to use a recess appointment to bypass the Senate confirmation process.
My overall impression of Mari Aponte is that she’s genuinely lovely woman. I assumed that her visit to the Peace Corps office was somewhat perfunctory, and after a few handshakes and smiles, she’d head back to the embassy. I was therefore pleased to find that she stayed the whole morning, meeting with all the senior staff as well as helping hand out the certificates for a small Peace Corps staff awards ceremony. During the reception, she sat down with the volunteers who were there, and took the time to ask about our sites and our work. She seemed truly curious about who we are and what we are doing in El Salvador. She expressed interest in the swearing-in ceremony for the new volunteers, and when she was told that it was no longer held at the embassy in San Salvador, but in San Vicente, she said, “Well that’s fine, wherever it is, I’ll come.” All I can say after meeting her is that, whatever detractors have said about her, they certainly can’t fault her abilities. The woman is a natural-born diplomat. Warm, friendly, caring – when she talks to you, you get the impression that she really is interested in you, not just that she’s talking to you because it’s her job. I’m incredibly excited that we have an ambassador like her in the country.
