The nomination of President Obama’s choice to be next ambassador to Nicaragua is in doubt over criticism leveled by two Cuban-American Senators, Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Mario Rubio (R-Florida), regarding Cuba policy. Jonathan D. Farrar, a senior diplomat whose career includes extensive experience in Latin America, was Chief of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, from July 2008 to early 2011, when he wrote a diplomatic cable (in April 2009), since leaked, pointing out that the Cuban dissident community had little support among the Cuban people generally.

 

Born circa 1955 in Los Angeles, California, Farrar graduated from Covina High School in Covina, California, a small city in the San Gabriel Valley 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Farrar has stated that his interest in Latin America began in 1973 in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, while he was on a sister-city student exchange program, which he says “taught [him] more about Mexico than [he] ever could have learned in a textbook.” He earned his B.A. in Political Science in 1979 at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, and later studied at Claremont Graduate School and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

 

Farrar joined the State Department in 1980 as an economic officer, and is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Early career assignments overseas included Economic/Commercial Officer at Belize City, Belize; Economic/Commercial Officer at Asuncion, Paraguay; and Political/Economic Officer and Deputy Chief of Mission at Montevideo, Uruguay. Farrar served early stateside stints as Financial Economist in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; Desk Officer for Argentina in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; Special Assistant in the Office of the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs; Deputy Director in the Office of Andean Affairs for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; and Executive Assistant in the Office of the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs.

 

From August 2004 to November 2005, Farrar served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau (INL), with responsibility for INL’s programs in the Western Hemisphere, Africa, Asia, and Europe. In November 2005, he was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), and was elevated to DRL’s Acting Assistant Secretary from August 2007 to March 2008. In this capacity, Farrar oversaw DRL’s human rights and democracy programs around the world, with a particular focus on Asia and the Western Hemisphere.  

 

He speaks Spanish and some Portuguese. Farrar and his wife, Terry, have two sons and a daughter. 

-Matt Bewig

 

Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)

Jonathan Farrar’s Cables from Cuba (search “Jonathan Farrar”)

Cable Shows Nations Going Easy on Cuba (by Mark Landler, New York Times)

Potential Ambassador’s Record Criticized (by Juan Tamayo, Miami Herald)