Claudia Ivette Canjura de Centeno took over as her country’s ambassador to the United States on June 17, 2016. It’s her third such assignment.

Canjura’s background is in medicine, not diplomacy. She earned a master’s in public health at the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas and an M.D. at the Universidad de El Salvador. Before joining her country’s foreign ministry, she managed health institutions in El Salvador.

Canjura was ambassador to Guatemala from 2009 to 2012. She was then made ambassador to Russia, where she helped open El Salvador’s embassy. She was also credentialed to Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Canjura was in Moscow until being moved to Washington.

Her latest appointment was not without controversy. Her father, Carlos Canjura, is El Salvador’s education minister and there were accusations that she got the job because of his position. The elder Canjura said that he was only appointed in 2014, and if anyone benefited, it was him.

Canjura is married to Jose Martin Centeno.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Hay Nueva Embajadora de El Salvador en EE.UU. (by Milagros Meléndez-Vela, El Tiempo Latino)