PM Says Delay in Appointment of U.S. Ambassador Not Unique to Jamaica

Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding has said the delay in the appointment of a new United States Ambassador to Jamaica may have been due to the State Department’s pre-occupation with other matters.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (December 8), Mr. Golding cited what he said was a general delay in the “processing and approval of the President’s nominees for several postings” which, he pointed out, was not confined to Jamaica.
“The Ambassador to Trinidad, for example, was only appointed within the last couple of weeks,” Mr. Golding said in response to a question from Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Anthony Hylton, about the delay in the appointment of a new US Ambassador to Jamaica.
The previous US Ambassador to Jamaica, Brenda LaGrange Johnson, demitted office in January 2009.
Mr. Golding said that he understands that part of the difficulty is that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been pre-occupied with a range of other matters.
“We had learnt of a selection of an Ambassador for Jamaica, and that the name was submitted to the Senate. That person has subsequently opted to accept ambassadorship to Costa Rica, because the person that was designated for Costa Rica withdrew and this person, who is a very strong environmental advocate and who, apparently, is very attracted to the environmental programme in Costa Rica, opted to go there,” the Prime Minister said.
“We await the appointment of a US Ambassador, in the same way that many other countries are,” the Prime Minister stated.