US Senate confirms ambassadors to Colombia and Mexico

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday confirmed U.S. ambassadors to Colombia and Mexico, two of the United States’ most important allies in Latin America.

Philip S. Goldberg’s post in Bogota and Christopher Landau’s in Mexico City were among several nominations adopted by unanimous consent on the last day before the Senate leaves for its August recess.

The approvals also included Kenneth S. George, who had been waiting since March 2018 to be confirmed as ambassador to Uruguay.

Goldberg will replace Kevin Whitaker, who has become the longest-ever U.S. ambassador to Colombia since his arrival in the South American country in 2014. Landau will be the first full ambassador to Mexico since Roberta Jacobson resigned in May 2018.

Goldberg, former ambassador to the Philippines and Bolivia, was nominated in May after objections raised in the Senate derailed Joseph Macmanus, the first candidate proposed by the White House. Goldberg will have among his priorities to support efforts by President Iván Duque’s administration to bring down record-high cultivation of coca and production of cocaine.

Landau, a constitutional and appellate lawyer who has briefed and argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, will take over the job while both the U.S. and Mexico work to implement the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, in which asylum seekers are briefly processed on U.S. territory and given a date to return for an immigration court hearing before being sent back across the border to wait in Mexico.

Another big topic in his portfolio will be the update of the trade agreement that United States reached with Mexico and Canada last year. The pact still needs to be ratified by the U.S. Congress.

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Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/luisalonsolugo