Veteran diplomat heads to Cuba

WASHINGTON (CMC):

United States officials say a veteran diplomat heading the United States Embassy in Venezuela has been picked to head the American diplomatic mission in Cuba.

Officials said John Caulfield will replace Jonathan Farrar, who has been named Ambassador to Nicaragua, after a three-year assignment in Havana, the Cuban capital.

Farrar's tenure there has reportedly been marked by complaints from some Cuban dissidents that he did not meet with them often enough and criticised them too harshly.

The US Senate, which must approve all ambassadors, is not required to endorse Caulfield's posting because the mission in Cuba is not a full-fledged embassy.

Caulfield will have the title of chief of mission of the US Interests Section in Havana, established by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 after decades of no bilateral diplomatic relations.

The veteran diplomat, who spent most of his 30-odd-year career in consular posts, is regarded in Washington and Venezuela as a professional and quiet envoy, who did the best he could running the embassy in Caracas in the absence of an ambassador.