US official to call on Golding

PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding is to meet with the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Dr Arturo A. Valenzuela, tomorrow when the US official pays a courtesy call on him at Jamaica House.

Jamaica House says Dr Valenzuela will be paying a two-day visit to Jamaica from tomorrow to Wednesday, during which he will also meet with the ministers of foreign affairs and foreign trade, justice and national security, young entrepreneurs, youth advocates, social and community-based activists, as well as leaders in the academic and business communities.

His visit is part of a three-country Caribbean tour, which also includes The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago. Jamaica House says Dr Valenzuela's visit will address issues of mutual interest to Jamaica and the United States, but did not provide specifics.

Dr Valenzuela was nominated by US President Barack Obama as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs in May 2009. In 1992, he was appointed deputy assistant secretary for Inter-American affairs in the US Department of State by then President Bill Clinton.

His primary responsibility then was United States foreign policy for Mexico. In President Clinton's second term in office, Dr Valenzuela was appointed special assistant to the president and senior director for Inter-American affairs at the National Security Council at the White House.