Hugo Llorens

Hugo Llorens
United States Ambassador to Honduras
In office
September 19, 2008 – July 26, 2011
President George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Preceded by Charles A. Ford
Succeeded by Lisa Kubiske
Personal details
Born (1954-09-07) September 7, 1954
Cuba
Spouse(s) Lisett Aparicio Llorens
Children Andrew and Dirk

Hugo Llorens (born September 7, 1954)[1] is an American diplomat, the current Special Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan[2], and the former United States Ambassador to Honduras (2008-2011). Posted to a variety of countries in his thirty-year career, in 2002-03 he was the principal advisor to the President and National Security Advisor on issues pertaining to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.

Background

Born in Cuba[3] in 1954,[4] Llorens came to the United States at the age of seven [5] in April 1962 as part of Operation Peter Pan.[6][7]

Education

Llorens obtained a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in 1977. He then went on to receive a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England in 1980. In 1997 he gained a Master of Science in National Security Studies from the National War College.

Pre-State Department career

Llorens worked as an Assistant Treasurer at the Chase Manhattan Bank, International Division, New York City, before joining the United States Department of State in 1981.

Diplomatic career

Llorens served as Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, in which capacity he "played an important role in the launch of the historic Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations in 1998".[8] From 1999 to 2002 Llorens served for three years as Principal Officer at the United States Consulate General in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[8]

In 2002 and 2003, he served in Washington, D.C., as the Director of Andean Affairs at the National Security Council. There he was the principal advisor to the President and National Security Advisor on issues pertaining to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. His tenure in this position included time of the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.

He was then Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until July 2006,[8] primarily under Ambassador Lino Gutierrez. From September 2006, Llorens served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Madrid, Spain,[8] under Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre.

Llorens was confirmed as ambassador-designate to Honduras in April 2008 and presented his credentials as ambassador to President Manuel Zelaya Rosales on September 19, 2008.[8] In June 2009. Llorens states he declared - in reference to President Manuel Zelaya's planned referendum on a proposed constitutional assembly - that:

...One can't violate the Constitution in order to create another Constitution, because if one doesn't respect the Constitution, then we all live under the law of the jungle.[7]

However, Llorens built himself the reputation of someone that sends different messages to different audiences and he also made himself the reputation of a "Laissez Faire" diplomat.

His leaked cables, caused some controversy in Honduras [9] because he declared that there was "no proof" that Zelaya intended to stay in power (through a new chavista constituent assembly). It was all "a fabrication". Many in Honduras viewed this as Llorens deliberately deceiving the State Department, because videos (proof) of Zelaya openly declaring that reelection would be a part of the new constituent assembly were widely displayed through Honduran television, radio, etc. by democracy advocates, and political opponents. It was impossible to not have seen this or known this.

Selected works

Family

He has two sons, Andrew and Dirk.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ U.S. Public Records Index Vol 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
  2. ↑ https://kabul.usembassy.gov/cda.html
  3. ↑ Honduras This Week, February 10, 2009, HTW Exclusive Interview: U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens: “I’m hopeful about the future of Honduras.”
  4. ↑ US State Department Office of the Historian, Hugo Llorens biodata, accessed August 2, 2009
  5. ↑ Hugo Llorens Opening Written Testimony, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Confirmation Hearing, April 16, 2008, accessed August 2, 2009
  6. ↑ [Miamiherald.com, the network for Operation Pedro Pan, Article on Hugo Llorens Acosta in The Miami Herald
  7. 1 2 Eva Golinger, July 15, 2009, "Washington behind the Honduras coup: Here is the evidence - Repression intensifies"
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 State Department biography
  9. ↑ Juan Carlos Hidalgo (February 9, 2011). "Hugo Llorens: U.S. Ambassador or Proconsul in Honduras?". Cato Institute. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Charles A. Ford		 United States Ambassador to Honduras
2008–2011 		Succeeded by
Lisa Kubiske
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