Saturday, March 19, 2011

U.S. Ambassador To Mexico Resigns His Post

It was not entirely unexpected. Here's the press release:

Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 19, 2011

It is with great regret that I announce that Ambassador Pascual has asked President Obama and me to accept his resignation as our ambassador to Mexico.

For the past year and a half, Ambassador Pascual has been an architect and advocate for the U.S.-Mexico relationship, effectively advancing the policies of the United States on behalf of the President and this Administration. He has collaborated tirelessly with his Mexican counterparts to lay the foundation for a cross-border renewable energy market, to open negotiations on the management of oil and gas reserves that span U.S. and Mexican territory, and to build a new border strategy to advance trade while staunching illicit flows. Carlos has also engaged U.S. and Mexican business to build markets that have helped make Mexico the number two destination of U.S. exports.

Ambassador Pascual worked with the Mexican government to integrate human rights into our respective policies and engagement; he also partnered to enhance the human and cultural connections that underpin the friendship between the people of Mexico and the United States. Carlos partnered with his counterparts to reach beyond the Merida Initiative’s initial focus on disrupting cartels to building institutions for the rule of law in Mexico and engaging Mexican civil society in advancing their security. These ties, grown and strengthened throughout his tenure, will serve both our nations for decades.

Within the U.S. Government, Carlos embraced a “whole of government” approach to addressing one of our most important bilateral relationships, winning the respect and cooperation of our foreign service, military and law enforcement agencies. The President and I are particularly grateful to Carlos for his efforts to sustain the morale and security of American personnel after tragic shootings in Mexico that killed four people from our extended family in the past year.

Carlos has relayed his decision to return to Washington based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues raised by President Calderon that could distract from the important business of advancing our bilateral interests. It is with great reluctance that President Obama and I have acceded to Carlos’s request. Prior to returning to assuming his new responsibilities at the State Department, the President and I have asked Carlos to stay in Mexico to help us organize an orderly transition.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

TSB: speaking of Bush appointed amb's
wikileaked home that Libya guy was doing the State Dept. brief today. He's a lot better than PJ! lilGWB says if you put different glasses on him and remove the carefully geld bird nest hairdo he looks like Keith Olberman! Plus he speaks 6 languages
and looks like he could be secy for near east affairs again??? (after we forget about that voluptuous nurse)
GWB

TSB said...

Bush-appointed ambassador? All our Ambassadors are Obama's appointees now, although the ones in Mexico and (formerly in) Libya are both professional diplomats, so they might have been Ambos under Bush as well.

You are 100% correct about Ambassador Cretz's Olberman likeness! I had never seen that before. If you haven't seen his entire press briefing, follow the link below:

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/assisting_libyans_in_moving_forward

It looks like Cretz will outlast Qaddafi after all.

Anonymous said...

I watched the briefing on C-span. It was excellent given all the confusing messages he had to represent. It gave me the idea of the massive humanitarian disaster we could be facing there and in Egypt in just a few weeks. GWB