Luis Edmundo Arreaga-Rodas (born 1952) is a

Guatemalan American Guatemalan Americans ( es, guatemalteco-americanos, links=no, or ) are Americans of full or partial Guatemalan descent. The Guatemalan American population at the 2010 Census was 1,044,209. Guatemalans are the sixth largest Hispanic group in the ...

diplomat and government official who served as the United States Ambassador to Guatemala from 2017 to 2020. He previously served as

United States Ambassador to Iceland Until 1874, Iceland was a dependency of Denmark rather than an independent nation. In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland home rule, which again was expanded in 1904. In 1918, The Act of Union, an agreement between Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fu ...

from 2010 to 2013. In January 2016, he was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. In June 2017,

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nominated Arreaga to become the United States Ambassador to Guatemala.Louis E. Arreaga
Biography from the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. Retrieved August 1, 2017. This nomination was confirmed by the

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on August 3, 2017.

Early life and education

Arreaga was born in Guatemala City in 1952 to a migrant worker and an elementary school teacher. At age 18, Arreaga immigrated to the US and began attending Milwaukee Area Technical College. Arreaga transferred to the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1976 and a master's in management and a PhD in economics in 1981.

Career

He previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Panama; U.S. Consul General in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, Canada; and as director of the Executive Secretariat Staff at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. He has also served as Deputy Director of the State Department's Operations Center and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. Other overseas postings include United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, the United States Embassy in Spain, and the Agency for International Development in Peru, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Personal life

Arreaga married Mary Kelsey in 1973, whom he met during his time on the Milwaukee Area Technical College fencing team. Arreaga and Kelsey have a daughter, Melania, who served in the Foreign Service; and two sons: Juan Carlos and Luis. He became a U.S. citizen in 1975.

References

External links

Biography at U.S. Department of State
*
Luis E. Arreaga-Rodas
at Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Arreaga, Luis E. 1952 births Living people University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Iceland Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala Obama administration personnel Trump administration personnel Hispanic and Latino American diplomats 21st-century American diplomats