Kevin Whitaker (born April 28, 1957) is a United States career diplomat who is the former United States Ambassador to Colombia. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 1, 2014, and sworn in on April 28, 2014.

Career

Kevin Whitaker is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service of the United States. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Colombia, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South America in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Whitaker has served in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission (2005–07). In addition, he previously served in a number of positions at the Department of State, including as coordinator of the Office of Cuban Affairs (2002–05), Deputy Executive Secretary (2007–08), and director of the office of Andean affairs (2008–11). During his Senate confirmation hearing for the post of ambassador to Colombia, Whitaker commented on the effects of the sack of Bogotá

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Gustavo Petro Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (; born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian economist, politician, and former guerrilla fighter who is the current president of Colombia since 2022. After taking office, Petro was considered by analysts as Colombia' ...

on the peace process between the Colombian government and FARC. Colombian lawmakers criticized Whitaker's comments as an intervention in Colombian internal affairs. In May 2014

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n officials claimed that Whitaker was personally involved in a U.S. attempt to destabilize the leftist government of

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Nicolás Maduro. The Venezuelan government, which blamed the U.S. for protests in Venezuela, cited supposed emails from opposition lawmaker

María Corina Machado María Corina Machado Parisca (born 7 October 1967, Machado, María CorinaMi experiencia. Es ahora. María Corina. Accessed 25 April 2010. sometimes referred to as MCM) is a Venezuelan politician who served as an elected member of the National ...

stating that Whitaker had offered his support to the opposition. Maduro's government gave no information on how it acquired apparently private emails, and offered no evidence to support the authenticity of the emails. In a statement, the State Department called the accusations "baseless and false" and said: "We've seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States." An expert in cybersecurity forensics said the emails used by the Venezuelan government to accuse the opposition of a plot were fake.

Personal

Whitaker was born in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Merritt Island High School, in

Merritt Island, Florida Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Floridian coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and so ...

. He received his degree in history from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

in 1979.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Kevin 1957 births Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Colombia People from Christian County, Kentucky Robinson Secondary School alumni United States Foreign Service personnel University of Virginia alumni