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| Kevin Whitaker, U.S. Ambassador to Columbia |
In separate meetings, Acting Attorney General Whitaker met with U.S. Department of Justice components stationed at the U.S. Embassy, to include the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Criminal Division’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. They provided briefings on the U.S. government’s law enforcement partnership with Colombia in dismantling and disrupting transnational criminal organizations including combatting Clan del Golfo, which was designated by the Department of Justice on Oct. 19, 2018 as one of the top transnational organized crime threats.
On February 1, Acting Attorney General Whitaker visited the General Santander National Police Academy and gave brief remarks at a wreath laying ceremony in honor of the brave young men and women who lost their lives or were wounded in the line of duty during the Jan. 17 suicide car bomb attack at the officer cadet school by the narco-terrorist group ELN. To approximately 100 Colombian National police officers, AG Whitaker said he was directing all U.S. Department of Justice components stationed at the U.S. Embassy, to include DEA, FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and our DOJ Attaches, to make cases against ELN a top priority for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Acting AG Whitaker pledged that the Department of Justice, together with the Colombian National Police and Attorney General’s Office, "will pursue these cases with the same investigative skill and prosecutorial resources, with which we’ve successfully pursued the Clan del Golfo.”
Acting AG Whitaker was also provided a Congressional briefing at the Colombian Congress <== right there! It was the Attorney General and not the Secretary of State.
During the visit, American and Colombian officials discussed their shared mission of combatting narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism as well as illicit finances, foreign corruption, human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and arms trafficking. Both sides look forward to continuing to work together to achieve their shared objectives, as well as continued progress on these issues.
Since the Acting AG and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia have the same last name, I thought it prudent to drop his background.
Since the Acting AG and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia have the same last name, I thought it prudent to drop his background.
Ambassador to Colombia: Who Is Kevin Whitaker?
On April 1, 2014, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of career Foreign Service officer Kevin Whitaker as ambassador to Colombia. Whitaker had been nominated for the post by President Barack Obama on September 19, 2013. He was sworn in on April 28.
The son of a career Army officer, Lt. Col. Malvern Whitaker, Kevin Whitaker attended the University of Virginia, graduating with a B.A. in 1979.
Whitaker joined the Foreign Service right out of college, beginning with a tour in London. Most of his experience has been in Latin America. His early assignments included serving as desk officer for El Salvador and France, as well as working as political officer in Jamaica and Honduras.
From 2002 to 2005, Whitaker headed the Cuban Affairs Desk for the State Department. During a visit to Havana in December 2002, he met with dissidents and was expelled by Fidel Castro’s government.
In 2005, he was named deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, another country with which the administration of President George W. Bush was at odds. Whitaker served there until 2007. At that point, he moved back to Washington to take a post as deputy executive secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State. In 2008, he was named director of the Office of Andean Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
In 2011, he was named deputy assistant secretary of state for South America in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Whitaker created some controversy with a statement he made during his nomination hearing. The Colombian government fired the Bogotá mayor, and Whitaker told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in response to a question that the firing could endanger peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC rebels. Some Colombians took offense, saying Whitaker was interfering in their country’s internal affairs.
Whitaker‘s wife, Elizabeth Whitaker, also worked in the State Department before moving to the private sector in 2008. They have three sons, Stuart, Thomas and Daniel.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Ms. Whitaker received her BA (in history) and MS (in education) from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. She taught public school for seven years before joining the U.S. Foreign Service as a public diplomacy officer in 1984. Her overseas tours included Portugal, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. Her domestic tours included Director of Public Diplomacy for the Western Hemisphere, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Canada and Mexico. Ms. Whitaker retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 at the rank of Minister Counselor, and went to work briefly for a division of L-3 Communications. She was invited to return to the Department of State in 2009 to serve as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, and remained in that capacity until 2012. Since then, she has worked part-time at the Department of State, and taught at the graduate level at George Washington University (2012 to the present) and Georgetown University (2013 to the present).
Elizabeth "Betsy" Whitaker
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| Betsy Whitaker |
Ms. Whitaker has been married to Kevin Whitaker, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, for over twenty years. They have a son, Daniel, who is in his second year of studies at the Virginia Military Institute.
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