Earlier this year, President Joe Biden nominated Jean Manes to serve as U.S. ambassador to Colombia–and last week U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he would vote against her nomination.
“The mission in Bogotá is critically important to the U.S., and the next ambassador will have to navigate a government led by former M-19 guerilla member Gustavo Petro,” Rubio’s office noted.
“After careful review and consideration of her qualifications and performance at previous posts, I cannot support the nomination of Jean Manes to serve as United States ambassador to Colombia. The U.S. mission in Bogota is among the most strategically important and central to our nation’s interests and regional stability in the Western Hemisphere,” Rubio said.
“We need an ambassador who will constructively engage, and coordinate with, large interagency teams to effectively advance America’s interests and defend against threats in the region, including narcoterrorism, illicit trafficking, and a destabilizing autocratic narco-regime in Venezuela. I appreciate and respect Ambassador Manes’ longtime service and career, but I am unable to support her nomination to this crucial post,” Rubio added.
Rubio is the vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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