U.S. picks new envoy to Cuba
Jonathan D. Farrar, a human rights expert, will replace Michael Parmly
as head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2008
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@MiamiHerald.com
The top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, Michael Parmly, will leave his post this
summer and will be replaced by a top official at the State Department's
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the Department confirmed
Thursday.
Jonathan D. Farrar, now principal deputy assistant secretary at the
bureau, has broad experience in Latin America, with previous postings at
the U.S. embassies in Mexico, Belize, Paraguay and Uruguay.
State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke confirmed Farrar will succeed
Parmly this summer. There was no immediate word on Parmly's next
assignment after completing a normal three-year posting in Havana.
Parmly and Farrar were not available for comment.
Parmly was assigned to head the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in
2005, replacing James Cason, who had earned a reputation in his three
years in Cuba as an aggressive critic of the Fidel Castro government.
A DIFFERENT STYLE
Parmly took a different style, and even Castro initially noted the
difference between him and Cason, describing Parmly's correspondence as
``respectful.''
But as time passed, Parmly appeared to wear out his welcome. In 2006,
the electricity went off at the mission for several days in what U.S.
officials called part of a deliberate Cuban harassment campaign that
included poisoning a U.S. diplomat's pet and shutting off water to the
mission.
Parmly at the time said the harassment ''makes Ceausescu's Romania look
like real amateurs,'' referring to the last and notoriously harsh
communist ruler of Romania. Castro later called Parmly a ``little
gangster.''
Farrar was picked to replace Parmly because of his experience with human
rights issues, said U.S. officials who asked to remain anonymous.
He is listed as a member of the editorial staff responsible for the
2005-06 edition of the State Department's annual report on human rights
around the world, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy. The U.S. Record.
CHIEF OF STAFF
In its lengthy Cuba section, that report says that ``in Cuba, the lone
antiquated dictatorship in the hemisphere, repression against dissidents
continued, and 333 political prisoners and detainees remained in custody.''
Farrar served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs from 2004 to 2005
and was chief of staff to the undersecretary of state for global affairs
from 2002 to 2004.
A California native, he studied at California State Polytechnic
University-Pomona and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Cuba and the United States do not have formal diplomatic relations, so
their respective missions in Havana and Washington are known as
Interests Sections.
Cuba also has a new man in Washington, Jorge Bolaños, a veteran diplomat
who succeeded Dagoberto Rodríguez late last year.
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