US anti-narcotics expert tipped to be next Ambassador to Guyana

Last Updated on Thursday, 31 July 2014, 10:27 by GxMedia

A United States (US) diplomat, with considerable experience in fighting narco-trafficking in Latin America, is tipped to be his country’s next Ambassador to Guyana.

Perry L. Holloway who most recently served as Political-Military Counselor at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014, has been nominated to the US Senate for approval.

The White House quoted US President, Barack Obama as saying “I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to serve the American people in these important roles. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

Holloway’s nomination by Obama comes at a time when the US Congress has approved the establishment of an office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Guyana. The anti-drug agency, in collaboration with Guyanese law enforcement agencies, is expected to gather intelligence and build cases to capture major drug traffickers.

Prior to being posted in Afghanistan, from 2010 to 2013 Holloway was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and from 2009 to 2010 he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay. Previously, he served as the Director of the Narcotics Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota from 2007 to 2009, and as Deputy Director from 2005 to 2007. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Holloway was the Andean Counterdrug Initiative Coordinator at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the Department of State. He also served as the Director of the Narcotics Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, Guatemala from 2000 to 2003.

Holloway received a B.A. from Wofford College, an M.A. from the University of South Carolina, and an M.A. from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

If his nomination is approved, Holloway will replace Brent Hardt whose three-year of tour-of-duty recently ended unceremoniously and undiplomatically with an unprecedented outburst by the Guyana government at his farewell reception earlier in July, 2014. The Donald Ramotar administration has been very upset by repeated forceful calls by Western diplomats here for the holding of local government elections. A senior American diplomat here has said that those calls will not go away because the US government believes that the failure to hold the polls since 1997 violates Guyana’s law, constitution and international law.

The White House says Holloway of South Carolina is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service and Class of Minister-Counselor.

He was a General Services Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador from 1997 to 2000, and as an Administrative Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico from 1994 to 1997. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Holloway was a General Services Officer at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, and from 1990 to 1991 he served as Staff Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

He began his career as a Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota from 1989 to 1990.