Colombian Juan González, senior advisor to President Joe Biden for the Western Hemispherewill leave his position in mid-March, according to several media outlets in the United States reported this Tuesday.
González, of Cartagena origin, has held the position for three years, when the Democratic administration came to power. According to the media, the official decided to step aside for family reasons and will be replaced by the current Deputy Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Daniel Erikson.
According to the news agency Bloomberg, The information was confirmed by sources in the National Security Councilwhere the Colombian currently works.
González was considered Biden's right-hand man for all issues related to Latin America and has a long history at the side of the current president. First, as his advisor for the region when Biden was vice president (between 2008 and 2016), and then in the campaign that took him to the White House in 2020.
Although González is in charge of the entire region, He is recognized as the architect of the current strategy of rapprochement with Venezuela and head of negotiations with the opposition and the regime of Nicolás Maduro. A strategy in which the approach of total pressure during Donald Trump's administration was abandoned to one of lifting sanctions in exchange for steps to reestablish democracy.
The strategy, it is worth remembering, is under fire at the moment after Maduro refused to rehabilitate the candidacy of María Corina Machado and the United States threatened to impose the sanctions that were lifted in October after the Barbados agreement.
The bulk of the sanctions, those against the hydrocarbon sector, would be reimposed as of April 18 if the regime does not enable Machado by then.
John Finner, current number two on the National Security Council, would assume González's role in those negotiations. In fact, Both officials were in Bogotá last week meeting with President Gustavo Petro in order to find a way out of the Venezuelan impasse..
González also developed a good working relationship with the government of Gustavo Petro and supported from the beginning the thesis that the fight against drug trafficking required a more holistic approach and not so focused on the eradication of illicit crops.
He is co-author of a report that several experts presented to Congress – before assuming his current position – in which they concluded that although Plan Colombia had produced good results in terms of security, it had been a failure from an anti-narcotics perspective.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
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