Over the next weeks/months I will blog about the work the Embassy does to promote trade and investment, defence and security, and education links between the UK and Paraguay.
But first a little background on me. I’ve spent well over half my life -32 years – studying and working on Latin America. I first visited the region in 1982, spending a year in Mexico on a student exchange. That experience fired my passion for the region’s politics, economics, and culture. A fascination that remains to this day.
I never imagined joining the Diplomatic Service. My plan, upon completing my PhD, was to apply for a teaching post at University. However, all that changed when I saw a job offer for an analyst in the Americas Section of the FCO Research Department. I applied, was short listed for interview, and, to my great surprise, got the job. Apparently my knowledge of the Andean Pact, forerunner of the Andean Community, was what tipped if for me at interview!
Since joining the FCO I have visited 19 of the 20 Latin American Republics and had diplomatic postings to Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and now Paraguay.
In Research one of my less rewarding jobs was to document the decline in the UK’s presence in Latin America after the end of World War Two. Fortunately, Foreign Secretary William Hague reversed this trend, announcing an end to our ‘diplomatic retreat’ in a memorable 2010 Canning Lecture.
As a result we have significantly strengthened our engagement with the region, most visibly by re-opening Embassies in Asuncion, Port-au-Prince and San Salvador.
That’s how I ended up as Ambassador to Paraguay. More on what the Embassy has been doing since re-opening in October 2013 in my next blog…