The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a public hearing Thursday on the nomination of Puerto Rican Mark Abreu as the next U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. Abreu, a former CIA officer and station chief in several Latin American countries who resides in Florida, will testify alongside four other ambassador nominees: Natasha Franceschi (Nicaragua), William Grayson (Indonesia), Nicholas Checker (Rwanda), and John McIntyre (Malawi). President Donald Trump nominated Abreu in June.
If confirmed, Abreu would become the second Puerto Rican to serve as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, after Mari Carmen Aponte, appointed by former President Barack Obama. The Senate may go on recess as early as next week until November 9. The State Department, in recommending Abreu's nomination, described him as having nearly three decades of national security and international affairs experience, having built alliances across Latin America, Western Europe, North Africa, East Asia and the Middle East, and having served as a congressional liaison. Abreu also served in the U.S.
Air Force and as a special agent for the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations, and worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. Early in his career, he interned in the office of then-Senator Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State and his future boss. Abreu holds a bachelor's degree from the Air Force Academy and a master's from Webster University.