Washington, United States
US President Joe Biden on Monday nominated a new director of United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and appointed an expert diplomat to Central America as head of the State Department’s Office of Narcotics and Security.
Biden was elected director of the DEA Anne Milgram, former attorney general for the state of New Jersey; and as a narcotics officer in the State Department for Todd Robinson, who was the US ambassador to Guatemala and in charge of business in Venezuela, from where he was expelled by President Nicolás Maduro.
Both functions require confirmation by the Senate, which did not give the green light to any candidate to lead the DEA since the government of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
The DEA, a Department of Justice agency suing for drug trafficking Inside and outside the United States, it was provisionally commissioned in 2018 by Uttam Dhillon, appointed by the government of former President Donald Trump.
Milgram, who was chosen by Biden to replace him, has led investigations into human trafficking, drug trafficking, street gangs, organized crime and corruption, among other issues, in addition to being a federal prosecutor. New Jersey’s attorney general between 2007 and 2010, the White House said in a statement.
Milgram is currently Professor at the New York University School of Law, where you are headed Criminal Justice Laboratory, which promotes alternatives to incarceration for people suffering from mental health problems or substance abuse.
“There is no system that is older or defective and more problematic than the (US) criminal justice system,” Milgram said in an interview with MarketWatch in 2019.
As for Robinson, nominated by Biden as Assistant Secretary of State for International Drug Affairs and law enforcement, is a career diplomat who already has experience in that office, where he worked during Obama’s tenure.
Robinson speaks Spanish and is well known in Latin America, as he was ambassador to Guatemala from 2014-2017; In addition to being in charge of business at the US Embassy in Caracas, from where he was expelled in May 2018 by Maduro.
The Venezuelan president then accused Robinson, who led the US legation, of participating in a military, economic and political conspiracy; something Washington called false.
Robinson then became responsible for Central America in the State Departmentand has also been assigned as a diplomat to El Salvador, Colombia, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Spain, among other countries.
Biden also nominated eight other officials on Monday, including Marcela Escobari as the new head of Latin America and the Caribbean at the United States Development Agency (USAID).
Escobari already held the same position during Obama’s tenure, when he worked on the Paz Columbia program and a development plan for Haiti and “prepared a proactive strategy in the face of Venezuela’s humanitarian and political crisis,” according to the White House. .
In addition, Biden has selected cyber intelligence expert Chris Inglis as national director; Christine E. Wormuth as Secretary of the United States Army, one of the uniformed branches of the Pentagon; and former Latin Congressman Gil Cisneros as undersecretary of defense for personnel and training issues.