Washington, United States
US President Joe Biden has a new director of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and appointed a diplomat expert in Central America as head of the State Department’s Narcotics and Security Bureau.
Biden chose as director of the DEA Anne Milgram, a former Attorney General for the State of New Jersey; and as a narcotics officer in the State Department Todd Robinson, who was the US Ambassador to Guatemala and accused Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela, from where he was exiled by President Nicolás Maduro.
Both positions require confirmation by the Senate, which has not given the green light to a candidate to lead the DEA since the administration of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
The DEA, a Justice Department office prosecuting drug trafficking Inside and outside the United States, it has been spearheaded on an interim basis since 2018 by Uttam Dhillon, appointed by the administration of former President Donald Trump.
Milgram, the one chosen by Biden to replace him, has led investigations throughout her career as a federal prosecutor including human trafficking, drug trafficking, street gangs, organized crime and corruption, as well as serving as Attorney General of New Jersey between 2007 and 2010 , the White House said in a statement.
Milgram is currently Professor at New York University School of Law, where you put your Criminal Justice Laboratory, which promotes alternatives to incarceration for people suffering from mental health problems or substance abuse.
“There is no system more outdated or broken and more problematic than the criminal justice system (of the United States),” Milgram said in an interview with the MarketWatch website in 2019.
As for Robinson, Biden nominated as Deputy Secretary of State for International Narcotics Affairs and law enforcement, he is a career diplomat who already has experience in that office where he worked during Obama’s tenure.
Robinson speaks Spanish and is known in Latin America for serving as Ambassador to Guatemala from 2014 to 2017; Except that he was in charge of matters at the US Embassy in Caracas, where he was expelled by Maduro in May 2018.
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 Department, and has also been appointed as a diplomat in El Salvador, Colombia, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Spain, among others.
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 Agency for Development (USAID).
Escobari held the same position during Obama’s tenure, working on the Paz Colombia program and a development plan for Haiti, preparing a “proactive strategy in the face of the humanitarian and political crisis” in Venezuela, the White House said. .
In addition, Biden was selected as the national director of cybernetics intelligence expert Chris Inglis; Christine E. Wormuth as Secretary of the United States Army, one of the uniformed branches of the Pentagon; and former Latino Congressman Gil Cisneros as Undersecretary of Defense for personnel and preparedness issues.