US Senate Confirms Nominee Roberta Jacobson as Ambassador to Mexico Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
go to original April 29, 2016

In this file photo, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roberta Jacobson, is seen in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Barack Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico, clearing the way for the first woman to hold what is considered to be one of the country's most important diplomatic posts.

Roberta Jacobson was confirmed by voice vote nine months after her nomination. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had been blocking her confirmation, objecting to her role in negotiating the normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba. At the time he was seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Jacobson is the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. That position gave her a prominent voice in leading talks with Havana on re-establishing diplomatic ties and embassies after more than five decades of antagonism.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. was sending "one of our finest diplomats to advance this important relationship."

...Mexico's Foreign Relations department said Jacobson's confirmation "demonstrates the importance of a bilateral relationship which, given its maturity, transcends internal situations."

"Ambassador Jacobson will give a new impetus to our bilateral relations and will contribute to the consolidating anew institutional structure, lending more certainty and solidity to this relationship," the Foreign Relations department said in a statement.

Read the rest at USNews

Related: Inside Rubio's Dealmaking on the Ambassador to Mexico (Roll Call)

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