US Senate ratifies William Duncan as ambassador to El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR – The United States Senate on Tuesday ratified diplomat William Duncan as the new United States ambassador to El Salvador.

Duncan was nominated for the post of ambassador by US President Joe Biden in February.

Duncan is a diplomat with 30 years of experience and a career member of the Diplomatic Service with the rank of counseling minister, reported the US embassy in El Salvador. He has been a senior inspector in the US Department of State’s Office of the Inspector General and consul general in Monterrey, Mexico.

Your assignments in Washington DC include the Offices of Andean Affairs, Mexican Affairs, East African Affairs and Central American Affairs, as well as the Operations Center of the Department of State.

The US had not had an ambassador in El Salvador after the departure of former ambassador Ronald Johnson in January 2021.

The US diplomatic headquarters had remained run by business managers, including Jean Manes, the first person appointed by Biden to build bridges between Washington and the Nayib Bukele government, but diplomatic relations were strained.

During the Manes period, the US released the first version of the Engel list, in which 55 officials were accused of corruption and 14 were from El Salvador, 20 from Guatemala and 21 from Honduras.

Other business managers have been Patrick Ventrell and Katherine Duffy Dueholm, who will remain in charge of the diplomatic headquarters until the arrival of the new ambassador.

The Salvadoran government has not yet ruled on Duncan’s ratification, but his appointment comes in the midst of new US Treasury Department sanctions in which five Central American officials, including one from El Salvador, were accused of corruption.

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