BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The U.S. government has announced the confirmation of Dr. Larry Palmer as its new ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
Palmer, who will be based in Barbados, will also represent the United States in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I am honored to have been nominated to represent the United States in this important region. These nations play an important role both bilaterally and in multilateral organizations like the Organization of American States and the United Nations,” Palmer told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February.
“The global economic downturn has hit the region particularly hard,” adding, “I will build on prior work and lead American efforts to promote economic prosperity, trade, and entrepreneurship in the region,” he further said.
According to a release from the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, Palmer is committed to furthering the success of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), which he said “is vitally important to providing for the safety and security of the United States by ensuring that Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean can combat transnational organized crime and avoid the violence and instability seen elsewhere in the hemisphere.”
Palmer, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was formerly U.S. Ambassador to Honduras and also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Inter-American Foundation, an independent agency that provides grants to Latin American communities to foster economic development. In addition, he has served in Uruguay, Paraguay, South Korea, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic, and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, the release said.
Palmer, a native of Augusta, Georgia, earned a bachelor of arts from Emory University, a master of education in African History at Texas Southern University, and a doctorate of higher education administration and African studies from Indiana University in Bloomington.