THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 26, 1993

PRESIDENT NAMES AMBASSADORS TO NICARAGUA, ARGENTINA, AND HONDURAS

(Washington, DC) President Clinton named three senior Foreign Service officers to key Latin American ambassadorial posts today, announcing his intention to nominate John Maisto to be Ambassador to Nicaragua, James Cheek to be Ambassador to Argentina, and William Pryce to be Ambassador to Honduras.

"Our relationships with our Latin American neighbors are among the most important we have," said the President. "I am very glad to be putting them into steady hands today."

John Maisto is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, a position to which he was appointed to in 1992. Prior to that, he was the Deputy U.S. Representative to the Organization of American States and Deputy Chief of Mission in Panama. From 1982-86, he was in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Prior to that, he was a political officer at the U.S. Embassies in the Philippines and Costa Rica, and in a number of other positions at the State Department and abroad. He has been a member of the Foreign Service since 1963. Maisto is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and holds a masters degree from the University of San Carlos, Guatemala City.

James Cheek, a native Arkansan, has been in the Foreign Service since 1962 and currently holds the rank of MinisterCounselor. He has previously been Ambassador to Sudan, Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires in Addis Abada, Deputy Chief of Mission in Kathmandu, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Montevideo. From 1979-81, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. He has also been a Foreign Affairs Fellow at Harvard University and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Diplomat-in-Residence at Howard University. Cheek has also held diplomatic posts in Nicaragua, Brazil, Great Britain, and Chile, and several positions at the State Department. He is a graduate of Arkansas State Teachers College and holds a Master of International Service degree from the American University.

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William Pryce is a Foreign Service officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor who most recently served on the National Security Council Staff as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Lasting American and Caribbean Affairs. Prior to that he had been Alternate U.S. Representative to the Organization of American States, Deputy Chief of Mission in Panama, Deputy Chief of Mission in Bolivia, and Chief of the Political Section in Mexico. He has served at embassies in Guatemala, the Soviet Union, and Mexico, was Special Assistant to Ambassador-at-Large Ellsworth Bunker, and Director of US-Soviet Educational and Cultural Affairs, as well as a variety of other positions at State. He earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1958.

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