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<b>The U.S. Ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges, Knows All About Coups
D’Etat as Well as Blockades</b><i> –
<a href="http://aporrea.org/internacionales/n166661.html">español<br><br>
</a></i>By Jean Guy Allard<br><br>
<i>Translation: Machetera<br><br>
</i>The United States Ambassador in Quito is “distinguished” for her
numerous links with USAID, the public face of U.S. intelligence which
dedicates scores of millions of dollars annually to the attempt to
destabilize progressive governments in Latin America. In her
diplomatic career, she had the “privilege” of personal familiarity with
the bloody dictatorship of the putschist Guatemalan Rio Montt and of
conspiring as a high level official in the U.S. State Department’s Office
of Cuban Affairs.<br><br>
Heather Hodges is the former U.S. Ambassador to Moldova, a country that
was part of the former USSR, where she dedicated herself to exacerbating
the differences that Moldova had with Russia over the Trans-Dniestr
region.<br><br>
In Ecuador, it’s known that “Her Excellency” has not lost any
opportunities to foment the sordid work of her intelligence personnel and
exacerbate controversy in the debate about a separatist Guayaquil,
promoted by certain rightwing elements.<br><br>
Through USAID, Hodges also guarantees funds to NGOs manipulated by
elements of the extreme rightwing in order to develop their operations to
penetrate public opinion.<br><br>
Her official State Department biography says that she was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, that she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish at St.
Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Masters Degree from New
York University. She lived for a number of years in Madrid, in
Franco’s Spain, during the 1970's.<br><br>
She arrived in Ecuador at the beginning of August 2008, selected by the
George W. Bush administration.<br><br>
Hodges joined the State Department “staff” in 1980 and was assigned to
Caracas, Venezuela.<br><br>
She later moved on to Guatemala where she was able to watch the coup
d’etat that brought General Rios Montt to power and through U.S.
complicity, accelerated the militarization of the country. Civilian
massacres took place in this, the most violent period in Guatemalan
history.<br><br>
In January of 1989, she went on to serve as consul before returning to
the State Department.<br><br>
Her extreme rightwing convictions allowed her to become the Deputy
Director of the State Department’s Office of Cuban Affairs in 1991, a
responsibility directly linked with CIA machinations. She carried
out her work in this office of ill repute within the State Department
during the same period as the toppling of the socialist camp and the
introduction of the anti-Cuban Torricelli law which promulgated the
extraterritoriality of U.S. law in its blockade against Cuba.<br><br>
In 1993 Hodges was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua as
Deputy Chief of Mission during the government of Violeta Chamorro, under
which the central bank, mines, transportation, healthcare, and education
were privatized and indexes for drug trafficking, illiteracy and
corruption skyrocketed.<br><br>
Hodges was Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy in Madrid from
June of 2000 until July of 2003, under the regime of José María Aznar
which bestowed upon her the “Isabel la Católica” medal “for her
contributions to U.S. – Spanish relations.”<br><br>
<b>Jean-Guy Allard is a journalist living in Havana, Cuba.
Machetera is a member of <a href="http://www.tlaxcala.es/">Tlaxcala</a>,
the network of translators for linguistic diversity. </b>This translation
may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the
source, author, and translator are cited.<br><br>
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