Charge d'affairs Margaret Hawthorne is still holding over as the top official at the US Embassy. That's because the new ambassador designate Carlos Moreno was nominated in the middle of last year and confirmed in October, but political disputes in the US Senate have held back the appointment of he and 15 other ambassadorial appointees. Well, not any more. Moreno, a former US Judge was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate today as US Ambassador to Belize. Moreno is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of California and was once rumored to be a candidate for the US Supreme Court.
Moreno was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge and the Senate unanimously confirmed him. In 2001 he gave up his lifetime federal judgeship to accept Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’ nomination to the state’s high court.
He was reported to be on Obama’s shortlist for the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009, prior to the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor.
Moreno is a Los Angeles native and graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School. His undergraduate degree is from Yale University and his law degree is from Stanford.
He is expected in Belize soon.