Almaguer, Frank

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR FRANK ALMAGUER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview starting date: January 23, 2004 Copyright 2016 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: personal background 1945 - 1954 Family history Quaker roots The early years in Holguin Growing Up in Miami 1954 - 1963 Settling in Miami in the 50s Cuban Revolution, Bay of Pigs Miami in the early 60s; civil rights School life University of Florida Years 1963 - 1967 First impressions & social life Issues: Vietnam, civil rights Military – ROTC Jobs, World’s Fair Family life Life after college Peace Corps in Belize 1967-1969 Peace Corps work Belize history & life Early Washington Days 1970-1974 Arriving in DC (Jan. 1970) The Foreign Service Exam (1970) OEO (1970 – 72) Transition period (1972 – 74) First USAID period (1973 – 74) Back to Belize in a PC staff position 1974-1976 1 First time in Honduras – with the Peace Corps 1976-1979 Getting there The “Provini” case USAID “Detail” extended Honduras in the late 70’s Nicaragua situation and the spread of war in Central America PCVs at work The Honduran people and society The impact of the banana industry Peace Corps Honduras in the mid-1970s Relations with the Embassy community Ambassador Jaramillo as a role model Diplomacy in Central America: an overview 1970s Back to USAID and on to Panama 1979-1983 Departing Honduras & returning to USAID Panama in October 1979: Canal Treaties go into effect The USAID Panama Mission Panama Political Highlights: 1979 – 1983 The Shah arrives Reagan relations with Panama Torrijos killed and the rise of Noriega The Pope visits The Zonians, US military and expatriates Working among Panamanians Living conditions Corruption Cuba Media, labor and cultural norms Change of US Administration USAID Washington for the First Time 1983-1986 Settling in South America Desk War on drugs Natural disasters in Mexico and Colombia Cuba and South America in this period USAID Ecuador 1986-1990 The move to Ecuador Salary supplementation scandal USAID Ecuador program Natural disasters 1988 Ecuadorian elections Other Ecuador stories 2 Returning home State Department’s Senior Seminar 1990-1991 Leading USAID’s Eastern Europe Program 1991-1993 Implementing the SEED Act Program Transitioning to the Clinton Administration Managing USAID’s Human Resources 1993-1996 Period of high expectations A new reality: reductions in force Recruiting for diversity USAID Bolivia 1996-1999 Period of transformational reforms War on drugs and the role of alternative development Relations with neighboring countries Working with Bolivians and with the Country Team The rest of the USAID program Ambassador to Honduras 1999-2002 Receiving the appointment and preparing to assume the responsibility A blip on the way to Honduras Relations with the government Responding to the Mitch Hurricane disaster Donor coordination Corruption Country Team coordination and travel Dealing with the American expatriate community U.S. commercial interests Migration Meetings with President Bush Elite classes Honduran presidential transition U.S. democracy in action – the 2000 elections Continuing U.S. military presence in Honduras Recognizing the Castro regime The impact of modern communication tools Impact of Bush in the White House Embassy security Life at the Residence Diplomatic Corps Time to go home The airplane story 3 After retiring from the U.S. Government 2002-2004 Retirement Seminar and the USAID Iraq Taskforce (2002) Sierra Leone evaluation (2003) United Nations Human Rights Commission (2004) Civilian agencies’ role in war (2003 – 2004) Closing this round of interviews INTERVIEW INTRODUCTION: PERSONAL BACKGROUND Q: Today is 23 January 2004. This is an interview with Frank Almaguer, and I will spell it, A-L-M-A-G-U-E-R. This is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy, who will conduct this interview. Q. Do you go by Frank? ALMAGUER: I do go by Frank. For the record, my full birth name was Francisco Obdulio Almaguer Ortiz, which included a middle name (after my maternal grandfather) and a matronymic; my mother’s maiden name was “Ortiz.” As was common until recent times, my full birth name was shortened and Americanized in the process of naturalization in June 1962. Since then, my official name has been Frank Almaguer. My original first name, Francisco, is the name of my father, his father and the grandfather before him and is the first name of my son, and now of my grandson, who is at least the 6th “Francisco” in this lineage. Q: What does the name Almaguer mean? ALMAGUER: It comes from Spain, probably from the central plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, but its derivative could be French or even Arabic. I suspect that it has both. The “Al” is Arabic. I consider myself to be of Spanish heritage. Many people are confused about my Hispanic heritage because of my light brown hair, green eyes and light complexion; but, in fact, that is common among Spaniards living in the central plateau of Spain. My mother had some French ancestors and that may also explain my complexion. My father’s grandparents migrated from Spain to Cuba sometime in the early-to-mid-nineteenth century and settled in eastern Cuba. This migration from Spain to Cuba, the “jewel in the crown” of the then-fading Spanish Empire, was common in the first half of the 19th Century, a result of Spain’s failing economy and never-ending wars among the European powers of the era. My mother had a French grandmother (with a last name of Paniz), but her father had Spanish lineage. That family migrated to Puerto Rico at some point in the 19th Century or perhaps earlier. They settled in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where my mother was born in 1912. Her mother died at childbirth, leaving my maternal grandfather as a young widower with 4 seven kids, including an infant. As I understand the story, his only brother was living in Cuba; so he proceeded, with his children in tow, to catch a boat for Cuba. By the time my mother was born, Puerto Rico had become a dependency of the United States. Hence, she had full U.S. citizenship and retained that American citizenship all her life despite being raised in Cuba. That’s where I come from: born in Holguin, Cuba on January 1, 1945 of a father and a mother who both had Spanish and some French ancestry — and perhaps Arabic as well. I was the youngest of three siblings, including Beatriz (born 1937) and Miriam (born 1940). Q: On your father’s side — your father and your grandparents — what were they doing? ALMAGUER: As I understand it, my father’s grandparents on both sides settled in or near the town of Holguín, which is a provincial city in the eastern part of Cuba, about 25 miles from Cuba’s north coast. Holguin was a commercial hub, surrounded by productive agriculture, including sugar cane. At the time I was born in 1945, Holguin had a population of 70,000 to 80,000 people. I understand that it has grown a great deal — perhaps 300,000-400,000 inhabitants today. My paternal grandfather, Francisco Almaguer Pupo, had a shop in Holguín where he manufactured and sold horse-riding equipment — saddles, boots and other horse-related paraphernalia. Don’t mistake this for meeting the needs of Virginia horse country! At that time in Cuba, horses were essential to farming, for transportation, and for distributing goods. I remember my mother buying milk and vegetables from vendors who would ride on their horses up and down our dusty (or muddy in the rainy season) street selling those products. My grandfather also made other leather products, such as belts and leather- covered seats in the shop next to his house. My paternal grandfather and grandmother — Margarita Iñiguez — had 14 kids; my father was the oldest of them, of whom 12 survived to adulthood. Interestingly, among her many children, my grandmother had four pairs of twins, including three pairs who survived into old age. My father may have been the first one in his family to graduate from high school or “normal school” (a type of high school that prepared students to teach at the elementary grades). My father went on to become an elementary schoolteacher in the city of Holguin and nearby rural areas. My father never lived further than a mile or less from where he was raised and never worked too far away either. When I was a kid, my father also had a part-time job as secretary to the Masonic Lodge in Holguin. My father and grandfather, as well as other members of their family, were lifelong members of the Masons in Cuba and both rose to the Masons’ highest ranks — 33rd Degree. (I am not sure what that meant, but clearly they were very proud of that fact.) Q: On your mother’s side what was their background? ALMAGUER: I never met my maternal grandfather. He had passed away by the time I was born, but I understand that he was a merchant. I’m not sure what he sold, but I 5 suspect that he was a wholesaler selling to retail shops in Holguín. He had seven children, of which my mother was the youngest. My maternal grandfather remained a widower throughout his life in Cuba, but depended on his oldest daughter, Florencia (whom we knew as “Nina”) to raise the kids. Nina, who never married, was the “patron saint” of the family and the de facto grandmother to over a dozen grandchildren, including me. Nina figures hugely in my life, and my wife and I subsequently named our daughter “Nina” after her.

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