Speaker biographies

José R. Cárdenas is acting assistant administrator in the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He joined the Bush administration in February 2004 and served more than two years as a senior adviser in the Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State. In August 2006, Mr. Cárdenas joined the National Security Council, serving as a director in the Western Hemisphere Directorate until November 2007. Previously, he served in senior positions with the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Cárdenas began his career advocating on behalf of a free Cuba with the Cuban American National Foundation, which he joined as a staff assistant before working his way up to director of its Washington operations.

Peter DeShazo was named director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in September 2004. Previously, he was deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs at the U.S. Department of State. During his career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr. DeShazo served as deputy U.S. permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). He also directed the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department; was area director for the Western Hemisphere at the U.S. Information Agency; and served at U.S. embassies and consulates in La Paz, Medellín, Santiago, Panama City, Caracas, and Tel Aviv. Mr. DeShazo is the author of Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902–1927 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1983) and various policy and academic articles. His op-eds and commentaries have appeared in leading U.S. and international media.

John F. Maisto is a director at the U.S. Education Finance Corporation. From 2003 to 2007, Ambassador Maisto served as U.S. permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). He was also U.S. coordinator for the Special Summit of the Americas in 2003. Ambassador Maisto served as special assistant to President George W Bush and senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice from 2001 to 2003. He was ambassador to Venezuela from 1997-2000, and served as a foreign policy adviser at the U.S. Southern Command in 2000-01. He served as ambassador to Nicaragua from 1993 until 1996. Ambassador Maisto was deputy assistant secretary of state for Central American affairs from 1992-93 and deputy U.S. representative to the OAS from 1989-92. Perviously, he served in Panama as deputy chief of mission, as director of the State Department's Office of Philippine Affairs, and at U.S. embassies in Manila, San Jose, and La Paz. He was in the U.S. Information Agency in Argentina and Bolivia. Ambassador Maisto began his career as a foreign service officer in 1968.

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Roger F. Noriega is a visiting fellow at AEI, coordinating the Institute’s program on Western Hemisphere issues. Twice appointed by President George W. Bush (and confirmed by the U.S. Senate) and with a ten-year career on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Noriega’s breadth of experience offers strategic vision and practical insight on the Americas. As assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, he managed a three-thousand-person team of professionals in Washington, D.C., and fifty diplomatic posts to design and implement political and economic strategies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As U.S. permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Noriega coordinated complex and sensitive multilateral diplomacy in a thirty-four-member international organization to bolster OAS efforts to promote trade, fight illicit drugs, and defend democracy. Ambassador Noriega has held various other positions, including senior policy adviser with the U.S. mission to the OAS; many program management and public affairs positions with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State; press secretary and foreign policy adviser for former representative Robert Whittaker (R-Kans.); and research assistant for the secretary of state of Kansas.

Ray Walser joined the Heritage Foundation in October 2007 as a senior policy analyst for Latin America. Previously, Mr. Walser was a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, where he served for twenty-eight years and was assigned to Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, and South Africa and worked in the bureaus of African, European, and Western Hemisphere Affairs in Washington. In addition to diplomatic service, Mr. Walser directed the program of Western Hemisphere Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute from 2005-2007. He was a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1988-1990. Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Mr. Walser was an assistant professor of history at Bluefield College in Virginia.