Ambassador of the United States to Cape Verde | |
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Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | Melissa F. Wells as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary |
Formation | September 16, 1976 |
Website | U.S. Embassy - Praia |
Cape Verde had been a Portuguese colony for more than 500 years since 1456. In 1974 Portugal and the Cape Verdeans signed an agreement to form a transitional government, and Cape Verde gained full independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975.
The United States recognized Cape Verde and commissioned its first ambassador Melissa F. Wells in 1976. Ambassador Wells was concurrently accredited to Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde while resident at Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. In 1980, an embassy was established in the capital Praia with a chargé d’affaires managing the business of the embassy. Until 1980 one ambassador, resident at Bissau, was concurrently commissioned to Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Name | Title | Appointed | Presented credentials | Terminated mission | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melissa F. Wells – Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | September 16, 1976 | November 18, 1976 | March 23, 1977 | |
Edward Marks – Career FSO | September 15, 1977 | October 18, 1977 | July 11, 1980 | Embassy Praia was established January 28, 1978 with Howard McGowan as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. The ambassador remained in Bissau. | |
Peter Jon de Vos – Career FSO | September 5, 1980 | September 24, 1980 | Left Bissau, March 30, 1983 | In 1983 the first ambassador was appointed solely accredited to Cape Verde. | |
John Melvin Yates – Career FSO | March 18, 1983 | April 26, 1983 | May 24, 1986 | ||
Vernon Dubois Penner, Jr. – Career FSO | June 16, 1986 | July 15, 1986 | November 21, 1989 | ||
Francis Terry McNamara – Career FSO | November 21, 1989 | December 23, 1989 | December 31, 1992 | ||
Joseph Monroe Segars – Career FSO | July 14, 1992 | March 24, 1993 | March 17, 1996 | ||
Lawrence Neal Benedict – Career FSO | June 6, 1996 | July 30, 1996 | August 11, 1999 | ||
Michael D. Metelits – Career FSO | July 7, 1999 | September 15, 1999 | July 24, 2002 | ||
Donald C. Johnson – Career FSO | October 3, 2002 | November 21, 2002 | April 4, 2005 | ||
Roger D. Pierce – Career FSO | June 21, 2005 | September 27, 2005 | June 9, 2008 | ||
Marianne M. Myles – Career FSO | June 6, 2008 | August 6, 2008 | August 1, 2011 | ||
Dana Brown - Career FSO | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | August 1, 2011 | Unknown | December 9, 2011 | |
Adrienne S. O'Neal - Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | October 19, 2011 | December 9, 2011 | January 31, 2015 | |
Donald Heflin - Career FSO | December 18, 2014 | January 31, 2015 [2] | September 11, 2018 | ||
John Jefferson Daigle - Career FSO | May 29, 2019 | September 10, 2019 | July 3, 2024 | ||
Jennifer M. Adams - Career FSO | May 2, 2024 | September 10, 2024 [3] | Incumbent |
Politics of Cape Verde takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Cape Verde is the head of government and the President of the Republic of Cape Verde is the head of state, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The constitution, first approved in 1980 and substantially revised in 1992, forms the basis of government organization. It declares that the government is the "organ that defines, leads, and executes the general internal and external policy of the country" and is responsible to the National Assembly.
The Cape Verdean Armed Forces, Cabo Verdean Armed Forces or FACV are the military of Cape Verde. They include two branches, the National Guard and the Coast Guard.
Cape Verde follows a policy of nonalignment and seeks cooperative relations with all friendly states. Angola, Brazil, the People's Republic of China, Cuba, France, Germany, Portugal, Senegal, Russia, South Korea and the United States maintain embassies in Praia.
The recorded history of Cape Verde begins with the Portuguese discovery of the island in 1458. Possible early references to Cape Verde date back at least 2,000 years.
Praia is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. Located on the southern coast of Santiago island, within the Sotavento Islands group, the city is the seat of the Praia Municipality. Praia is the political, economic and cultural center of Cape Verde.
José Maria Pereira Neves is a Cape Verdean politician who is currently the president of Cape Verde, having previously served as the Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 2001 to 2016. He is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). In the 2021 presidential election, he was elected with 51.7% of votes, beating his nearest rival Carlos Veiga who got 42.4% of the total votes.
The African Party of Independence of Cape Verde is a democratic socialist political party in Cape Verde. It was formerly a Marxist–Leninist communist party and the sole legal party in the country from 1981 to 1990. Its members are nicknamed "os tambarinas" in Portuguese, and they identify themselves with the color yellow.
Cape Verde–United States relations are the international relations between Cape Verde and the United States.
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi). These islands lie between 600 and 850 kilometres west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Savage Isles.
Antonio Pedro Monteiro Lima is a Cape Verdean diplomat who was the Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Cape Verde from August 2007 to February 2014. Before working for the UN, Monero Lima held multiple positions in External Affairs from 1975 to 1991. He also was an ambassador for Guinea-Bissau and Algeria between 1982 and 1990.
Brazil–Cape Verde relations are the bilateral relations between Brazil and Cape Verde. Both nations are members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, Group of 77 and the United Nations.
Cape Verde–Guinea Bissau relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the Republic of Cape Verde and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verde is an island country about 900 km north-west of Guinea-Bissau, a coastal West African country. Both were colonies of the Portuguese Empire and they campaigned together for independence with a plan for unification, but the countries separated after 1980. The two countries were both founder members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in 1996, and are each members of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Liceu Domingos Ramos is a public secondary school in the northern part of the city centre (Plateau) of Praia, Cape Verde. As of 2015, it has 2,300 students, 63 classes and 110 teachers. It was established as Liceu Adriano Moreira in 1960. In 1975, at the independence of Cape Verde, it was renamed Liceu Domingos Ramos.
Donald L. Heflin is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Cape Verde from 2015 to 2018.
Cape Verde–Portugal relations are the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Cabo Verde and the Portuguese Republic. Both nations are members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the United Nations.