LatinNews Daily Report - 21 June 2012

El Salvador: On 14 June the US Senate confirmed Mari Carmen Aponte as the new US Ambassador to El Salvador by 62 votes to 37, ending a Republican Party filibuster that threatened to anger the US Hispanic community.  The vote is a victory for the Barack Obama administration. In 2010, President Obama made Aponte, a Puerto Rican-born lawyer and Hispanic activist, a recess appointee; however, her appointment ran out in December 2011. Aponte was unpopular with Republicans over her progressive stance on gay rights (earlier in 2011 she had published an op-ed in a Salvadorean newspaper advocating "For the Elimination of Prejudices Wherever They Exist", with specific regards to the local gay and lesbian community). Republican also raised suspicions over unfounded rumours that an old boyfriend of Aponte’s was a Cuban spy. However, Aponte is popular among voters of Puerto Rican origin, who put pressure on Republican Senators.

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