DIRECTORY LISTING

Biography

Joaquin Monserrate

Mr. Joaquin F. Monserrate, a native of Puerto Rico, is a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State where he most recently served as the acting Undersecretary of Civilian Security, Democracy, & Human Rights. Previously, he was acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations as well as Director for the Caribbean at the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President.

Mr. Monserrate also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. mission for the seven countries and other jurisdictions of the eastern Caribbean and Director of the Office of Andean Affairs, which covers U.S. relations and interests in half of the countries of South America: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

An Economics-coned officer, Mr. Monserrate joined the Foreign Service in 1999. His first assignment was in the Consulate General in Surabaya, Indonesia in 2000, where he returned as Consul General in 2012. He led the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City from 2015 to 2018, the Economic and Political Section in the former U.S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2009 to 2012 and was the Deputy Chief of the Economic Section of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, in Hanoi from 2007 to 2009.

Mr. Monserrate is a lawyer and prior to joining the State Department he practiced criminal and civil litigation and worked as a print reporter in San Juan. He has a B.A. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Puerto Rico.