Ambassador Wayne Visits Chaco Province

August 13, 2008

Ambassador Wayne with Governor Jorge Capitanich

Ambassador Wayne visited Chaco province for the first time on August 13, and highlighted the various possibilities for cooperation between the province and the United States. This is the first visit to the province by an American Ambassador since 1979.

Ambassador Wayne participated in a working meeting and a lunch with Governor Capitanich and his team. They discussed several areas where the province and the Embassy can work together to create mutually beneficial programs.

Ambassador Wayne congratulated Governor Capitanich for the agreement signed on August 12 with the cotton sector value chain. The agreement includes American companies’ commitment to provide technology assistance to small producers in Chaco in order to increase their production and income, and duplicate the harvest area next season.

Ambassador Wayne talked with Governor Capitanich about educational exchange programs promoted by the Embassy that can benefit youth in Chaco, especially in view of the implementation of multilingual education in the province. In fact, two English teachers from Chaco have been selected to travel to the United States under the Teacher Ambassadors Program for a two week training course.

The Ambassador, the Governor and provincial authorities met with the Teacher Ambassadors, former Fulbrighters, and universities representatives. Governor Capitanich expressed his interest in having all former grantees from the province work together on an exchange program to be presented to the Embassy, to promote more exchange opportunities with the United States for youth in Chaco.

In the morning, the Governor and the Ambassador headed the closing ceremony of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Program. Chaco was selected by the Argentine Government to work together with the Embassy in the implementation of a civil assistance humanitarian program that involves Civil Defense provincial staff and six local municipalities: San Martin, Sauzalito, Villa Angela, Puerto Tirol, Barranqueras and Tres Isletas. This civil program was founded by the U.S. Southern Command and coordinated by Mr. Orlando Tejada from El Salvador, an expert with vast experience in the organization and planning of civil defense for natural disasters in Central America.