Background
The son of a diplomat, George A. McFarland Junior., Ambassador McFarland grew up in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as in central Texas and suburban Washington, District of Columbia
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Stephen George
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He also attended the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course.
Career
He is a graduate of the Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt American School in Lima, Peru, Yale University, and the United States. Air War College. Mr. McFarland speaks fluent Spanish and some Guarani, and he is currently studying K"iche", the second most widely spoken language in Guatemala after Spanish. He joined the Foreign Service in 1977, and was subsequently posted to Maracaibo, Venezuela.
He has served in a series of assignments in Latin America focusing on United States. support for democratic transitions, human rights, and security.
He has held positions including political officer in Ecuador and Peru, desk officer for Nicaragua, and political counselor in El Salvador, Bolivia, and Peru. He later served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and the Chargé d"Affaires in both Paraguay and Guatemala, as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Venezuela, and as the Director of Cuban Affairs in the Department of State.
Previously, he served as director of Stability Operations Training in the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State. In 2007, he led a civilian-military Provincial Reconstruction Team embedded with Marine Corps Regimental Combat Team 2 in western Iraq.
He was nominated to the position of Ambassador by President George West. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
On April 22, 2008 with then Senator Joseph Biden presiding before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his nomination confirmation was moved en bloc by Senator Biden, seconded by Senator John Kerry and approved unanimously by voice vote. McFarland was sworn in as United States. Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala on June 30, 2008 by United States. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Washington, District of Columbia Shortly after his arrival in Guatemala, he spoke about an espionage scandal.
Guatemala"s president Álvaro Colom announced that his office and home were bugged with cameras and listening devices. Ambassador McFarland described the situation as a "failure" of the Secretariat of Administrative Affairs and Security (SAAS).
During the nationwide violence of March 2009, the wife of Sergio Morales, Guatemala"s Attorney General for Human Rights was kidnapped and tortured.
Ambassador McFarland offered the full support of the United States to investigate the crime. Ambassador McFarland is currently learning Dari in the Foreign Service Institute and in January 2012 will be assuming the post of Coordinator of Rule of Law and Enforcement in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Membership
He was the United States. member of the interim cease-fire monitoring group on the Peru-Ecuador border in 1995, following the Cenepa War.
