Political and Academic Career
In 1992 Valenzuela was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs in the United States Department of State by President Bill Clinton. His primary responsibility there was United States foreign policy towards Mexico. In President Clinton's second term in office, he was appointed Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House.
On May 12, 2009 Valenzuela was nominated by President Barack Obama as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on November 5, 2009.
Valenzuela has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, the University of Sussex, the University of Florence (Italy) and the Catholic University of Chile. He has served on the board of directors of Drew University, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the advisory boards of Americas Watch and the Institut des Amériques in Paris. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
For his diplomatic contributions Valenzuela has been honored Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross and Colombia's Order of Boyaca.
Read more about this topic: Arturo Valenzuela
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