Francisco Palmieri

Kissinger Senior Fellow

Senior Fellow

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About

Francisco (Paco) Palmieri most recently served as chargé d'affaires of the United States in Colombia, the acting United States ambassador to Colombia, from 2022 to 2025 and served as the acting assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs from January 2017 to October 2018, where he led the State Department’s efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy goals in the region. He previously served as principal deputy assistant secretary from January 2016 to January 2017 and as deputy assistant secretary for Central America and the Caribbean from January 2014 to January 2016. In this role, he was the principal U.S. negotiator on the Alliance for Prosperity plan adopted by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Palmieri also served as the director of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs’ Office of Policy Planning and Coordination in 2011-2012.

Overseas, Palmieri served as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, from 2001 to 2005. He also served in San Salvador as the human rights officer at the end of El Salvador’s internal conflict (1988-1990), Santo Domingo as a vice consul, and Madrid as a political-military affairs officer.

Education

MS in International Strategic Studies, National War College, 2006
BA in Politics, Princeton University, 1983

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Full Biography

Francisco "Paco" Palmieri is an American diplomat, now a Kissinger Senior Fellow at the Jackson School for Global Affairs at Yale University. Mr. Palmieri was appointed the United States Chargé d'affaires in Colombia, the acting Ambassador, 2022-2025 and was dual hatted as Chief of Mission of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit in Bogota in 2023. He led the U.S. government’s support for Nobel Laureate Maria Corina Machado and the Venezuelan opposition in their successful 2024 presidential election.

Mr. Palmieri previously served as interim Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, leading the State Department’s efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy goals in the region. Palmieri managed the successful 2018 Summit of the Americas in Peru, the reorientation of U.S. foreign assistance in support of the Colombia peace process, and the multi-agency response to the ongoing migration challenges emanating from South and Central America. He oversaw 53 overseas U.S. diplomatic missions, their $290 million operating budgets and implementation of $1.58 billion in foreign assistance. He served as Civilian Deputy Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor to Admiral Craig Faller and General Laura Richardson at United States Southern Command in 2021-2022.

During his 40-year diplomatic career, Mr. Palmieri held senior leadership roles as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central America and the Caribbean. Palmieri was Deputy Executive Secretary in the Department of State’s Executive Secretariat, where he directed overseas travel for multiple Secretaries of State and reviewed all policy documents for the Secretary of State. As Senior Watch Officer and Watch Officer in the crisis management Operations Center, he executed the evacuation of more than 23 U.S. embassies due to war, terrorist attacks, internal political conflicts, and natural disasters.

He led the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement’s (INL) Latin American and Caribbean Programs Office, where he managed over $800 million in programs, including Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative, and 19 Narcotics Affairs offices throughout the Western Hemisphere. He was the director of Embassy Baghdad’s law enforcement program, leading a $1 billion program. He also fought to protect and advance human rights in the Middle East.

Mr. Palmieri served at the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Spain, and Honduras.

Mr. Palmieri was appointed a senior diplomatic fellow for Latin American Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center and as a diplomatic fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Program for Global Affairs, 2019-2021.

Education

Mr. Palmieri earned an M.S. in International Strategic Studies from the National War College. He received his A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and attended the University of Texas’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he studied under the Honorable Barbara Jordan.