March 12, 2021
René León, El Salvador s ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2009, takes an urgent phone call during an October 2006 interview with the Washington Diplomat. (Photo by Larry Luxner)
René León Rodríguez often joked that so many Salvadoran immigrants lived in the District of Columbia, he’d probably win election as mayor of Washington if only he were eligible to run.
Counting the hundreds of thousands of
salvadoreños in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, that assessment probably wasn’t too far from the truth. León, who represented El Salvador as ambassador here for 12 years from 1997 to 2009 was the dean of the Latin American diplomatic corps and the longest-serving envoy to Washington in his small country’s history.
ASHLAND The Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce s Board of Directors has appointed Amy Daubenspeck to serve as director of operations, a role with responsibilities to lead the Chamber of Commerce and Explore Ashland.
In a Friday announcement, board chair Jim Cutright announced the promotion of Daubenspeck, who had been serving as the interim director, and other changes in staffing at the Chamber. After what may have seemed like an eternity to some of you (and us), we have re-aligned staffing assignments into a new model that we are certain will serve our business community extremely well for many years into the future, Cutright said.Â