Assistant Secretary of State Rick Barton Visits Honduras

January 17, 2013

Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Arturo Corrales, Assistant Secretary Barton, Senior Advisor Charles Call, and U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Matthias Mitman. (Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs Photo)

TEGUCIGALPA – Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations Rick Barton arrived in Honduras on Tuesday, January 15, for a three-day visit. He met with representatives of Honduran civil society and the media, business leaders, and senior government officials to review programs the United States is offering in cooperation with Honduran partners to increase public safety and strengthen the capacity of local institutions and organizations, and to discuss opportunities to continue or expand U.S. collaboration.

Assistant Secretary Barton met with members of the Executive and Legislative branches of the Honduran government, including Vice President Maria Antonieta Guillen de Bogran, Minister of Foreign Affairs Arturo Corrales, President of the National Congress Juan Orlando Hernandez, Minister of Public Security Pompeyo Bonilla, Attorney General Luis Rubi, and Minister of Communications and Strategy Miguel Bonilla. He also had the opportunity to speak with key groups and alliances, including women and youth leaders, as well as members of the Alliance for Peace and Justice, and visited Outreach Centers that help at-risk youth. Through these partnerships –developed under the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI)– the United States is assisting Honduras to strengthen justice sector institutions and the protection of human rights, to improve economic and social opportunities, and to reduce the influence of organized crime.

Assistant Secretary Barton visited Honduras for the first time in June 2012.

The State Department's Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations seeks to address major causes of insecurity in countries around the world.

Biography of Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations Rick Barton

Ambassador Rick Barton of Maine currently serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations and Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization.

From 2009 to 2011, Ambassador Barton served as the U.S. Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) in New York, working on development, peace building, climate change, and human rights. Mr. Barton served on the Smart Power Commission, as an expert adviser to the Iraq Study Group, and as professor and lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He led conflict-related working groups at the United States Institute of Peace and for the Princeton Project on National Security.

The leadership positions he has held in this field include Co-Director of the Post Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Deputy High Commissioner of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and founding director of the United States Agency for International Development's Office of Transition Initiatives.

Ambassador Barton graduated from Harvard College and earned his Master in Business Administration degree from Boston University. As the children of American diplomats, Mr. Barton and his brothers lived in Argentina, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Mexico. Married since 1975, Mr. Barton and Kit Lunney have an adult daughter, Kacy, and live in Washington, DC.