In February 2019, Interim President Juan Guaidó appointed the lawyer Carlos Vecchio as Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States, with the endorsement of the National Assembly. During the ceremony of acceptance of diplomatic credentials, held on April 8, 2019, President Donald Trump affirmed that Carlos Vecchio was “the first Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States in 8 years and his appointment comes at a historic moment in which President Guaidó has courageously set a path for Venezuelans.”
Carlos Vecchio is a lawyer graduated from the Central University of Venezuela, with a postgraduate degree in Tax Law from the same university. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Harvard University. As a result of his high academic performance, he received the Fulbright scholarship and obtained a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. In 2013 he obtained a degree from the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow Program at Yale University. In June 2014 he left for exile in the United States, after the regime of Nicolás Maduro issued an infamous arrest warrant against him on February 17 of that year, for his struggle together with Leopoldo López against the dictatorship. Before going into exile, Carlos Vecchio remained in hiding for 108 days.
From exile he became one of the main international spokesmen and actors for the restitution of democracy in Venezuela and against the regime of Nicolás Maduro. His work was focused on denouncing the serious humanitarian situation and the violation of fundamental rights in his country, holding meetings and international gatherings at the highest level, while he was dedicated to organizing and mobilizing the Venezuelan diaspora in favor of the struggle forfreedom in Venezuela. His effort and commitment during these years has been a key factor in the recognition and support of the international community to the struggle being waged by the Venezuelan people to restore democracy in the country, in the pressure that the international community has established against the usurper regime in Venezuela, and the worldwide recognition of the humanitarian drama of the Venezuelan people and the actions to bring humanitarian aid to the millions of Venezuelans who are suffering today.
Carlos Vecchio is co-founder of the political party Voluntad Popular, together with Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó, in which he has served as National Political Coordinator since he was elected in 2010. Under his political coordination, Voluntad Popular has become a symbol of struggle for political and social rights in Venezuela. He has been coordinator in the presidential campaigns of opposition candidates Henrique Capriles Radonski and Leopoldo López. He was a pre-candidate for the Venezuelan National Assembly in the primaries of the Democratic Unity Roundtable in 2010 and pre-candidate for Mayor of Chacao in 2008. At a time of necessary unity for the country, his resignation from the candidacy reflected in a sobering way his integrity and profoundly democratic nature, but above all his conviction that only with the unity of all would it be possible to put an end to the dictatorship. Through the Civil Association “Ciudadanía Activa”, which he founded in 2002, Vecchio has been an activist for human rights from where he assumed the promotion and defense of the civil, human and political rights of all citizens, as well as the preservation and restitution of democratic principles and values in Venezuela.
Carlos Vecchio was born on June 6, 1969 in the city of Caripe, in the eastern state of Monagas. As His Excellency Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States, he has played a key role in turning the humanitarian and libertarian cause of Venezuela into a bipartisan struggle, achieving concrete results against the usurping regime and advancing towards the definitive end of the dictatorship in Venezuela.