Obama nominates new ambassador to Mexico

WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Monday he will nominate Roberta S. Jacobson, a top Department of State official, as the United States ambassador to Mexico.

Jacobson, 53, has been leading negotiations between the United States and Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations. She has previous experience with Mexico, serving as deputy assistant secretary for Canada, Mexico and North American Free Trade Agreement issues.

She was previously the director of the Office of Mexican Affairs at the State Department.

Jacobson would become the first female U.S. ambassador to Mexico if confirmed by the Senate.

Mexico currently does not have a formal ambassador to the United States, as former ambassador Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza resigned in March after he was elected as a Justice to Mexico's Supreme Court.

Ambassador Alejandro Estivill Castro was named as the Mexican embassy's charge d'affaires until a new ambassador to the United States is appointed by Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and confirmed by the country's Senate.

Jacobson, who speaks fluent Spanish, will replace Earl Anthony Wayne, who has served as ambassador since 2011.

Mexico's appointment of a new ambassador had been complicated by the delay in the American appointment -- leading Mexico to wait until a new ambassador to replace Wayne was announced nominating their own permanent representative, according to analyst José Carreño Figueras of Mexico City daily Excelsior.

Although Obama established normalizing relations with Cuba as a key point in his administration's second-term foreign policy, presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., opposes negotiations with Cuba and is a member of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere and Global Narcotics Affairs, which deals with matters concerning U.S. relations with the countries of the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico.