Biography

Deputy Chief of Mission Luis G. Moreno (photo: US Embassy Madrid)

Deputy Chief of Mission Luis G. Moreno

Mr. Moreno has recently completed a tour in Baghdad as the Political Military Minister Counselor and Force Strategic Engagement Cell Director.  Mr. Moreno entered the Foreign Service in 1983 and was posted to Bogotá, Colombia in the spring of 1984.  In 1986, Mr. Moreno worked as American Citizens Service chief at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua.  From 1987 – 1988, Mr. Moreno served as a staff assistant to the Front Office of the Latin American Bureau.  From 1988 – 1990, Mr. Moreno was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, as the Deputy Director of the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) where he managed the coca eradication project.

In 1990, Mr. Moreno returned to Washington where he served as the Colombia Desk Officer for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INML).  In 1993, Mr. Moreno was assigned to Port-au-Prince, Haiti as Refugee Coordinator.  While in Haiti, Mr. Moreno repatriated tens of thousands of returning “boat people” as well as directed three political asylum in-country processing centers.  After the United Nations intervention in 1994, Mr. Moreno became the Embassy’s first political-military officer, and was the U.S. Government’s primary advisor to the International Police Monitors.

In 1995, Mr. Moreno was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Panama as Narcotics Director and Law Enforcement Coordinator.  However, shortly after his arrival, he was detailed as Kurdish Refugee Coordinator and oversaw the U.S. Government efforts in moving Kurdish refugees to Guam and eventual resettlement in the U.S.

In 1997, Mr. Moreno was assigned as Narcotics Affairs Director at the U.S. Mission in Bogotá, Colombia.  He was responsible for the vast majority of U.S. Government counternarcotics assistance to the Colombian Government.  Mr. Moreno was one of the primary planners of “Plan Colombia”.  In 2001, Mr. Moreno was assigned to Port-au-Prince as Deputy Chief of Mission.

As DCM in Port-au-Prince, Mr. Moreno played a key role in U.S. Government efforts to find peaceful political solutions to the increasingly violent Haitian stalemate, and was the Mission’s point of contact with the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force.

After Haiti, Mr. Moreno was assigned as Principal Officer/Consul General in Monterrey, Mexico and was the senior USG representative in northern Mexico.  In 2007, Mr. Moreno was assigned as Deputy Chief of Mission in Tel Aviv, Israel and supported the Middle East peace process as well as managed one of the world’s busiest and most-high-profile embassies.  He arrived in Baghdad in May, 2010.    

During his career, Mr. Moreno has received eight Senior Performance Awards, four Superior Honor Awards, three Meritorious Honor Awards, and the American Foreign Service Association William Rivkin Award for creative dissent as well as winning the Department of State’s James Clement Dunn Award for excellence in diplomacy in 2001.  Mr. Moreno received the Department of State’s Heroism Award in 2004.  In 2012, he received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award for his achievements in 2010 as the Principal Officer in Monterrey and the Deputy Chief of Mission in Tel Aviv.  Mr. Moreno was promoted into the Senior Foreign Service in 2001 and to the rank of Minister-Counselor in 2005.  Mr. Moreno speaks Spanish, French and some Haitian Creole.