U.S. Senate Confirms Ambassador to Costa Rica

THE U.S. Senate last week confirmed Mark Langdale, president of a hotel-management company, as the United States’ new ambassador to Costa Rica. Officials are still determining when Langdale will be sworn in, after which he will arrive in Costa Rica, explained Elaine Samson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in San José.The new ambassador’s background is in law, telecommunications and real estate. He is president of Posadas USA, the United States subsidiary of Grupo Posadas, headquartered in Mexico City, the largest hotel-management company in Latin America, according to biographical information distributed by the embassy. Langdale also co-founded CapRock Communications, a communications provider in the southwest United States based in Dallas, Texas, and worked as an attorney for eight years in Houston, Texas. He was the chairman of the Texas Department of Economic Development from 1997-2001, and served on the Governor’s Business Council from 1995-2000. Langdale, who speaks Spanish, is married and has two children.The new ambassador is a frequent contributor to Republican causes and candidates, giving $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in the last election and $1,500 to U.S. President George Bush’s re-election campaign, according to the San Antonio Express newspaper. Bush nominated him to the post June 30. Langdale replaces former ambassador John J. Danilovich, who stepped down from the post in May 2004 to serve as U.S. ambassador to Brazil (TT, May 14, 2004).