Ricardo Zuñiga, the Special Envoy for the Northern Triangle at the Department of State responsible for supporting the Biden administration's efforts to stem irregular migration to the US at its roots in Central America, will become the new Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA), State Department sources have told LPO.

Julie Chung assumed the position of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in November 2018. She served as the Acting Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs until on August 3, 2021.

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Zúñiga will be acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs until President Biden's nominee, Brian A. Nichols, is confirmed in the Senate.

Ricardo Zúñiga is a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service and until March 15, 2021, he was the Interim Director of the Brazil Institute and a Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center Latin America Program, on detail from the U.S. Department of State.

Previous assignments include service as U.S. Consul General in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 2015 to 2018, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council from 2012 to 2015, and Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil from 2010 to 2012. He also served in several U.S. missions abroad.