Stephen G. McFarland

Stephen George McFarland (born December 21, 1954, Tarrant County, Texas) Ambassador McFarland grew up in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as in central Texas and suburban Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt American School in Lima, Peru, Yale University, and the U.S. Air War College. He also attended the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course.

McFarland speaks fluent Spanish and some Guarani, and he is currently studying Kʼicheʼ, the second most widely spoken language in Guatemala after Spanish.

Diplomatic career He joined the Foreign Service in 1977, and was subsequently posted to Maracaibo, Venezuela. He has served in a series of assignments in Latin America focusing on U.S. support for democratic transitions, human rights, and security.

McFarland was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala on June 30, 2008 by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Washington, D.C. He arrived as ambassador in Guatemala on August 5, 2008 with his wife Karin and four sons, Chris, Alex, Andrew, and Kevin.

Shortly after his arrival in Guatemala, he spoke about an espionage scandal. Guatemala's president Álvaro Colom announced that his office and home were bugged with cameras and listening devices. Ambassador McFarland described the situation as a "failure" of the Secretariat of Administrative Affairs and Security (SAAS).

During the nationwide violence of March 2009, the wife of Sergio Morales, Guatemala's Attorney General for Human Rights was kidnapped and tortured. Ambassador McFarland offered the full support of the US to investigate the crime.

Coordinator of Rule of Law and Enforcement-Afghanistan Ambassador McFarland learned Dari in the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA up until January 2012. After his posting at the Foreign Service Institute, he assumed the post of Coordinator of Rule of Law and Enforcement in Kabul, Afghanistan.