Dr. Vazquez-Vera’s appointment  follows the opening of an OECS Puerto Rico Office, in October 2006, which provides Member States with a base for stimulating trade, tourism and investment promotion. 

Dr. Vazquez-Vera is a Puerto Rican and Caribbean Internationalist, who is currently an Associate Professor andDirector of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico. He holds a Doctorate and Masters in International Relations from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is a graduate of the Diplomatic School at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain.  He has several publications on international and Caribbean affairs as well as on Puerto Rican political and socio-economic development.

Between 2001 and 2003, Dr. Vazquez-Vera served as Assistant Secretary of State at the Department of State in Puerto Rico.  He currently serves as Adviser on Foreign Relations at the autonomous Municipality of Caguas, and as a Member of the Governing Body of the General Council of Education of Puerto Rico.  He also collaborates with public and private radio and television stations as an analyst on international news events.

Dr. Vazquez-Vera’s wide experience and strong commitment to the region make him well placed to help give effect to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the OECS and Puerto Rico in 2004, which identified a number of areas for collaboration.  These include trade and investment, agriculture and fisheries, health, education, sports, information technology, tourism, justice and governance, security, disaster management and the environment, civil aviation and air and sea ports.

The OECS Member States are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.