Closure may only be for summer, but there is no clarification
News in the international media today suggests that the US consulate in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, the oldest in continuous operation, will be one of the ‘victims’ of Elon Musk’s ‘chainsaw for bureaucracy’: according to the New York Times, the consulate is on a list of 12 diplomatic missions that are to be closed down.
A report today in Lusa however suggests the closure may only be for the summer. This is not borne out by other media reports, which suggest the moves are much more focused on permanently slashing overseas costs for the US.
Rádio Renascença got wind of these changes earlier this week, at which point no official source was able to confirm. Even the Portuguese government (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) said that it wasn’t aware of any discussions other than “the usual ones” over Lajes air force base, on Terceira island.
Rádio Renascença’s information also centred more on ‘closure’, rather than on a kind of summer holiday for the consulate. Current US consul Margaret C. Campbell admitted that “US foreign policy is constantly adapting to meet current challenges”.
Elon Musk’s mission continues to be to shave over two billion dollars worth of annual spending off the government’s budget. Thus this new decision “mainly affecting consulates in Western Europe”, says the Guardian, as well as in Brazil.
According to the website of the US embassy in Portugal, the main functions of the Azores consulate are to “maintain the historic ties of partnership and friendship with the people and government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores of Portugal,” as well as to “provide high-quality service to US citizens in the Azores, safeguarding their safety and well-being” and to “increase educational, commercial and cultural exchanges between the US and the Azores, especially in renewable energy and green technology development, business and tourism.”
Although there has been a vice-consul in the Azores since 1790, the US Consulate in the region was only formally established on 7 July 1795, when John Street was promoted to consul and, according to the website, “since then there has been a US representative in the Azores, making it the oldest in the world in continuous operation.”
Over the years, there have been consular agencies on Flores, São Jorge and Terceira. In April 1899, the consulate was transferred to Ponta Delgada, with a consular agency remaining on Horta, the US embassy website adds.
“This is a small consulate and always has been,” it reads. “However, the Azores and Azorean-Americans have a prominent place in American history, and the stories and accounts in the consulate’s archives provide intriguing glimpses into the contributions that American diplomats who served here made during major historical events.”
According to the New York Times, the closure of consulates is in line with the plans of billionaire Elon Musk, whom President Donald Trump put in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the aim of which is to drastically reduce government spending.
Musk’s/ Doge’s plan involves closing departments and programmes and laying off federal employees en masse – and it comes at a time, warns the New York Times, when China has already overtaken the US in the number of its diplomatic missions around the world.
On his first day in office, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned officials that there would be “changes” in the department, but promised that these would not be “destructive” to it, adds Lusa.
For now, there is no official response from the regional government of the Azores, nor from Portugal’s own ‘government in flux’.
UPDATE: A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied any concrete decisions have been made, suggesting stories today are “just speculation”.
