The perennial link between the U.S. Embassy and Dominican society, Franklin Polanco, is retiring from his post after 40 years, though he will remain as a consultant. Today’s Listín Diario dedicated a page to tracing Polanco’s career as a journalist, photographer, pilot, radio enthusiast, diver, parachutist, and foreign correspondent for the Voice of America. It also sketches his role in situations of crisis and emergency, such as the 1965 U.S. military intervention, the kidnapping of U.S. Army Colonel Donald Crowley, air attaché of the embassy, and Barbara Hutchison, USIS director, among others. Listin Diario quotes columnist Miguel Angel Velazquez Mainardi as describing Polanco as "the friendly face of imperialism."
