Alex Trelinski
INCOMING US president Donald Trump has named an 80-year-old Cuban-American businessman as the country’s new ambassador to Spain.
Benjamin Leon will take over the post made vacant by Julissa Reynoso in July.
She left the position to rejoin the law firm Winston and Strawn as a partner focused on transnational matters.
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Benjamin Leon donated about $3 million to Trump during the presidential campaign and has been a supporter of Florida senator Marco Rubio, who is Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.
He sold his company Clinica Asociacion Cubana to United Healthcare in the 1990s, and once paid $4.2 million for a racehorse.
Posting on his own social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump said: “Benjamin is a highly successful entrepreneur, equestrian enthusiast and philanthropist.”
“He came to the United States from communist Cuba at age 16, with only five dollars in his pocket, and built his company, Leon Medical Centers, into an incredible business.”
“He has helped support many worthy causes, like La Liga Contra el Cancer, and important Medical Research at Johns Hopkins and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,” Trump added.
“Benjamin has also invested in training our future doctors and nurses by supporting Miami-Dade College’s Benjamin Leon Jr. School of Nursing, and the Benjamin Leon Center for Geriatric Research and Education at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine,” the president-elect concluded.
