James Story is a retired career senior foreign service officer who has served in multiple posts around the world. Before his work in Venezuela, where he was both ambassador and chargé d’affaires from 2018 to 2023, Story was the consul general in Rio de Janeiro; director of the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law (INL) Enforcement Affairs Office for the Western Hemisphere; director of the INL Office in Bogotá; and senior civilian representative in southeastern Afghanistan.