NEW YORK -- -- Paul Haven has been appointed The Associated Press chief of bureau in Havana, Cuba, following three years of leading the cooperative's news operations in Spain and Portugal as Madrid bureau chief.

Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski made the announcement Friday.

Haven would be only the second AP chief in Havana since the bureau reopened in 1999 after being closed for nearly three decades since in the early days of Fidel Castro's revolution.

In his new post, Haven succeeds Anita Snow, who will be on professional leave for one year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

"After Anita Snow's long, pioneering news leadership in Cuba, I am delighted that Paul Haven will be there to build on her successes,'' said Daniszewski. "Paul is a wonderful writer and an insightful reporter, and will uphold all of AP's best traditions in a fascinating country at a time when both Cuba and the United States have new presidents.''

In Cuba, Haven would oversee a bureau situated in the historic quarter of old Havana with a multinational staff producing news in English and Spanish in print, photos and television. Haven will report to Latin America Editor Niko Price in Mexico City.

Haven, 38, a New York native, joined the AP in Bogota, Colombia, in 1994, following a stint at an English-language newspaper in Venezuela. In 1997, he was part of a team that won an Associated Press Managing Editors Award for coverage of a commando raid that ended a four-month hostage crisis in Lima, Peru.

The following year, he transferred to the International Desk in New York. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Haven was named to head an investigative team covering the hunt for al-Qaida.

He was sent to Afghanistan in early 2002 and was posted permanently to the region later that year, becoming bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2004.

He also reported from Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of that country.

In 2005, Haven won the Daniel Pearl Award Silver Prize for outstanding print reporting from South Asia. He transferred to Madrid as chief of bureau in January 2006.

In addition to journalism, Haven is the author of two children's novels, a baseball fantasy called "Two Hot Dogs With Everything,'' and an action-adventure called "The Seven Keys of Balabad.''

Haven graduated from Cornell University in 1993 with a degree in American and Latin American history. He is married and has two children.