A consul can be a head of post, but not head of a diplomatic mission (= embassy). The Miami Herald should have referred to the local Haitian consul-general as head of the (consular) post, but instead used the wrong term.

You sometimes even hear honorary consuls calling themselves “heads of mission. ”Obviously they are confused. Like many other erroneous terms this one has taken on a life of its own. One time I received an angry note from a brand-new honorary consul in the Mid-West who said he was not only the head of mission but had also received “this most highest honor as an United States of America citizen.” A real double-whammy! And sad to think someone believes that being an honorary consul is the top honor of any government. I think recipients of the Légion d’honneur would beg to differ. Or, how about our own Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Anyone can use the search-feature to scan through the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations to find mission used only in reference to the diplomatic kind, not the consular. The separate Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is also quite clear on it.