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CUBAN EXILE LEADERS APPREHENSIVE AS ADMINISTRATION MAKES NO MOVE TO RENOMINATE STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL OTTO REICH.

Article Excerpt
Otto Reich has been moved out his job as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and transferred to the position of special envoy with no announced duties. The transfer has irritated anti-Castro leaders who fear it portends a shift in the administration's hard-line policy. Among those reportedly being considered as Reich's replacement was Anne W. Patterson, currently US ambassador to Colombia. Patterson was the choice of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but later reports indicated that Powell's preferences would be overridden in favor of former Sen. Jesse Helms's Latin America affairs aide, Roger Noriega. Reich's former deputy J. Curtis Struble has taken over as acting assistant secretary.

President George W. Bush named Reich as assistant secretary in a recess appointment in January 2002 after it became clear the Democrat-controlled Senate would not confirm his nomination (see NotiCen, 2002-01-17). The appointment expired at the end of the last session of Congress in November.

Instead of announcing a resubmission of Reich's nomination to the incoming Republican-controlled Senate, Bush shifted him to the special envoy post placing him directly under Powell.

Reich is a former lobbyist for Bacardi and, during the administration of former President Ronald Reagan (1980-1988), headed the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy from which he carried out a domestic propaganda operation in support of the Reagan wars in Central America (see NotiSur, 1993-10-22). He also served as ambassador in Venezuela and has been linked to the return to the US of terrorist Orlando Bosch (see NotiCen, 2002-01-17).

Since his appointment, Reich has been a focus of...