Transition speculation 1
Oppenheimer gets into the speculation game for Latin America positions in yesterday's column. For a description of the most relevant positions, see my previous post on the transition and Latin America.
Oppenheimer says Dan Restrepo, the head of Obama's Latin America advisory group during the campaign, could be heading to NSC or a senior State Department post. He says Frank Sanchez, who served in the Clinton administration, could end up at special envoy for the Americas or assistant secretary at the State Department.
As for what Oppenheimer calls the "second tier":
Oppenheimer says Dan Restrepo, the head of Obama's Latin America advisory group during the campaign, could be heading to NSC or a senior State Department post. He says Frank Sanchez, who served in the Clinton administration, could end up at special envoy for the Americas or assistant secretary at the State Department.
As for what Oppenheimer calls the "second tier":
The second tier of Obama's Latin American advisors includes Robert S. Gelbard, former top State Department anti-drug chief and ambassador to Bolivia; Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; Arturo Valenzuela, a former NSC Latin American chief and campaign advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton; and Vicki Huddleston, former chief of the U.S Interest Section in Cuba.Feel free to leave your guesses in the comments. As far as I know, any significant Latin America posts won't be named until after the cabinet gets into place, so there's some time before we know the answer.
Other Obama advisors include former State Department Latin American affairs chief Pete Romero, former Ambassador to the Organization of American States Luis Lauredo and former Ambassador to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragón.
Labels: latinamerica, Obama, US-foreign-policy |
7 comments:
The rumors around DC say Restrepo takes Dan Fisk's job at NSC, but that's just the rumor mill. Anything is possible and I doubt the campaign has made a decision yet.
I've still seen zero speculation about who will replace Steve Johnson as DASD. It will end up being 1) a Democrat, 2) Latin America expert 3) who understands security and military issues. That three part combination is an interesting search.
The most promising name on the list is Davidow. His tenure here as Ambassador to Mexico was something of a golden age. Even when U.S. policy was deeply unpopular, Davidow was careful to take into consideration Latin American (or, in this case, Mexican) sensibilities -- a skill the present Ambassador is sorely lacking. Of course, he seems to be lacking brains as well, but that's another story.
The others, Restrepo, et. al. all seem to be retreads from the usual Washington "think tank" circuit. An improvement over the situation today? Yes, but I don't see U.S. policy shifting dramatically from the old "Clinton Doctrine" justifying military and other intervention to protect U.S. access to cheap natural resources and labor.
all seem to be retreads from the usual Washington "think tank" circuit.
Yeah exactly Richard. Obama the Marxist seems to favor the same people who have been in the halls of power and justifying capitalist imperialism throughout their careers. Just like he saddled up to marxist professors because he didn't want to be seen as a sell out in college. Today is he saddling up to Clintonites to show that he is as center as they come. Imperialists ought to be quite pleased. The Empire will have no better face and mouthpiece than Obama.
That last comment might have seemed a little less silly if it had been posted from somewhere outside "The Empire".
Leftside's cartoonish use of anachronistic expressions like "imperialist" and "capitalist press" would be laugh-out-loud funny if it wasn't for the fact that he takes himself so seriously.
leftside sounds more like Granma every day. Sadly he may take it as a compliment.
I agree with richard on Davidow - a great pick if he makes it. On the Cuba side Huddleston is promising. She was once feted by hardliners for driving Fidel nuts with her outreach to dissidents but she recently called for ending the embargo. It's this open but tough policy that we need.
Don't get me wrong... some of these names (Restrepo and Davidow) are very good choices, but -- as "leftside's" rhetoric indicates don't indicate any creative and radical change in U.S. policy towards Latin America.
Words like "imperialism" and "hegemony" are SOP in Latin American political discourse and just poo-pooing the terms isn't going to "win friends and influence people" in Latin America, where the very people who do use those words are the ones coming to power.
I wouldn't expect a U.S. state department official to think "what's best for Mexico (or Venezuela or Paraguay or wherever)" as opposed to what's best for the United States, but I would prefer policy makers that understood that the old think-tank/corporate/world bank "solutions" aren't accepted any more, and you do need people that don't have a knee-jerk rejection of leaders and factions that do see their own interests in "anti-imperalism" and "smashing the hegemony" and whatnot.
Of course, any new ambassador to Mexico will be a huge improvement over Tony Garza. But, as always, I expect Latin American policy will be shortchanged in this administration as much as it has been in every other one in the last century.
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