Bush Names Gaddi Vasquez to U.S. Delegation Attending Inauguration in Uruguay

Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez was named Friday to a six-member delegation that will represent President Bush at the inauguration of Uruguay’s new head of state.

It is the second such honor bestowed on Vasquez by Bush advisers, who also picked Vasquez to give one of the keynote addresses at the Republican National Convention on the night the President was nominated in August, 1988.

Vasquez, 35, is one of the highest-ranking Republican Latinos in elected office in California and, as such, is part of a small minority of high-profile conservative Republican Latinos. He has been mentioned in political circles as a future contender in both the state and national arenas.

Vasquez said he is honored by his selection, but he politely declined to comment on whether it indicated that national Republicans might be grooming him for higher office.

He said about the appointment: “I think what it is is an indication of the confidence that the President has in me. . . . I’ve had an opportunity to develop a good relationship with him, and I just know when the President of the United States asks you to perform a very honorable duty, I do not hesitate to accept.”

Vasquez, who is bilingual and the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, was among a group of Latino public officials from around the country who met with Bush shortly after his election. Latinos, who have traditionally had strong ties to the Democratic Party, are the fastest-growing segment of eligible voters in the country and are considered a key to future presidential bids.

At the White House meeting, Vasquez said he urged Bush to place greater emphasis on relations with Latin American nations, especially those that are part of the wave of newly democratic governments.

“Having expressed that interest, I guess that was the reason he selected me,” Vasquez said. “I think it’s critically important to those countries that have democratically elected governments to build stronger ties that they have an understanding that the United States is supportive.”

Uruguayan President-elect Luis Lacalle won his post in November in the first free elections in the country in 18 years. The election returned Uruguay to the democratic rule that long characterized the middle-class nation, before a military dictatorship came to power in 1973.

Lacalle, who will be inaugurated Thursday, will take over from a transitional government that has been in power since the dictatorship was ousted in 1985.

The U.S. delegation will be headed by Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh and his wife, Ginny, the White House said Friday. Also among the delegation are Malcolm R. Wilkey, the U.S. ambassador to Uruguay; Wales H. Madden Jr., a lawyer and businessman from Amarillo, Tex., and Thomas W. Moseley, former executive of GATX Corp., in Gates Mill, Ohio.

Vasquez said he will fly to Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday for a briefing, then depart for Montevideo, Uruguay. He plans to return to California on Saturday.