Cuba’s on a Back Burner and So Is Otto Reich

You can make a good argument that President Bush owes more to Cuban Americans than to almost any other bloc of U.S. voters. But you surely couldn’t tell from the shabby way one of their most outspoken leaders is being treated in Washington.

I refer to Otto J. Reich, the controversial former assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs. He’s been left twisting in the wind -- and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy -- since well before Thanksgiving, when he was abruptly ousted as this country’s chief diplomat for Latin America.

The nation’s capital is a town where the perks and symbols of power mean a lot. So imagine how Reich must have felt Nov. 22 when he returned from an official trip to Brazil to find that his nameplate and picture had been removed from the walls of the State Department. That’s also when Reich learned his office had been moved from the sixth floor to the first floor.

When Bush administration spokesmen hastily explained that Reich’s new job would be as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s “special envoy” to Latin America, no one could explain precisely what his duties would be. And in the last two weeks, Powell has made major trips south of the border, to Mexico and Colombia. His new special envoy was not invited. I guess Reich can’t take a hint.

But his political supporters in Congress can. That’s why U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Cuban American Republicans from south Florida, have been pressuring the White House to find another job for Reich, and fast.

Of course, as veterans of Washington politics they should have seen Reich’s downfall coming. To begin with, his yearlong tenure at the State Department’s top level was temporary. Because Senate Democrats made it clear they did not consider Reich qualified for his post and would not vote to confirm his appointment, Bush gave the Cuban American what is called a “recess appointment,” meaning it was valid until the most recent Congress adjourned.

Full of his characteristic hubris, Reich assumed that his appointment would become permanent when Republicans won back control of the Senate in November. But then Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a moderate who is likely to replace the retiring North Carolina conservative Jesse Helms as senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he would prefer another candidate for the Latin America post.

Last week, White House sources told me that Reich would soon be named the president’s special envoy to Latin America. That may save some face for Reich, but it remains to be seen whether it will repair Bush’s standing with those Cuban exiles who consider the brash former lobbyist a hero in the struggle to oust Fidel Castro.

Of course, some of us pointed out all along that Reich’s anti-Castro obsession was precisely what made him so ill suited for a job dealing with the entire Western Hemisphere. With Venezuela teetering on the brink of political chaos, with Brazil, Peru and Ecuador having recently elected populist presidents who are dubious about U.S.-backed economic liberalization and with Mexico still pressing for an immigration deal, we need an envoy who can see farther than Havana.

Then there is the small matter of the Cuban exile terrorist Orlando Bosch, whom Reich tried to help get a U.S. visa in 1987 when Reich was ambassador to Venezuela. Bosch eventually sneaked into this country on his own and still lives near Miami. The Bush people don’t like to talk about him much -- and not just because it looks bad to have a convicted terrorist living openly in Florida’s sunshine even as the U.S. wages war on terrorism elsewhere. It’s that the president who in 1989 allowed Bosch to stay in this country on indefinite parole is the current president’s father. And among the Floridians who urged the senior Bush to let Bosch stay in that state was Jeb Bush, then a political consultant and now the state’s governor.

That brings me to what Reich’s temporary tenure at the State Department was really all about: domestic politics. Having an avid anti-Castro activist in a highly visible post helped ensure Cuban American support for Jeb Bush in his recent successful gubernatorial reelection campaign.

Reich’s temporary appointment was also reward for the Cuban American votes that were pivotal in the 2000 presidential election.

So while Reich’s predicament is humiliating for now, expect to hear from him again. After all, Florida is likely to be an important state in the 2004 presidential election too.

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Frank del Olmo is associate editor of The Times.