The Latinization of U.S. Latin America Policy

That the first African American U.S. president is appointing a substantial number of Latinos to his administration should come as no surprise. Now the largest minority in the country, Latinos represent more than 15 percent of the population and voted for President Obama by a margin of two to one.

Many of these appointees have been named to posts responsible for Latin American policy. Some call this pigeonholing and others outsourcing U.S. foreign policy to an ethnic constituency.

Of course, it is neither of those but a little of both.

Let’s start with some facts: For the first time in history, the State Department has a Hispanic under secretary, Bolivian-born Maria Otero. As under secretary for democracy and global affairs, Otero has responsibilities worldwide but has spent much of her career on microfinance in Latin America.

The top diplomat for the region, Arturo Valenzuela, is the first Latino to be confirmed as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in a Democratic administration.
Obama has also named Latinos Carlos Pascual and Vilma Martinez to ambassadorships in Mexico and Argentina, respectively. More recently Obama nominated Raul Yzaguirre and Mari Carmen Aponte to be ambassadors in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

I have long believed that the most promising antidote for Washington’s neglect of Latin America would be U.S. Latinos. The more they grow as a political force, the more their concern for relations between the U.S. and the region will be heard. As a reflection of this growing clout, these appointments are a positive development.

Some might also argue the more Latinos in power, the more – and better – attention Latin America will get. Valenzuela is a case in point. It is hard to imagine a more knowledgeable assistant secretary than the Chilean-American academic who has spent 40 years studying the region.

But several Latin America experts in Washington think Valenzuela is more the exception than the rule among Obama appointees. While they acknowledge the growing clout of Latinos, they believe that these critical times demand that expertise and commitment to the region drive these choices, more than political expediency.

Some posts in particularly would seem too problematic to hand over to political appointees with little experience in the region.

In U.S. Cuba policy, for instance, Obama has suggested that he would pursue potentially historic new direction. And yet his appointee to deputy assistant secretary for Central America, Cuba, and the Caribbean, Julissa Reynoso, is a 35 year-old Dominican lawyer and New York activist. While, no doubt very talented and confident, she would be confronting some of the most hard-nosed operatives in U.S. politics.

Perhaps even more significant will be the diplomatic depth of officials charged to better protect democratic rule in Latin America. Right now, in a number of countries in the region democracy is in the balance and it will be the Organization of American States where the U.S. will need to convince allies in the region about the need to develop mechanisms to protect it.

Let’s face it, the OAS is an old-boys club filled with diplomats set in their ways. Naming Carmen Lomellin, a highly respected women’s rights advocate, as the top U.S. representative there may not help reach the already elusive goal.

Beyond those crucial posts, appointees who have made their names effectively defending Latino interests may be an asset. It is hard to think of a better example than Yzaguirre, a prominent Latino leader with an ability to speak truth to power and a life-long experience in building coalitions.

As Michael Shifter, vice president at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy research group, put it “the most important thing is that the people who (Obama) picks, whether they are Latino or not Latino, are serious about the job, committed, want to do it well, have good instincts and abilities.”

To be sure, Latinos with years of experience on Latin American affairs have not always proven to be great choices. Two of Valenzuela’s predecessors during the Bush administration, Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, had the experience but also the anti-Castro obsession that produced an ideological and highhanded approach that hurt relations.

There is the question too of how Latinos are received and perceived as representatives of the U.S. government in Latin America. Pete Romero, who held Valenzuela’s post during the Clinton administration (but was never confirmed), recalled having to prove to officials in the region he wasn’t in the job simply because he was Hispanic.

The best way to counter that prejudice, Romero said in an interview, is to have an “aggressive, active policy in the region” and to prove that you have the ear of the Secretary of State when it counts.