[Peace-discuss] Who is Otto Reich? (article)

[Phil Stinard]

Today I was made an official translator (without pay) for the largest 
circulation English language news website in Venezuela, Venezuela Headline 
(www.vheadline.com).  (They liked my translation of the speech by the 
Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS, which is the first one made into English.) 
    I'll post some of my assignments to this list if I think they'll be of 
interest to the group.  This one is an article about Otto Reich, one of the 
Bush administration officials who plotted both the coup against Aristide and 
the coup against Chavez.  He is still plotting....

--Phil

--------------------------------

Handbook on Bush’s envoy:
Who is Otto Reich?
by Ernesto Carmona*
Special Report of Paralelo 21, Radio Universidad de Guadalajara, México
http://www.radio.udg.mx/programas/paralelo/indexp21.htm


Otto Reich, the man running around South America trying to align governments 
against Cuba in the [UN] vote in Geneva on Human Rights, doesn’t have an 
official job because of a Congressional veto, but he belongs to the small 
group of Cubans on the extreme right who have managed United States policy 
towards Latin America since the times of Ronald Reagan.  His last important 
task, which was also his last failure, was to coordinate the coup in 
Venezuela on the 11th of April of 2002.

His presence in the southern latitudes bothers decent people, even those who 
belong to the local political right, because he is a low-class envoy, an 
undesirable speaker, practically a delinquent.  At least that was the 
impression of him given by Gabriel Valdés [Chilean senator (DC) and 
ex-Chancellor during the 1960’s], when Reich came to Chile a year ago to get 
[Chilean President] Ricardo Lagos in line with the war in Iraq, with very 
unsatisfactory results.

The Mexican intellectual Heinz Dieterich described him as “the right hand of 
Bush’s dirty war in Latin America, his plenipotentiary ambassador for the 
hemisphere.”  Toward the middle of 2003, Reich told [Italian Prime Minister] 
Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, “The days of Castro’s government in Cuba are 
numbered, it’s reaching its final phase,” a phrase immediately repeated by 
Ana Palacio, Exterior Minister of the government of José María Aznar in 
Spain.


A veteran of dirty games

He has very clear goals for the region:  “There are two countries that worry 
us in Latin America, one is Cuba and the other is Venezuela, and the United 
States is going to continue to give great attention to the revocatory 
referendum in Venezuela in August,” taking it as a fact more than a year in 
advance, in harmony with the style of intromission of Bush’s government.

His statements always violate the rules of diplomacy in obvious ways.  
“Diplomacy” means nothing to him; in his mind—connected by a direct line to 
that of Bush—permanent plans of paramilitary sabotage and permanent plans of 
disinformation for the communication media bubble up.  “And of course, this 
gives life to Washington’s decision not to permit a national democracy [in 
Venezuela], and even less a role in regional power,” Dieterich said.

The Cuban-American belongs to the network of veterans of the Iran-Contra 
conspiracy who now occupy high positions in the Bush administration, among 
them John Negroponte, ex-ambassador to Honduras and now in the UN in New 
York; Rogelio Pardo Maurer, ex high official of the Nicaraguan Contras, now 
a functionary of high rank in charge of Latin America in the Pentagon; 
Elliot Abrams, ex-adjunct secretary for Latin America in the State 
Department, who admitted lying to Congress about his support for the 
Contras, currently a member of the National Security Council of the White 
House; and John Poindexter, condemned to prison for five charges of lying to 
Congress about his illegal efforts to aid the Contras, now in charge of 
“counterterrorism” in the Pentagon.

“None of these guys worry about diplomacy,” said an anonomyous State 
Department source to the Mexican newspaper La Jornada.  There are at least 
seven other conservative Cuban-Americans involved directly in foreign policy 
towards Latin America, among them Adolfo A. Franco, the highest-ranking 
official for Latin America in the U. S. Agency for International Development 
(USAID)—frequently used as a CIA front—and coronel Emilio González, 
high-ranking official on the National Security Council of the White House, 
“evaluator” of U. S. policy towards Cuba.  “What we have here is total 
domination of the process, of the design of U. S. policy towards Latin 
America, by the extreme right wing of the Cuban-American community,” said 
analyst Larry Birns to La Jornada.


“The banana slips out of the hands of even the cleverest monkey”

As a “diplomat,” Reich has been a complete failure, even though he became 
Ambassador to Venezuela, because this extreme right-wing conservative 
definitely doesn’t have what it takes for the office.  It took him one year 
of lobbying before Bush named him subsecretary for Latin American Affairs, 
the highest position in the State Department dealing with Latin American 
policy below Secretary Colin Powell, but without the approval of Congress, 
taking advantage of a recess appointment during vacations at the end of 
2001.

But before one year had passed, he was fired in absentia, with a good dose 
of humiliation.  At the end of November 2002, while he was in Brazil, 
Congress unceremoniously put him in the streets, because they did not 
confirm his nomination, before the Christmas recess of 2002. Pastor 
Valle-Garay, professor of the University of York, Canada, later explained 
the reason for his unemployment as “his colossal hemispheric failures.”  
“The banana slips out of the hands of even the cleverest monkey,” was the 
colorful statement used by the Toronto, Canada academic.

“Latin America breathed a sigh of relief,” wrote Valle-Garay.  “There won’t 
be a new Adjunct Sub-Secretary of State for who knows how long, but it is 
better to be alone than to have bad company.”  Bush didn’t have the 
slightest intention of wasting time paying greater attention to the 
Hemisphere, according to the prescient Canadian professor.  “For the next 
two years—until the next U. S. presidential elections—the White House will 
dedicate all of its energy to the fight against Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin 
Laden, and government antiterrorism policies.

Bush didn’t try hard to keep his assistant, because he could keep him on 
temporarily until January of 2003, when his nomination would be easier to 
pass, with Congress in Republican hands.  But Bush preferred to avoid 
controversy and instead kept him as a special envoy.


A “decorative” position

So that Reich wouldn’t be pushed to the side of power, Bush named him 
“special envoy” of the State Department, a title as precarious as that of 
“Governor of rain.”  With these epaulettes, Reich came to South America to 
pressure the votes of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil in the UN.  He didn’t 
come to Chile this time, maybe because he considered the vote secure, or 
maybe because Ricardo Lagos was too ashamed to receive him.

In 2003, Bush had to schedule the date with Lagos by way of phone call 
because by November of 2002, the Chilean did not want to receive him for 
reasons of “protocol.”  Reich’s diplomatic style is one of superior 
arrogance.  He always states that the U. S. is waiting for “results” from 
his friends and business partners, threatening the apirations of several 
Latin American governments with “final touches”, such as the vaunted 
bilateral free trade treaties.

Diplomacy is not his good side, if he has one.  For Gabriel Valdés, 
president of the Foreign Relations Commission of the [Chilean] Senate and 
father of the ex-UN representative and current ambassador in Buenos Aires, 
Reich’s meeting with Lagos last year showed “lack of respect ….  He is a 
person without any quality, he disturbs my dignity.  Chile can be a partner, 
but not a lackey” (Radio Agricultura, 28/02/2003).  There is always a fight 
because of the low stature of the envoy.


Specialist in failure

While Reich was subsecretary, the government of Fernando de la Rúa collapsed 
in Argentina; Evo Morales came close to winning elections in Bolivia; Brazil 
and Ecuador elected the “dissidents” Ignacio “Lula” Da Silva and Lucio 
Gutiérrez; and in Nicaragua a court case for fraud and money laundering was 
opened against his protegée ex-President Arnoldo Alemán, who will have to 
spend a long time in jail.

During his tenure, relations between Mexico and Canada cooled off, Plan 
Colombia bogged down, opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americans 
[FTAA] grew, and his plan to stop business relations of several U. S. 
investors with Cuba failed.  In September 2002, in an interview with El País 
of Spain, he put his foot in his mouth talking about his “friend” Carlos 
Menem.  It wasn’t so bad, because he called him “corrupt,” but the interview 
displeased George W. Bush because Menem is a “friend of the family” and was 
his father’s “ally” during the Gulf War.

Reich is so self-confident that he warned the governor of Minnesota, Jesse 
Ventura, not to partake of “sexual tourism” during his visit to Cuba with 
more than 300 businessmen.

They say that Bush didn’t feel bad about Reich’s firing.  In Washington, 
Reich was criticized because he poorly informed the State Department and 
made an obvious mistake when he coordinated the failed coup on April 11, 
2002 in Venezula against the government of Hugo Chávez.

In Caracas, they call Reich a “clown,” but they beg the forgiveness of this 
honorable profession.  When he started as Subsecretary at the end of 2001,  
he began a speech by saluting his “friends, ex-colleagues, and unaccused 
co-conspiritors,” and warned that he would silence all of his critics by 
putting them in prison.  Later, he said that was a joke.


A dangerous fanatic

Reich was accused of acting illegally while he was working in the State 
Department during the Reagan administration.  He was born in Cuba in 1945, 
to a family of Austrian origin that emigrated to the United States.  He 
describes himself as “half Cuban, half Austrian, half Catholic, half Jew.”  
He is also 100% conservative, anticommunist, and a “free marketeer” like 
Reagan.  Before he was named assistant administrator for Latin America at 
USAID, he promoted businesses in Miami and Washington.

In 1983, he was named first director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in 
the State Department, where he worked closely with White House advisor 
Oliver North, promoting public support in the United States in favor of the 
Nicaraguan Contras.  The comptroller general [Attorney General] of the 
United States, a Republican, determined that Reich participated in 
“prohibited undercover propaganda activities.”  Other declassified documents 
show that he contracted military personnel trained in “psychological 
operations” to promote the suspension of the legislative prohibition on 
assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras.

William Goodfellow, analyst of the Center for International Politics in 
Washington, called him “a right-wing fanatic, with a well-documented record 
of suspicious businesses that originated during the Iran-Contra scandal.”  
Like a good novel, Reich’s adventures involved drug trafficking and 
protection of Cuban terrorists in the service of the United States, such as 
Luis Posada Carriles, who was a prisoner in Panama, and Orlando Bosch, his 
accomplice in the Cuban airliner explosion in Barbados in 1976.  He raised, 
channeled, and washed illegal monies in the banks of the Caiman Islands and 
Lake Resources of Switzerland.

Reagan named him Ambassador to Venezuela (1986-1989) to get him out of 
Washington.  Later, he was “rewarded” by being made alternate ambassador of 
the U. S. to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.  Bill Clinton fired him, 
but he returned to the world of business as a lobbyist in Washington and 
advisor to U. S. and foreign businesses.  One of his most important clients 
was Bacardi, the liquor company with its headquarters in Bermuda.  The 
Bacardi rum business benefitted very well from the Helms-Burton Law of 1996, 
which strengthened the embargo against Cuba.  According to Dan Fisk, 
ex-advisor of Senator Jesse Helms, Reich helped write this law.

Various clauses of the Helms-Burton Law directly benefitted Bacardi and 
other businesses that left Cuba after the revolution.  The Center for 
International Politics reported that Reich received $1.2 million from 
Bacardi for his efforts, which included revoking the trademark protection of 
rum made in Cuba so Barcardi could commercialize its own Havana Club made 
outside the island.  Reich sold his Bacardi lobbying business to another 
lobbyist, but under an arrangement that generated doubts about a possible 
conflict of interests, a euphemism that in the U. S. means corruption.  
“This guy is a walking conflict of interest.  He is Bacardi’s man in the 
State Department,” said Goodfellow.


Lobbyist for F-16’s for Chile

Before returning to the State Department, he was a promoter of conservative 
causes and a critic of the policies of Bill Clinton towards Cuba, all this 
without giving up his job in influence channeling (lobbying), which led to 
his involvement with Chile.  The organizatioin Religious Task Force on 
Central America and Mexico affirms that Reich is the head of Worldwide 
Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP), a front organization ostensibly 
dedicated to the monitoring of foreign clothes factories, but in reality 
dedicated to seeking leaders in the industry to control the factories and 
reduce the rights of workers, in other words, a typical mafia-like activity.

The prestigious ex-president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Price winner 
Oscar Arias wrote in the Los Angeles Times (April 29, 2001) that the 
nomination of Reich would be “a real step backwards for hemispheric 
cooperation.”  He said that Reich was Lockheed Martin’s lobbyist for the 
sale of F-16 fighter jets to Chile, thereby contributing to the liquidation 
of the U. S. policy not to sell advanced arms systems to Latin America.  
Arias said that he felt “very disturbed about what goals would be 
accomplished by his [Reich’s] potential leadership in our hemisphere.”

Colin Powell had reservations in naming Reich to the post that he now 
occupies.  His nomination was subject to intense criticism and was never 
ratified by the Senate.  “Mr Reich lacks the capacity to be a good 
administrator with sane judgement, with the appropriate sensibilities before 
potential conflicts of interest, with the confidence of other governments in 
the region, and with the capacity to overcome partisan divisions within 
Congress,” wrote Senator Christopher Dodd, then president of the senatorial 
committee that had to approve his nomination:  “Otto Reich is not qualified 
for this post,” he finished.  Other senators expressed themselves similarly.


Protector of terrorists

After September 11, there was another opportunity to promote Reich’s 
nomination, but Powell did not include his name in the list of “emergency” 
nominations.  Later, the White House place the name of Reich at the bottom 
of a list sent to the Senate by the Secretary of State.  Again, Dodd opposed 
his nomination.  The Senator indicated that there was no support in the 
Senate to ratify Reich’s nomination.  His spokesman, Marvin Fast, presented 
new doubts about Reich’s capabilities.  “Cables from the State Department in 
the period of 1986-87 indicate that Mr. Reich, then ambassador to Venezuela, 
asked Washington on several occasions about the elegibility of Orlando 
Bosch, notorious anti-Castro terrorist, to return to the United States,” 
explained Fast in December of 2001.

Bosch, added Fast, has a documented history of more than 30 terrorist 
attempts, including several in the United States, and served jail time for 
having fired a bazooka against a Polish ship in the port of Miami.  When 
Bosch managed to enter the United States in 1988, he was arrested.  Fast 
added:  “Until now, Otto Reich has not called Mr. Bosch a terrorist.  This 
certainly casts doubt on Mr. Reich’s judgement as our nation launches a war 
against terrorism.”

Bush used a parliamentary trick known as a “recess nomination” to install 
Reich in the State Department without the approval of the Senate.  While the 
Senate is in recess, the president has the power to name functionaries to 
key posts without legislative ratification.  The only problem is that 
Reich’s nomination would only last until the end of the year.  In May of 
2002, Bush asked the Senate to reconsider this nomination, but that was 
impossible, and so was a second recess nomination.

“This business in Venezuela—his coordination of the coup leaders—will almost 
certainly bury any possibility for (Reich) to be openly nominated,” 
commented one government official.  Even conservative supporters of Reich 
indicated to La Jornada that getting Reich’s nomination ratified would be an 
“uphill battle.”  In the most recent legislative elections of November 2002, 
Republicans retook control of the Senate, but Bush no longer seemed so 
interested in Reich.


Pending investigation

One legislator’s spokesman told La Jornada in Washington that fourteen 
Congressmen demanded an “in depth” legislative investigation of the reports 
that Otto Reich and other officials were involved in the attempted coup 
against Hugo Chávez.  “The growing number of reports and admissions of a U. 
S. role in the attempted overthrow of Chávez’s government merits an 
investigation,” affirmed Representative Dennis Kucinich and 13 other 
Congressmen in the summary of a letter that circulated among his colleagues 
in May of 2002.

The legislators asked both houses of Congress for “an in depth investigation 
over what role the [U. S.] government played.”  Various legislative leaders 
evaluated the possibility of an inquiry into the matter.  The problem, 
according to one official, is that too many people responsible for Latin 
American policy in the Bush administration have resumés that provoke 
suspicion.

Newsweek magazine also commented that the Senate Foreign Relations 
Commission, presided by Democrat Joseph Biden, was supposed to investigate 
the role of the United States in the coup.  But in the end, nothing 
happened.

*) Ernesto Carmona is a Chilean journalist.

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