ABSTRACT
As committed supporters of Bush in 2000, conservative Cuban-Americans had high hopes for his presidency, and they were immediately rewarded by the appointment of several fellow ethnics to administration posts. Mel Martínez, a teenage participant in Operation Pedro Pan, became Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Otto Reich, who had led Reagan-era propaganda efforts for the contras at the Office of Public Diplomacy and later lobbied for Bacardi, was Bush’s first, and controversial, choice as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Colonel Emilio González became director for the Caribbean and Central America on the National Security Council (NSC) staff, and Adolfo Franco administrator for Latin America at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2005, another CubanAmerican, Kelloggs CEO Carlos Gutierrez, was confirmed as Commerce Secretary. Further affirmation of the hard-line came with the appointments of Roger Noriega, senior professional staff member for the House International Relations Committee (1994-97), as ambassador to the Organization of American States (he later became Assistant Secretary of State when Senate liberals blocked Reich’s confirmation), and Dan Fisk, drafter of the Helms-Burton Act, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central America, public diplomacy and Cuba.
