Otto Reich
Encyclopedia
Otto Juan Reich a Cuba
n-American
, is former senior official in the administrations of Presidents
Ronald Reagan
, George H. W. Bush
and George W. Bush
. Among other positions held, he has been the President's Special Envoy for the Western Hemisphere; Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
; United States Ambassador to Venezuela
; and Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development.
Reich was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere in January 2002, and served under a recess appointment
. In 2003, Bush appointed him US Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere. Since leaving the White House in 2004, he has headed his own international consulting firm, Otto Reich Associates, LLC, based in Washington, D.C.
.
mother and an Austria
n-Jewish father, Walter Reich. His father was trying to reach the United States but he remained in Havana
, where he settled down, got married, and sold furniture
. At age 14, Otto Reich left with his family for the US as refugee
s a year and half after Fidel Castro
came to power.
In 1966, Reich received a B.A.
in International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
. From 1967 to 1969, as a paratroop officer, he served as a Civil Affairs officer in the US Army
in the Panama Canal Zone
. He was awarded the US Army's Commendation Medal.
After receiving an M.A.
in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University
in 1973, Reich worked as a staff assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, an international representative for the Florida Department of Commerce, Community Development Coordinator for the City of Miami, and later Washington Director of the Council of the Americas
.
From 1981 to 1983, Reich was Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in charge of US economic assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1991 and 1992, at the request of President George H. W. Bush
, Reich served as Deputy US Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in Geneva
.
. The OPD declassified Central Intelligence Agency
information and disseminated it to influence public opinion and spur Congress to continue to fund the Reagan
administration's campaign against Nicaragua
's Sandinista government. The OPD was highly controversial and was criticized by numerous government sources, including a staff report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which characterized it as a domestic political and propaganda operation.http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/ In 1987, an investigation by the Comptroller General determined that the OPD engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities, beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities". The OPD also violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.”
. For this service he received the State Department's Superior Honor Award, the Meritorious Service Award and the Republic of Venezuela's Order of the Liberator, the highest honor conferred by that nation. While stationed in Caracas, Reich was said to have been instrumental in the release of terrorist Orlando Bosch
, a Cuban exile
, from jail where he was serving a 10-year sentence for blowing up Cubana de Aviación
Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 while en route from Barbados to Havana. All seventy-three people on board were killed, including many young members of a Cuban fencing team.
During Senate hearings for his appointment to the Bush administration in 2002, Reich was asked, "Do you consider Orlando Bosch
to be a terrorist?", Reich wrote in response: "I do not have sufficient knowledge of Mr Bosch's criminal activities to pass judgment on his legal status." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,646930,00.html
From 1989 to 2001, Reich worked as a corporate advisor to clients such as Bell Atlantic, McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co., AT&T, Bacardi, British American Tobacco, and Lockheed Martin
, which sought to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Chile
. He also reportedly helped draft the Helms-Burton Act
which tightened the Cuban embargo by extendending the territorial application of the initial embargo to apply to foreign companies trading with Cuba.
. On the day Pedro Carmona was installed as president, Otto Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office to express their support and that of the US administration for the new government.
Administration officials acknowledged that U.S. officials, including officials at the Embassy in Caracas, met with opposition leaders throughout this period. Meanwhile, the U.S. government denied encouraging the coup, saying they insisted any change in government must take place through constitutional means. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1933526.stm Because of these allegations, Sen. Christopher Dodd requested a review of US activities leading up to and during the coup attempt. The OIG report found no wrongdoing by US officials either in the State Department or in the US Embassy.
According to a report in The New York Times
, Reich warned Congressional aides there was more at stake in Venezuela than simply the success or failure of Hugo Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically independent state oil company, providing haven to Colombian guerrillas and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces" were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators, in which at least fourteen people were killed.
The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the coup until Chávez had already been restored to power by the Venezuelan military, acting on behalf of a massive popular movement. The majority of Latin American presidents, meeting at a conference in Central America, refused to recognize coup leaders' chosen replacement, Pedro Carmona, pressuring them to promptly undo the coup and reinstate elected president Hugo Chavez to Venezuela's presidential palace, Miraflores - on live TV.
, formerly known as the School of the Americas, a U.S. army institution that, in addition to tactical training and assistance, is alleged by some to have instructed the Latin American military in torture techniques in addition to general interrogation methods. As a member of the board, Reich's job was to review and advise "on areas such as curriculum, academic instruction, and fiscal affairs of the institute."
He also served as vice-chairman of Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP), an employers' organization which monitors the use of sweatshop
s and has been criticized by anti-sweatshop
activists.
From 1998 to 2001, Reich was co-host of CNN International’s “Choque de Opiniones,” a Spanish-language version of CNN’s “Crossfire.” He appears regularly on US and Latin American media.
During the 2008 US Presidential elections, Reich served as a foreign policy adviser to John McCain
.
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
has accused Reich of being the main instigator of the 2009 coup d'état
that removed him from office.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is former senior official in the administrations of Presidents
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Among other positions held, he has been the President's Special Envoy for the Western Hemisphere; Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
The Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs is the head of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs within the United States Department of State, the foreign affairs department of the United States federal government. The Assistant Secretary of State guides operation of the U.S...
; United States Ambassador to Venezuela
United States Ambassador to Venezuela
The following is a list of United States ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Venezuela. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-Ambassadors:...
; and Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development.
Reich was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere in January 2002, and served under a recess appointment
Recess appointment
A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the U.S. Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office, but while the Senate is in...
. In 2003, Bush appointed him US Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere. Since leaving the White House in 2004, he has headed his own international consulting firm, Otto Reich Associates, LLC, based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Early years
Reich was born in Cuba to a Cuban CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
mother and an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-Jewish father, Walter Reich. His father was trying to reach the United States but he remained in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, where he settled down, got married, and sold furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
. At age 14, Otto Reich left with his family for the US as refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s a year and half after Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
came to power.
In 1966, Reich received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
. From 1967 to 1969, as a paratroop officer, he served as a Civil Affairs officer in the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
. He was awarded the US Army's Commendation Medal.
After receiving an M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in 1973, Reich worked as a staff assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, an international representative for the Florida Department of Commerce, Community Development Coordinator for the City of Miami, and later Washington Director of the Council of the Americas
Council of the Americas
Council of the Americas is an American business organization whose goal is promoting free trade, democracy and open markets throughout the Americas. This includes Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as South America. Its members share a common commitment to economic and social development,...
.
From 1981 to 1983, Reich was Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in charge of US economic assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1991 and 1992, at the request of President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, Reich served as Deputy US Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Office of Public Diplomacy
From 1983 to 1986, Reich established and managed the inter-agency Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the CaribbeanOffice of Public Diplomacy
The Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean was an intra-agency propaganda organization established in the United States during the administration of Ronald Reagan...
. The OPD declassified Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
information and disseminated it to influence public opinion and spur Congress to continue to fund the Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
administration's campaign against Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
's Sandinista government. The OPD was highly controversial and was criticized by numerous government sources, including a staff report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which characterized it as a domestic political and propaganda operation.http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/ In 1987, an investigation by the Comptroller General determined that the OPD engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities, beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities". The OPD also violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.”
Ambassadorship and Corporate Career
From 1986 to 1989, Reich served as Ambassador to VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. For this service he received the State Department's Superior Honor Award, the Meritorious Service Award and the Republic of Venezuela's Order of the Liberator, the highest honor conferred by that nation. While stationed in Caracas, Reich was said to have been instrumental in the release of terrorist Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch Ávila was a Cuban exile militant, former Central Intelligence Agency-backed operative, and head of Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called...
, a Cuban exile
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
, from jail where he was serving a 10-year sentence for blowing up Cubana de Aviación
Cubana de Aviación
Cubana de Aviación S.A., commonly known as Cubana, is Cuba's largest airline and flag carrier. The airline was founded on 8 October 1929, and has its corporate headquarters in Havana. Its main base is at José Martí International Airport...
Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 while en route from Barbados to Havana. All seventy-three people on board were killed, including many young members of a Cuban fencing team.
During Senate hearings for his appointment to the Bush administration in 2002, Reich was asked, "Do you consider Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch Ávila was a Cuban exile militant, former Central Intelligence Agency-backed operative, and head of Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called...
to be a terrorist?", Reich wrote in response: "I do not have sufficient knowledge of Mr Bosch's criminal activities to pass judgment on his legal status." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,646930,00.html
From 1989 to 2001, Reich worked as a corporate advisor to clients such as Bell Atlantic, McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co., AT&T, Bacardi, British American Tobacco, and Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, which sought to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. He also reportedly helped draft the Helms-Burton Act
Helms-Burton Act
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 is a United States federal law which strengthens and continues the United States embargo against Cuba...
which tightened the Cuban embargo by extendending the territorial application of the initial embargo to apply to foreign companies trading with Cuba.
2002 Venezuelan coup
Reich held the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the time of the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt on April 11, 2002 against Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
. On the day Pedro Carmona was installed as president, Otto Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office to express their support and that of the US administration for the new government.
Administration officials acknowledged that U.S. officials, including officials at the Embassy in Caracas, met with opposition leaders throughout this period. Meanwhile, the U.S. government denied encouraging the coup, saying they insisted any change in government must take place through constitutional means. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1933526.stm Because of these allegations, Sen. Christopher Dodd requested a review of US activities leading up to and during the coup attempt. The OIG report found no wrongdoing by US officials either in the State Department or in the US Embassy.
According to a report in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Reich warned Congressional aides there was more at stake in Venezuela than simply the success or failure of Hugo Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically independent state oil company, providing haven to Colombian guerrillas and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces" were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators, in which at least fourteen people were killed.
The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the coup until Chávez had already been restored to power by the Venezuelan military, acting on behalf of a massive popular movement. The majority of Latin American presidents, meeting at a conference in Central America, refused to recognize coup leaders' chosen replacement, Pedro Carmona, pressuring them to promptly undo the coup and reinstate elected president Hugo Chavez to Venezuela's presidential palace, Miraflores - on live TV.
Other activities
In 2002, Reich was also nominated to serve on the board of the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security CooperationWestern Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation , formerly the United States Army School of the Americas is a United States Department of Defense educational and training facility at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia in the United States...
, formerly known as the School of the Americas, a U.S. army institution that, in addition to tactical training and assistance, is alleged by some to have instructed the Latin American military in torture techniques in addition to general interrogation methods. As a member of the board, Reich's job was to review and advise "on areas such as curriculum, academic instruction, and fiscal affairs of the institute."
He also served as vice-chairman of Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP), an employers' organization which monitors the use of sweatshop
Sweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
s and has been criticized by anti-sweatshop
Anti-sweatshop
Anti-Sweatshop refers to campaigning movements to improve the conditions of workers in Sweatshops, i.e. manufacturing places characterized by low wages, poor working conditions and often child labor...
activists.
From 1998 to 2001, Reich was co-host of CNN International’s “Choque de Opiniones,” a Spanish-language version of CNN’s “Crossfire.” He appears regularly on US and Latin American media.
During the 2008 US Presidential elections, Reich served as a foreign policy adviser to John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
.
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
Manuel Zelaya
José Manuel Zelaya Rosales is a politician who was President of Honduras from January 27, 2006 until June 28, 2009. The eldest son of a wealthy businessman, he inherited his father's nickname "Mel," and, before entering politics, was involved in his family's logging and timber businesses.Elected...
has accused Reich of being the main instigator of the 2009 coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
that removed him from office.
External links
- Otto Reich Associates, LLC
- Official State Department biography
- Otto Reich Testimony before the House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere May 25, 2005 VIDEO: http://boss.streamos.com/real/hir/34_wh052505.smi
- "Bush Envoy Puts Latin Post, and a Stormy Past, Behind Him", New York Times, June 17, 2004
- "Otto Reich: A Career in Disservice", Council on Hemispheric Affairs, July 13, 2004
- Interviews on YouTube
- State Department OIG report on attempted Venezuelan Coup