White House nominates envoy to OAS

herald.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2003 BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER aoppenheimer@herald.com

President Bush announced Tuesday that he will nominate White House Latin American advisor John F. Maisto as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States as part of a reshuffling of his Western Hemisphere policy team.

The announcement came after the nomination Monday of current OAS Ambassador Roger Noriega to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, the top job overseeing U.S. ambassadors in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. Both jobs require congressional approval.

Noriega, a grandson of Mexican immigrants who made his name in Latin American affairs as a staffer for conservative former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C, has played a key role in defining U.S. policy at the OAS toward Haiti and is considered a hard-liner on Cuban affairs.

According to well-placed administration officials, Maisto, who reports to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, will be replaced by Tom Shannon, a career diplomat who currently serves as deputy assistant secretary of state for Andean Affairs, a job that also oversees all Caribbean countries except Cuba.

In the new setup, Noriega and Shannon would be the Bush administration's top policy-makers for the region, alongside special envoy for Western Hemisphere initiatives Otto Reich.

''They are excellent choices,'' says Luis Lauredo, a former U.S. ambassador to the OAS. ``Shannon is one of the most brilliant young foreign service officers I've met.''

Maisto is a veteran career officer who has served as U.S. ambassador to Venezuela and Nicaragua and as deputy assistant secretary of state for Central American affairs. He was best known in Venezuela for adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward the government of leftist president Hugo Chávez when much of the opposition was demanding a harder U.S. line.

Shannon, who has served with the State Department for the past two decades, was posted in Venezuela, South Africa, Guatemala and Brazil, and served as deputy ambassador to the OAS during the Clinton Administration. He was heavily involved in drafting the Inter-American Democracy Charter, his colleagues say.