Posted on 01/26/2002 3:24:52 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The Bush administration has appointed a Cuban-American Army colonel from Miami to handle the Cuba portfolio at the White House's National Security Council, the second Cuba native to be put at the helm of U.S. policy toward the island.
Emilio Gonzalez, NSC Western Hemisphere director for the Caribbean and Central America, and Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, now handle the day-to-day development of policy on Cuba.
Gonzalez, 45, was appointed Jan. 7 as one of five regional directors under NSC senior Western affairs director John Maisto, a State Department veteran who has served as ambassador to Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Accustomed to working behind the scenes as a top aide to the last two commanders of the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, Gonzalez declined comment for this article.
Gonzalez joined Reich and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez, former chairman of the Orange County government, as Cuban Americans serving in prominent positions within the Bush administration.
Friends praised Gonzalez as a soldier-intellectual with extensive knowledge of the region under his supervision and a good sense of the tortured U.S.-Cuba relations that have existed since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.
``Emilio is a very intelligent and patriotic military officer, up to speed on issues of the Western Hemisphere and national security,'' said Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican. ``Ambassador Maisto made a wise choice.''
Jaime Suchlicki, the University of Miami professor who supervised Gonzalez's doctoral thesis, called him ``a very, very bright, very disciplined, very organized guy.''
Gonzalez's family left Havana in 1961 when he was 4 years old and settled in Tampa, where he graduated from Tampa Catholic High School and later the University of South Florida.
He earned a master's degree from Tulane University in 1986, studied at the Navy War College in 1994 and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 1997, writing his thesis on civilian-military relations in El Salvador during and after its civil war in the 1980s.
Gonzalez served as assistant U.S. Army attache at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador in the early 1980s, when Marxist guerrillas were waging a bloody battle to topple the authoritarian government.
After finishing his Ph.D., he taught Latin American studies and Spanish for one year at West Point and later became Army special assistant to SouthCom commander Gen. Charles Wilhelm. He stayed on when Gen. Peter Pace replaced Wilhelm in September 2000.
He last served at the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command as director of Pace's special-assistance office, his ``kitchen cabinet,'' until Pace was promoted to vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
``Emilio's expertise in this area is superior, and the NSC team will benefit greatly from it,'' Pace said. ``I always found his counsel and advice invaluable.''
Asked for his photograph, a SouthCom spokesman said Gonzalez's file did not include one ``for security reasons.'' The colonel often acted as an advance man for Wilhelm and Pace in sensitive countries.
Gonzalez's wife, Gloria, is a preschool teacher and their two daughters are studying in Miami. One is a high school senior and the other is a freshman at Florida International University.
Yes!
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