BY CAROL ROSENBERG

 President Bush Thursday chose Cuban-American Otto J. Reich to be the State Department's top diplomat for Latin America -- an appointment
 that could resurrect the 1980s partisan divisions in Congress over U.S. policy in Central America.

 White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced Bush's choice of Reich to the key post of Assistant Secretary of State for Western
 Hemisphere Affairs amid nine administration nominations.

 Contacted Thursday night, Reich said, ``I know this sounds corny but I feel very privileged and very humbled to have this kind of confidence
 placed in me. It's a very important position, especially with this president, who has made the Western Hemisphere probably his top regional
 priority.''

 Reich said it was too soon to discuss his personal priorities for the job.

 ``I cannot take the confirmation process for granted,'' he explained. ``It's the one thing I've got to start focusing on right now.''

 His confirmation may face pitfalls. Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and Chris Dodd of Connecticut already have expressed
 doubts about Reich, who was Ronald Reagan's 1986-89 ambassador to Venezuela.

 At issue: Before he went to Caracas, Reich, 55, ran the State Department's now defunct Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the
 Caribbean from its inception in June 1983 until January 1986. His role was to rally the U.S. public behind the Reagan-backed Contras'
 opposition to Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government.

 A General Accounting Office report issued in October of 1987 said the office headed by Reich carried out an illegal propaganda operation by
 secretly planting news stories and opinion articles in U.S. media designed to rally support for the administration policy in Central America.

 DENIED WRONGDOING

 Reich has denied any wrongdoing. He said in 1987 that his office was ``one of the most open operations'' at the State Department.

 But Kerry said in a statement Thursday: ``Otto Reich's nomination raises a number of questions which need to be thoughtfully examined
 because of revelations that his office may have been the genesis of acts of propaganda not just prohibited in this country, but which reflect a
 kind of carelessness about the truth.''

 Kerry spokesman David Wade predicted ``tough questions'' from both his boss and Dodd, who declared himself ``disappointed.''

 Dodd said he was ``deeply concerned with Mr. Reich's ability to maintain bipartisan support and trust for U.S. policy with regard to Colombia
 and other important hemispheric issues.''

 ``I would hope the president would rethink this particular nomination,'' he added.

 Both Dodd and Kerry are members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which must first review the appointment before sending
 it to the floor.

 Marc Thiessen, a spokesman for Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., predicted for Reich: ``He's going to get through the committee
 and he's going to get confirmed.'' He called him ``one of the most qualified people ever nominated for this position.''

 Helms had previously used his chairman's prerogative to block President Clinton's last choice for the same post, Peter Romero.

 A Republican staffer on Capitol Hill predicted that, because the White House had floated Reich's name for more than a month, the Bush
 administration had calculated that opposition to the appointment would be either token or easily overcome.

 ``This would be a fight with the administration, not with Otto,'' said the staffer. ``If they want to refight Iran-Contra I don't think that will stick on
 Otto. He's not mentioned, by the way, in the Iran-Contra report.''

 Another issue that Democrats had been protesting, he said, was the fact that Reich was Reagan's ambassador to Caracas when Miami's
 Orlando Bosch was released from a Venezuelan jail.

 Bosch, now 74, was held in a Venezuelan jail for 11 years on charges of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that
 killed all 73 people on board.

 He was released in 1988 after 11 years without conviction or acquittal and arrived in Miami, where lawyers were able to secure his residency.

 But Reich has said that cables on file at the State Department reflect that he had no role in the release, and ``was very angry'' at the time because the release was done
 without his knowledge, the GOP staffer said.

 GRAHAM SUPPORT

 For his part, Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham ``is very supportive of the Reich nomination,'' said spokeswoman Caren Benjamin.

 Graham is not a member of the Foreign Relations committee, but junior Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, also a Democrat, does have a seat there and has no position yet, said
 spokesman Dan McLaughlin.

 ``He wants to take a close look at his record and resume and qualifications for the office,'' he said.

 Both of Miami's Republican members of Congress support him.

 Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart who had championed Reich, called him ``a brilliant choice'' who ``will make all Americans proud.''

 Otto Juan Reich was born in Havana on Oct. 16, 1945, and came to the United States in 1960. He was a U.S. Army civil affairs officer in Panama from 1967 to 1969.

 A community development coordinator for the City of Miami in 1975 and 1976, he has been an associate at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies
 and worked for U.S. AID in Washington.

 He is now president of RMA International, a lobbying firm which reportedly successfully lobbied for January's sale of F-16 fighters to Chile.

 He also lobbied in recent years for Bacardi Martini Inc.

 Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Republicans were ready for opposition ``from the liberals who are still fighting the Iran-Contra war and who have not forgiven any of the
 conservative Reaganites and believers in democracy and liberty.''

 She called Reich ``a man of integrity and a man of principle,'' saying, ``If there were justice, Ambassador Reich's nomination should sail through the Senate. But some of
 the Democrat liberal hacks might have an ax to grind from the old contra war and because of his strong position in favor of the U.S. embargo on Castro.''

                                    © 2001