U.S. needs a new chief of Latin American affairs

The announced departure of the top U.S. State Department official in charge of Latin American affairs has sparked a debate in Washington D.C. over who should replace him and whether there should be a change in the Obama administration’s policies toward the region.

Arturo Valenzuela, a Chilean-born Georgetown University professor who was confirmed in his job in November 2009 after a long confirmation battle in the U.S. Congress, announced that he will leave his post this summer to return to academia.

A political appointee, he has been the target of strong criticism from Republicans in Congress.

His sudden departure has triggered a debate over whether he should be replaced by a more experienced career diplomat with better chances of quick congressional approval, or by another political appointee closer to the secretary of state and the White House.

Among career diplomats, well-placed congressional and diplomatic sources tell me that there are two well-known envoys whose names are circulating as the top contenders for the job: Ambassadors William Brownfield and Anne W. Patterson.

Brownfield is the head of the State Department’s International Narcotics bureau and was ambassador to Colombia, Venezuela and Chile. Patterson is a former ambassador to Pakistan, Colombia, El Salvador and acting ambassador to the United Nations. In the mid 1990s, she was deputy assistant secretary for Latin American affairs.

But Brownfield took over the State Department’s International Drugs job only four months ago, and leaving now would send a wrong message to the U.S. anti-drug bureaucracy, the sources tell me.

And Patterson is currently playing a key role in U.S. policy toward Egypt and is likely to be appointed ambassador to Egypt, a key U.S. foreign policy priority. It won’t be easy to take them off their current posts, the sources say.

Other career officers who are mentioned are U.S. ambassador to Thailand Christy Kenney, a former ambassador to Ecuador who was also stationed in Argentina and Jamaica; Roberta S. Jacobson, the current No. 2 at Valenzuela’s office, who was the State Department director of Mexican affairs and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Peru and coordinator for Cuban affairs.

Current ambassador to Colombia Michael McKinley is also being talked about, congressional sources say.

Among political appointees, the field is wide open. Two of the top contenders, former White House Latin America advisor Nelson Cunningham and U.S. under secretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez have told friends that they are not interested in the job.

Supporters of the idea of naming a political appointee say that some of the most critical issues in U.S.-Latin American relations such as the pending free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama and other problems that require congressional approval require somebody who knows how to work the U.S. political system.

But others argue that it should be a career officer, in part, because the Obama administration should try to avoid another long political fight with Congress, such as the one it took to get Valenzuela confirmed.

Now that the Republicans have increased their representation in Congress, Senators like Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would make it even more difficult to get a left-of-center Democrat confirmed, they say.