Tampa’s Frank Sanchez, as we know, is President Obama’s nominee as undersecretary of commerce for international trade. Two years ago, Sanchez was a key cog in the Barack Obama campaign – both as a fundraiser and as an adviser on Latin American issues. Now, pending confirmation, Sanchez, 49, will be an administration insider with some clout.
Back in 2007, Sanchez and I sat down to discuss a range of positions that then-candidate Obama was formulating. A few excerpts:
*Trade: “Obama’s hardly for reversing globalization, but he doesn’t want to give lip service to labor issues and environmental concerns.”
*Latin America: “For starters, we need to re-engage with Latin America. Brazil and Chile come readily to mind. For the last six years we’ve ignored Latin America – much to our detriment.”
*Cuba: Sanchez underscored candidate Obama’s priority of reversing the travel-and-remittance restrictions on the estimated 1.5 million Cuban-Americans living in the U.S. Indeed, President Obama has already ordered that be done.
As to the (then 45-year-old) economic embargo, Sanchez said Obama was not inclined to rush into any bold initiatives – preferring to use the embargo as “leverage” for changes on the island. The operative word was “incremental,” emphasized Sanchez. Do not, he stressed, expect a diplomatic stroke that would geopolitically “turn on a dime.”