On October 10 President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Yleem D. S. Poblete of Virginia and a Cuban-American to be an Assistant Secretary of State, Verification and Compliance.[1] The announcement stated the following:
- “Poblete is currently a senior advisor at the Department of State. She has also served more than two decades on the staff of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, including as its chief of staff and staff director – the first Hispanic female to serve in that post. Dr. Poblete is broadly knowledgeable regarding proliferation matters, the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear agreements, sanctions and export controls, security assistance and arms sales. During her service on the Foreign Affairs Committee, she was the principal staff member on initiatives to address threats posed by Iran, North Korea, and Syria. She has been a frequent guest lecturer at the National Intelligence University. She has also been the co-owner of Poblete Analysis Group, a fellow at The Catholic University of America, and a foreign policy analyst for United States Government projects at the Hudson Institute. Dr. Poblete earned a B.A. from Saint Thomas University, an M.A. magna cum laude from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America.”
The announcement, however, failed to say that she was a member of the Trump transition’s National Security Council “landing team,” that as a House committee staffer she helped push for, and enforce, sanctions laws related to Cuba and Iran, and that for nearly 20 years she served as an advisor and House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer for Representative Iliana Ros-Lehtinen, also a Cuban-American and fierce opponent to U.S.-Cuba normalization.[2]
Moreover, as mentioned in a prior post, Dr. Yleen Poblete also co-leads a consulting group, The Poblete Analysis Group, with her husband and fellow Cuban-American, Jason Poblete. She and her husband have written articles critical of President Obama’s pursuit of normalization with Cuba. They argued that Cuba was a ‘state sponsor of terrorism,” a designation rescinded by the State Department in May 2015;that the re-opening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C. increased the risk of Cuban spying on the U.S.; and that Cuba was a “pariah state [that] has earned every punitive measure imposed by the U.S.;” it “helped create and grow the Western Hemisphere drugs for arms network;” its “[h]ostile acts carried out by Havana’s spy recruits in the U.S. government are linked to American deaths;” it “also continues to collaborate with fellow rogues such as Iran;” it “harbors terrorists, as well as murderers and other dangerous fugitives of U.S. justice.”
After the death of Fidel Castro last November she tweeted, “Lost in talk of #castrodeath is #cuba regime murder of Americans, safe haven 4 terrorists & US fugitives, #Iran ties, arms to #NorthKorea.”[3]
Conclusion
Given President Trump’s negative comments and actions against U.S.-Cuba normalization and his inclusion of Dr. Yleem Poblete on the transition team and as a senior advisor at the State Department, the intent to nominate her to a higher position at the Department should not be surprising.
As Assistant Secretary. Dr. Poblete will be in charge of the Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, whose “core missions . . . concern arms control, verification, and compliance with international arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements or commitments.” Thus, it would not appear that this involves Cuba.[4]
Nevertheless, those of us Americans who support full normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, this intended appointment is one to keep our eyes on.
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[1] White House, President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts (Oct. 10, 2017); Trump nominates Cuban-American Yleem Poblete as Under-Secretary of State (Oct. 10, 2017).
[2] Kasperowicz, Former House Foreign Affairs chief of staff named to Trump’s NSC landing team, Wash. Examiner (Dec. 1, 2016); Press Release, Ros-Lehtinen Congratulates Her Former Foreign Affairs Committee Chief of Staff Dr. Yleen Poblete On Her Nomination for Assistant Secretary of State (Oct. 11, 2017)
[3] Cuban-American Trump Transition Team to National Security Council, News Marti (Dec. 1, 2016); Dr. Yleem Poblete, The Poblete Analysis Group; Poblete & Poblete, Yes, Cuba is a State Sponsor of Terrorism, Nat’l Review (Jan. 6, 2015); Poblete & Poblete, The U.S.-Cuba Deal Heightens the Spy Threat, W.S.J. (Jan 12, 2015) 2015); Poblete & Poblete, U.S. Cuba policy: Myth v. reality, The Hill (Jan. 26, 2015); A [fourth] Cuban American . . . joins Trump’s transition team, Diario de Cuba (Dec. 6, 2016); Secretary—John Barsa, Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Virginia; Prieto, The Mark of the Zorro; Cuban Americans in Trump’s Team, OnCuba (Dec. 15, 2016).
[4] U.S. State Dep’t, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance (AVC). https://www.state.gov/t/avc/
