[Cincinatus' Wife]

Boston Globe: The fall of Otto Reich*** OTTO J. REICH got a surprise when he returned from Brazil last month: He was no longer assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. The Bush administration moved him to a smaller office because his recess appointment expired when the congressional session ended. But the administration is not signaling its intention to seek Senate approval of his permanent appointment. That's good news for anyone who wants the United States to embark on policies toward Latin American that are devoid of the archaic, reflexive anticommunism of the 1980s.

Reich was shaped by his experiences in the Reagan administration and in Cuba as a boy when Fidel Castro's revolution forced his family into exile. He maintains the hard-line anti-Castroism favored by the Cuban expatriate community in Miami, but elsewhere in the United States many farmers want to sell their products to Cuba, and tourists want to visit the island. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who will become chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee next month, opposes Reich's appointment on the grounds that he lacks the range of experience required for the job. This should be the final blow to his chances. The need for fresh thinking on Latin American policy is evident in Venezuela, where protesters from the more affluent segments of society are attempting to unseat President Hugo Chavez.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba looks to genetic engineering to help save sugar crop ***If successful, Cuba would need much less cane to produce the same amount of sweetener and be able to fetch premium prices - a prospect so promising that Cuba obtained a U.S. patent five years ago on its process of engineering fructose into sugar cane. It's one of about two dozen U.S. patents the Cubans hold, obtained mostly to keep other non-embargoed countries from profiting from their inventions. In the case of fructose sugar cane, Cuba hopes its patent position will give it a commercial edge when it reaches the world market.

Enriquez said he's ready to plant his experiments outdoors - but getting such permission from Cuban regulators is a lengthy process and the fructose sugar cane is years away from supermarket shelves. Enriquez's mission is about more than economics. National pride is at stake. Sugar is still the country's No. 1 export, ahead of nickel and even tobacco, although tourism has replaced sugar as the biggest source of hard currency. The sugar industry employs about 400,000 workers. "This country is very sentimental about sugar," Enriquez said.

Closer to attaining the open field is sugar cane genetically modified to make it more pest resistant. About a dozen of these plants are growing in a greenhouse behind the Havana biotech center, promising to reduce growing expenses by requiring less pesticide. Others at the center are tinkering with sugar cane's genome to make it more resistant to weed killers and disease. Labrada also talks about using sugar cane to fuel electric generators, as a source of ethanol and even as a source for cancer-fighting drugs. But even if the Cuban scientists succeed with their biotechnology projects - Enriquez for one says he's close - they have other hurdles to clear. The European Union, the biggest market currently open to Cuba, has temporarily banned all new imports of genetically modified foods in the face of consumer resistance.***