Leandro Rizzuto, a name that’s been making the rounds in Washington, D.C., the former Conair executive and Bermuda’s consul, is now the man that the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is touting to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS).
His nomination came in December, a parting gift from President Donald Trump. “Let’s pull back the curtain a bit further,” on Thursday, we saw the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begin the confirmation hearings for Rizzuto.
Rizzuto is seen as a patriot, a proven executive, and a public servant committed to American leadership. So says Greg Sindelar, AFPI’s President and CEO. “In my decades of reporting, I’ve seen this pattern before.” A man with Rizzuto’s international business acumen and diplomatic service, it’s no wonder they believe he possesses the necessary judgment and experience to represent U.S. interests in a region facing substantial challenges.
Joshua Treviño, AFPI’s senior adviser, thinks that Rizzuto is the right man to bring the OAS back to its founding purpose. This comes at a time when U.S. foreign policy in the Americas is at a critical juncture, facing an onslaught of external threats, democratic erosion, and growing influence from adversarial powers like China.
The OAS, if you’re not quite familiar, is the leading multilateral forum in the Western Hemisphere, a gathering of countries from North, South, and Central America, the Caribbean, and Canada. The U.S. Mission on the OAS website states that the organization’s primary objectives are to strengthen peace and security, promote democracy and respect for human rights, ensure peaceful settlement of disputes among members, and seek solutions to political, juridical, and economic problems.
Rizzuto himself, in his opening statement at the hearing, promised that if confirmed, he would approach this role with a clear mission: to advance American interests, defend our values, and ensure that our engagement in our hemisphere is strategic, accountable, and focused on results for the American people.
Is Rizzuto the right man to steer the ship in these stormy seas? Only time will tell, but it’s clear he is steadily on his way.
