In a bid to fill the shoes of Jorge Mas Canosa, President Clinton on Tuesday named Cuban-American labor leader Jose ``Pepe'' Collado to chair the Advisory Board for Cuban Broadcasting, the board that oversees Radio and TV Marti.

Mas was the first and only chairman of the board, which Ronald Reagan created in 1984. His hold on the post symbolized his Washington insider's status that gave him unrivaled influence over U.S. policy toward Cuba as head of the Cuban American National Foundation.

The job has been vacant since his death more than a year ago.

Collado, 52, was by some measures an obvious pick but also a surprising one. Insiders said the new chairman had to be a Cuban American and had to be a Democrat, limiting the pool from which President Clinton could pick. Collado is not known as a political insider, something underscored by his absence from Miami and Washington on Tuesday when the sensitive appointment was announced. Instead he was traveling to New Orleans for meetings with locals of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, of which he is the vice president for the region spanning Texas to Florida and Puerto Rico.

He could not be reached for comment -- and neither could the Foundation, whose members, Washington insiders said, had differed with the White House over the appointment.

Collado's nomination requires confirmation from the Senate. But the prominent Democrat got instant support from South Florida's Republican Cuban-American members of Congress.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen declared herself ``pleased as punch'' to learn of the selection. ``I think he's a great leader, got wonderful solid ideas, both progressive as well as practical,'' she said, adding she was particularly interested in working with him on improving transmissions to Cuba.

`A man of integrity'

``He's got good ties to many Cuban exile organizations as well as every one else in our community,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. ``He's a good leader, a good coalition builder and a nice sweet gentleman. I couldn't think of anyone better.''

Lincoln Diaz-Balart called Collado a friend of more than 20 years, and ``one of the people who I most admire.'' Collado, an active Democrat, is ``a man of integrity, character and true leadership,'' Diaz-Balart said.

The nine-member Washington-based Advisory Board for Cuban Broadcasting has a single staffer, its executive director, and a small budget. It meets several times a year to prepare a report for the president on the problems, successes and progress of the twin broadcasting Martis.

Board members are not paid. They have no statutory authority, contrary to the impression the board created during the Mas Canosa years. The board derives its clout from its association with the president, Washington insiders say, meaning that the director, a government employee appointed by the State Department, takes cues from the chairman.

Citizen since '73

A native of Camagüey, Collado came to the United States at age 15 in October 1961 under the sponsorship of the Pedro Pan Movement. He become a U.S. citizen nearly 12 years later, on the Fourth of July, 1973. He has never returned to the island, friends say.

As a young man, Collado had a hard time breaking into Miami's mostly Anglo building and trades business -- encountering bias that inspired him to become active in union activities, said Florida International University Professor Guillermo Grenier, who heads FIU's Labor Center. Later, Collado worked as a carpenter on several downtown Miami skyscrapers.

His resume -- supplied by the White House -- said he first joined the carpenters union, Miami Local 405, in 1969. It details a long list of local, regional and national union activities. At one point AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland named him to the organization's Labor Committee for a Free Cuba.

Protested inaction

Grenier, who was consulted by the State Department for Collado's background check, said Collado once quit that committee in protest over its do-nothing practices. He described Collado as ``the highest ranking Hispanic'' in the American carpenter's union -- and one of the highest ranking labor movement Hispanics.

``He's not a Washington guy, he has no idea what Washington looks like outside his own union's business. But he's got a very solid, deep base in the working-class community here,'' Grenier said. ``He has a strong base in the community among a large group of working class people. Every Hispanic in the labor movement would know who Pepe Collado is.''

Defended embargo

Collado also has strong Cuban-American credentials and opposes lifting the U.S. embargo of Cuba, said fellow Cuban American Susana Gomez of the AFL-CIO's human and civil rights division in Washington.

``I think Mas Canosa had his own stature and perhaps his own political ambitions,'' Gomez said. ``I don't think Pepe's goal is political. His goal is the reestablishment of democracy in Cuba and the right to organize and the reestablishment of civil and worker rights in Cuba.''

From time to time, at national meetings of Hispanic workers -- mostly left-leaning Chicanos and Puerto Ricans -- Collado has found himself in a room filled with people who oppose the economic embargo of Cuba, said Grenier. Then, singlehandedly through persuasion, he has stopped them from adopting anti-sanctions resolutions.

Collado lives in Westchester and has a wife, two children and two grandchildren.

Clinton also on Tuesday nominated attorney Avis LaVelle, a Democratic party activist from Chicago, to the advisory board.

That leaves seven other openings -- four for Republicans and three for Democrats, under the formula that gives the party of the president majority membership on the board.

Republican recommendations

According to a government official, Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, a Republican, has recommended that the GOP slots be filled by: