Hialeah’s political payback will be exposed

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Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez told me Friday night at the Biltmore Hotel right before the LABA debate that he had no idea Ladra had been barred from the joyful endorsement celebration in Hialeah earlier that day.

Yeah, riiiiight.

I know Ladra is jaded, but, while I never said it was his idea, there is no way Gimenez didn’t know at some point during the event that I was down there because I made it known to everybody around him. I asked him why he didn’t intervene when a Miami Herald reporter asked Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez — who was there with the entire Seguro Que Yes council to endorse the Golden Boy — why he didn’t let me in. “You mean at the end of the press conference? I didn’t know it was you,” Gimenez told me, by way of an apology. I heard that either Christina Veiga or Patricia Mazzei asked about me by name, but the mayor said they asked about some nameless reporter. As if that matters. How could he stand by and let any reporter be barred from entering because Castro Hernandez doesn’t agree with his or her political speech? I don’t need to be treated special. But I don’t want to be mistreated special either. Treat me like everybody else.

Ladra asked him if he had learned how it happened, like he told me he would at the La Carreta on West 16^th Avenue as he blew me off as quickly as he possibly could to go have a cafecito with Carlos Castro. He didn’t say and asked if we could talk about it at another time. Which is like saying what? And then his bodyguard driver, Ralph Garcia-Toledo, told me to stop riling the mayor up before the debate – as if that would be a bad thing. Gimenez could use a little riling up. Garcia-Toledo told me there was a better time and place.

“When? You guys don’t want to talk about this again,” I challenged. The mayor walked away — not rudely, he had to go and I nodded that I knew that — while Garcia-Toledo took over the defense, justifying Hialeah’s blocking of Ladra because it was a Hernandez Hialeah event, not a Gimenez event. I countered that my invitation came in the form of a media advisory from the Gimenez campaign. I showed it to him on my cellphone. So, he took a different route.

“They are the people that represent the people of Hialeah, not you,” he yelled at me. Okay, maybe I raised my voice, too, because I hate it when people lie to me or hem and haw to cover up their lack of moral fortitude. But you were right, Ralph. You were louder. You can outyell me.

Still, that was like an admission, right? Hernandez et al ran the show. They have conditions. Ladra and Fire Union Vice President Eric Johnson and former Hialeah Police Det. Ricky Garcia were not to get into the event. I am sure there were others on that list — a certain sergeant at the police department, a certain Santera looking union leader – but they had the good sense not to show up so they weren’t turned away. Anyway, didn’t Garcia-Toledo sort of just admit that the people who represent the people of Hialeah had that one condition: There is a blacklist and those people don’t get in.

Hialeah Police Commander Luis Lehera said that it was the Gimenez campaign who had given instructions to keep me away. Gimenez and everyone in his campaign staff says an emphatic no way. In fact, they weren’t even aware of the violation of my freedom of speech and Johnson’s civil rights. As an employee being investigated (read: harassed) in what is blatantly political payback for being a vocal critic of the administration and supporting former Mayor Raul Martinez in the last campaign, this incident proves political retribution against him on a grand scale.

Either way, because I want to give the Golden Boy the benefit of the doubt and maybe salvage whatever little trust I have left, Ladra will get to the bottom of it. Or we will, shall I say. Because both Johnson and I have filed public records requests with the city clerk’s office to find out exactly who gave the order to prohibit our entry and how the event was planned. I threw in a request for any list of people who were not to be allowed in, in every form including draft, with the author identified. Just for good measure. I don’t suspect we’ll get it. Hialeah is notoriously bad at complying with Florida public records laws. But I also cc’d Carlos Gimenez, Jr., an attorney who I hope refers me to someone else in the First Amendment field if he can’t help, Gimenez Campaign communications chief Tom Martinelli and the two reporters at the Miami Herald as well as El Nuevo Herald’s Enrique Flor.

If the Hialeah Police Commander says that Gimenez told him to do it, and Gimenez says he did no such thing, this might be worthy of an investigation. Especially since Johnson is being targeted with a bogus investigation (read: harassment and political retaliation) for having supported former Mayor Raul Martinez in the last election. This could be more evidence in his favor. There was no reason to block his entry if he was invited by his friend Gimenez — except that it was “Castro” Hernandez flexing his political muscle. Especially since they let in Fire Union President Mario Pico with no problem and are obviously punishing Slick for something.

“I’m not letting this go,” Johnson told me Friday night. But he’s sort of wearing it like a badge of success – “It’s obvious that we are relevant. We obviously matter enough to have us banned from an event,” he tells me — and sort of laughs about it.

It could take weeks to get to the bottom of this, but I’m not letting it go either.

A friend of mine who sees how hurt I am by my own realization that my former firefighting hero Golden Boy could hang me up to dry suggested that, instead of giving Gimenez any more of my trust and support, I now join forces with Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador. After all, we were both sort of betrayed by this unholy alliance endorsement.

But Ladra can’t do that. I can’t make a deal with someone I thought was the devil yesterday because it might benefit me today. No, siree.

My name ain’t Carlos Gimenez.