Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban “Stevie” Bovo got his colleagues on county commissioner to approve urging the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit travel to and from Cuba due to the coronavirus cases on the island. They also urged Gov. Ron 
DeSantis to issue an executive order imposing isolation and quarantine on airline travelers to Florida from Cuba.
Maybe Bovo should look closer to home.
In Hialeah, which is in his district, there were dozens if not hundreds of people congregating to get unemployment forms. Most wore masks but they did not practice social distancing. They all talked to each other and touched the same surfaces. According to footage taken and posted on twitter by WPLG-Local 10’s Hatzel Vega, the people were huddled about and not six feet apart by a long shot.
Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez later reported that 2,500 people had picked up forms. He should be held responsible for the next spike. Because Hialeah is already one of the highest incidence locations in Miami-Dade. It’s a “hotspot,” marked in red, according to the Florida Department of Health, which now has a dashboard that can be viewed by zip code. Hialeah has more than 300 confirmed positive cases.
Read related: Miami and Miami-Dade mayor battle again, this time over MIA and COVID19
He might also want to take a look at some of the heavily transited county bus routes that are carrying shoulder to shoulder 
passengers, many to their construction jobs, because builders give a lot of campaign contributions too, so construction sites are considered “essential businesses.”
Bovo last month wrote President Donald Trump and urged him to add Cuba to the list of travel ban countries, so did Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — but neither of them have called for flights from the New York area or other hotspots to be limited.
According to the World Health Organization’s daily reports, there were 288 confirmed COVID-19 cases and six deaths in Cuba as of Sunday. Bovo said you can’t trust their numbers and Ladra agrees. Additionally, he said Cuba already exported the virus.
“At least two passengers on flights originating from Cuba tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling through Miami International Airport,” Bovo said in a statement, and I wonder how much else he knows about who has tested positive. “The risk of the pandemic is far too great to continue allowing travel to and from countries that are not forthright and ill-equipped to detect 
and contain COVID-19.” It’s not enough that Cuba has already stopped all incoming and outgoing international flights, he said.
Read related: Another Carlos Gimenez faux pas on COVID19 — or is he campaigning?
Ladra is not saying we believe Cuba. We can’t. Still, the Cuban caseload is probably not as high as the 74,601 cases and 3,544 deaths reported in New York City alone as of 5 p.m. Tuesday — and Ladra doesn’t hear Bovo supporting Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in his call to have limited passenger travel from international and domestic hotspots.
Gimenez, however, is against it. He told the White House to ignore the Miami mayor’s request. No, I’m not kidding.
See? Banning flights from Cuba is also a good campaign message and we need to remember that both these guys are termed out and campaigning for new seats in the August elections. Gimenez is trying to become a Republican nominee for Congress (using his bully pulpit to campaign) and Bovo is trying to replace him.
They can’t miss this opportunity to pander. But they sure missed an opportunity to lead.
Miami-Dade’s Steve Bovo passes Cuba COVID travel ban, ignores Hialeah added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
