The appearance of Miami’s Max Alvarez, owner of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, at the Republican National Convention Monday was praised by many as one of the most compelling speeches of the night, a striking testimonial from a successful businessman reflective of the Cuban-American success story.
But one important local Republican has called Alvarez a fan and 
enabler of the repressive and authoritarian Nicolas Maduro dictatorship.
Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who last week was elected Republican State Committeeman — an influential position as the county’s representative at the state GOP — has railed for years against Alvarez, who is said to own more than 300 gas stations, including some Citgo stations, which sell gasoline derived from Venezuelan oil.
He put a photo of Alvarez next to one of Maduro and a Citgo logo after a PAC that got $50,000 from Sunshine Gasoline sent out a negative mailer on him in the middle of the 2018 special election for county commission District 5. Diaz de la Portilla was running against Zoraida Barreiro, the wife of former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who had resigned to run (unsuccessfully) for Congress — and Eileen Higgins , who eventually won the runoff after ADLP got cut out in round 1.
Read related: Another shady PAC attacks Zoraida Barreiro in county commission race
“Maximo Alvarez is the ultimate defender against government sanctions on the oil of the drug trafficking dictatorship of Venezuela and, as such, he can continue to enrich himself, selling the gasoline that the dictatorship steals from the Venezuelan people,” read the mailer sent by ADLP’s PAC, Proven Leadership 
for Miami-Dade County. “Maximo Alvarez, the largest distributor of Venezuelan Citgo gasoline through his company, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, is the one who finances the dirty and defamatory campaign against Alex Diaz de la Portilla to help Zoraida Barreiro because he fears the independent voice of Diaz de de la Portilla.”
The independent voice of Diaz de la Portilla declined to be heard in this story. The Dean did not return a phone call or several text messages (his voice mail was full).
As late as August 2017, Diaz de la Portilla’s mailer said, Alvarez said that Doralzuelans and Miami Cuban-Americans were “equivocados” when they boycotted against Venezuelan Citgo stations. It said that Barreiro was “benefiting from the sale of oil stolen from the Venezuelan people” and using it to “defame her opponent.”
But Nelson Diaz, the chairman of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade, says el equivocado is ADLP.
“Max Alvarez is a hero, an anti-socialist and a true conservative,” Diaz said, adding that Alvarez had Citgo stations early in exile and started divesting himself of them after the Hugo Chavez regime took over the South American country. “That’s why Max was at the RNC and Alex was not.”
Diaz said that, as a Cuban-American, it was good to see the exile community represented on the RNC stage.
Read related: In dirty Miami-Dade District 5 race, front runners are both ‘communists’
The GOP chair, who steps down in December after eight years, reminded Ladra that Alex did some 
freelance consulting for several Democrat campaigns, incuding former Florida gubornatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, State Sen. Annette Taddeo and, las malas lenguas say, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is the communist du jour now that baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla is running against her.
While The Dean’s PAC attacks Higgins for Baby DLP in a TV ad where she is called a companera and shown wearing a Che Guevara beret on her head, he also reportedly used the same PAC in 2018 to help la gringa beat Barreiro after he came in third place in the first round. He is a kind of a sore loser like that.
So, naturally, Ladra wanted to know how ADLP likes Max now that he’s tied to a different dictator. The Dean, who couldn’t shut up after his brother came in second in last week’s commission race, hasn’t texted a word about Alvarez Tuesday. He probably wishes he never lashed out to what is now one of Trump’s favorite Cubans.
But facts are stubborn things.
Max Alvarez: GOP success story or enabler of dictators? Ask Miami’s ADLP added by Ladra on
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