Cuba is always good political fodder in Miami. It’s downright gold at campaign time.
And the SOS Cuba movement could not have come at a better moment for some 305 and Florida politicians who are squeezing it for all it’s voter value.
The city of Miami is the latest to join a mess of other municipalities in denouncing the Cuban government’s crackdown on peaceful protests and urging the U.S. government to step in, one way or another to help the Cuban people who are clamoring for freedom. Most of these resolutions call for more sanctions, humanitarian aide, restored and expanded internet and the release of detained protesters — the newest Cuban political prisoners.
Mayor Francis Suarez said in a press conference Thursday that even military intervention should not be off the table.
But, then, he’s up for re-election this year and that message resonates with his voter base.
That’s why he interrupted public comments at the city commission meeting to have a quick and easy press conference so he and the commissioners could pat themselves on the back.
Baby X also also pouted because President Joe Biden hadn’t called him yet to, oh, I don’t know, get advise about what to do? Because Baby X is now an international relations expert? Maybe if it was about bitcoin.
“The first thing I would tell him is to come here,” Suarez said in the hastily called press conference. “He has to speak strongly, to show America’s might, to put some fear in some of these generals who are acting with no fear.”
That’s really just playing into their hands.
If Biden were to call Suarez, the first thing he should tell him is to put international pressure on the rest of the world to isolate Cuba, to send the very clear message that beating and disappearing demonstrators is not okay. He should tell him not to soften sanctions and to keep treating regime collaborators like the war criminals that they are. He should not be telling him to come to Miami for a photo op that he can then use in mailings to Democrat voters in Miami this fall.
How does that help the 500 or so protesters and activists who were arrested by Cuban police on July 11 and are still being held?
Know more: Another open letter to Cuban-Americans — sans biz interests
This is a hard column to write because I am wholly and completely on the side of the Cubans opposing the government on the island and their just demand for freedom from the crippling repression they have endured for 62 years, repression that has forced hundreds of thousands of Cubans, perhaps millions, to flee their homeland, even if it costs some of them their lives. I want to do everything I can to support the SOS Cuba movement and am excited about this being finally the time — no, really, this is the one, right?– que ya viene llegando.
No wonder every politician quiere ser protagonista of the momentous event.
Urging legislation, which everybody knows is symbolic but otherwise mostly useless, is good. Ladra believes in messaging. The more of these resolutions the better. But politicians have to stop patting themselves on the back for it. Because you’re not special. I mean, these are unanimously passed — even Democrats say aye (told ya) — because who in Miami-Dade would vote against the Cuban people and in defense of the corrupt regime?
These should be on the consent agenda y ya. No grandstanding. Because the political posturing is getting pesado. In the case of some, like Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, it’s downright hypocritical (more on that later).
It’s very obvious campaigning. This historic moment for Cubans couldn’t have come at a better time for them. Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who is running for mayor in Hialeah after losing the county mayoral race last year, got pole position front and center at the Hannity Rubio DeSantis show Wednesday. That’s a campaign picture for sure.
Expect to be hearing about all these fulanos‘ heroic SOS Cuba efforts through next November.
Ese show at Versailles Wednesday by Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis — two more politicians with competitive elections ahead — does absolutely nothing to further the Cuban people’s cause in Cuba. It’s all U.S.-side political propaganda from politicians who have sung and dance this song and dance before. Isn’t anybody else tired of it?
Know more: As freed Cuban political prisoner faces eviction, where’s Sen. Marco Rubio?
They use us. It doesn’t matter if they are Republican or Democrat. Politicians have historically used the Cuban exile. They used us before, during and after the Bay of Pigs. They used us after Cuban gunboats rammed and sank the 13 de marzo, intentionally drowning 41 Cubans trying to flee the country on the vessel in 1994. They used us during the balsero crisis that year as they held thousands of men, women and children in Guantanamo detention camps. They used us with Elian. They used us after the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown where four Americans were murdered by Cuban Air Force pilots in international waters.
These politicians say they are trying to keep the Cuban opposition in the news. That’s BS. They’re trying to put themselves in the news and actually taking airtime and space away from the activists who don’t have a ballot agenda.
Electeds can just quietly, as a matter of official capacity, help these activists and local organizations that have worked to help the opposition in Cuba even when it’s not an election year. They can offer logistical support and facilities to mount a humanitarian effort the Cuban government can’t refuse without losing credibility with their sympathizers around the world. They can call members of Congress — not ours, that would be preaching to the choir, but the ones who are on the wrong side of Cuba. They can have their phone banks call voters in other states, where Americans think the Cuban government and Che Guevara t-shirts are cool, to tell them the truth about jailed dissidents and the lack of freedoms.
But they could do all this without having a press conference about it.
SOS Cuba needs bipartisan support — but not the political grandstanding added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
