Democracy in Miami continues to be an embarrassing example of Cuban democracy

This week we recalled why democracy in Miami keeps failing as a model for democracy in Cuba. It was the shameful complaint from the Miami City Commission – which unfortunately gave people a bigger excuse for hurling the derogatory term “mafia” that helped start the spectacle.

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Most of us have been guilty of recklessly using “mafia” to describe the alpha cohort of an ethnic community, especially when that community is supposedly running the show in our town. The “Irish Mafia” in Chicago, for example – or the “Cuban Mafia” in Miami, as the new police chief Art Acevedo recently reminded us of who runs the Magic City show.

Acevedo, himself a Cuban exile (fled to Miami but grew up in California) apologized for saying it – as he should have. The phrase, especially when used by a senior official, is admittedly more harmful than humorous.

But what’s amazing is that Miami’s mostly Cuban-American city commissioners, led by Joe Carollo, went out of their way during Monday’s special meeting to break out at Acevedo with the kind of erratic, quick-witted behavior that unfortunately has street names like … ” Mafia “.” Or worse, that makes the ghost of Fidel Castro – who liked to call his exile enemies in Miami a “Mafia” – grin like Che Guevara puffing a Cohiba.

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Carollo, nicknamed “Crazy Joe,” and his Cuban counterparts apparently dislike Acevedo’s attempts to reform a Miami police agency that until this year was under federal supervision over the fatal, controversial shootings of black suspects. So they used Acevedo’s “Mafia” comment to exploit a bizarre investigation whose sole purpose was to humiliate the chief and then hit her chest.

The lowlight, of course, was Carollo’s embarrassing, endless showing of a video of Acevedo once doing an Elvis imitation for charity. Crazy Joe kept pointing at Acevedo’s tight pants, insisting that they draw attention to his, um, Huevos in a way that Carollo wept, that should make any Miamian scandalous.

A lot of Cubans have probably heard of this week’s Miami vergüenza – and are wondering: Is this the kind of citizenship we want, what we risk our lives for if we take to the streets here in Cuba?

Miami has been scandalized by its commission instead – and will likely be on Friday when Carollo and his company regroup to attack Acevedo.

But there’s a problem beyond Miami, and it’s been around since politicians like Carollo started running the show here three or four decades ago.

DARK CONFUSION SIGNALS

They declare their tyrannical antics to be divinely permitted – because anything is permitted for Cuban exiled leaders who are committed to the fight against Cuban communism – they have repeatedly set Miami as an example for Cubans in Cuba of how democracy works.

A prime example was the Elián González debacle in 2000. Miami’s then mayor – my goodness, Hermanos, it was Joe Carollo! – turned Miami into The Laughingstock On The Everglades by firing its city manager for refusing to fire the city police chief for refusing to prevent federal agents from ripping 6-year-old Elián from his Miami relatives and him with his Cuban father – the boy’s only living parent.

Alan Diaz

Federal agents seized six-year-old Elian Gonzalez from his relatives’ home in Miami in 2000 to reunite him with his Cuban father.

The people running the show in Miami at the time were disregarding international law – an unsightly exhibit that had not escaped the Cubans I interviewed on the island after the episode. All they knew was that the Miami fiasco made their communist dictator Fidel look absurdly like a human rights-promoting, constitutional hombre by comparison.

So too are the fierce efforts here to prevent the late Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles – whom the FBI viewed as a terrorist – from ever being brought to justice.

And all of this happened before Cubans were wired to social media – and to US and Miami media. Many confirmed to me today that they know more about Miami’s Cuban show, most recently a suggestion from Bitcoin-breathing Mayor Francis Suarez that the US should bomb Cuba in support of this summer’s unprecedented anti-government protests. Every anti-government Cuban I spoke to there describes this as confusing – and a darkly confusing signal about the developed democracy that they are supposed to be striving for.

No doubt many have also heard of the Miami City Commission’s Vergüenza. And many have to ask: is this the kind of citizenship we are asking for, what we are risking our lives for if we march on the streets here?

It is not. But maybe one day, when the Cubans run their own democracy, they will set an example for Miami that doesn’t evoke the M-word.

The post Democracy in Miami continues to be an embarrassing example of Cuban democracy first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/democracy-in-miami-continues-to-be-an-embarrassing-example-of-cuban-democracy/