“¡Cobarde! ¡Mudo!”
Coward! Voiceless! These are the names the narrator calls Congressman Carlos Gimenez in a video released Thursday that shames the former Miami-Dade mayor for his silence and complicity on Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including the rollback of protected status for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, many of whom live in his community.
“Where is Carlos Gimenez hiding? Trump is stripping 500,000 cubanos, nicaraguenses y venezolanos of legal status, sending them back to hell,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, which is viewable on YouTube.
“Nuestros compatriotas are stranded in tyranny and dictatorship and this monster is killing millions that fund charities and people that would have helped them,” the narrator says, in very cubanaso language, referring to the U.S. Agency for International Development. “He even blew up Radio and TV Marti.”
Read related: Downtown Miami protest planned Saturday vs Donald Trump policies
Ladra can’t help but wonder if Gimenez and the other Cuban-American legislators are proud that Trump was able to do something that Fidel Castro tried desperately for decades to do but could not — end Radio and TV Marti.
“And all this time Carlos Gimenez has stayed silent. Coward! Mute! Betraying us all,” the man in the video says.
Well, not entirely silent. Gimenez was on WPLG Local 10’s This Week in South Florida last month and admitted to Glenna Milberg that he was not “entirely sure” what Trump’s cuts mean for TV Marti and Radio Marti. While Democrat Congresswoman and non-Cuban Debbie Wasserman-Schultz blasted the end of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Gimenez seemed to stand by Trump’s decision, while still promising to do something — in the future.
“I think it has to be evaluated and each agency head is going to do that. The people may be placed on administrative leave for a while, but you can be certain the the three republican members from South Florida will be fighting to maintain effective broadcasting to Cuba,” Gimenez said on the popular Sunday morning show. “There may have been some doubts about the effectiveness of TV Martí and Radio Martí recently during the Biden administration. We want to make sure that if it is reconstituted and it continues, that it’s effective.”
What? So Biden is being criticized now for the way the OCB communicated during the last four years? Can you imagine what would happen if Biden or another Democrat had called for the end of Radio and TV Martí? Protests that paralyze the expressways and shouts of  “¡Communista!” on Cuban radio. That’s what would happen.
The video ends with a call to action and the display of the congressman’s district office phone number. “Call Carlos Gimenez and tell him to man up to Trump.”
That number, by the way, is 305-222-0160.
The ad is sponsored by Keep Them Honest, Inc., a group that has formed to call out these liars and hypocrites. There is no political action committee or information on the Florida Division of Corporations website. And their address in Kendall is of a shared workspace office. This is their first video.

Cubanos Con Biden co-founder Chris Wills, who also worked with former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey in his congressional campaign last year, told Political Cortadito there would be more.
“As somebody who was born and raised in South Florida, the son of a Cuban exile mom and a Venezuelan exile dad, I’m hearing from my own family, my neighbors, my friends that not only is there an incredible amount of fear over this mass deportation and taking away of legal status from those who have fled dictatorships, but increasingly there is a lot more disappointment and feeling of betrayal from Carlos Gimenez,” Wills said.
He said Gimenez and his counterparts on the Miami-Dade delegation have the power, because they represent three Republican votes, to force the administration to change its position on temporary protected status, which was revoked last month for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
“If the three of them would unite and hold their votes, it would stop the Trump agenda in its tracks, until he resolves TPS,” Wills told Ladra.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
Gimenez and Congress Members Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a true hypocrite who has gone against everything he used to stand for, were also targets of a billboard off the Palmetto Expressway — right smack between Hialeah and Doral — paid for by the Miami-Dade Hispanic Democratic Caucus calling them traitors to the community and the American Dream.
While Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava demand tours of the Krome Detention Center, where there are reports of overcrowded chaos and unsafe and unsanitary conditions, these Cuban-American politicians — who pander to the Venezuelan and Colombian vote, also — have not. Emails to his spokesman, Roberto Lugones, have gone unanswered. Constituent Services Director Beatriz Viera, reached at the congressional district office Friday morning, said she did not know anything about a tour but assured Ladra that Gimenez was “working very closely with the administration.”
So, then, he’s not just silent. Gimenez is complicit.

Viera, who was only in the office to receive the submissions for a congressional art contest, downplayed any criticism, saying that there were many people who supported how Gimenez was handling the current administration.
“That sign is irrelevant,” she said about the billboard. “That’s the party that’s against him.”
Wills said that Gimenez an the others “have refused to actually take any meaningful action to help those immigrants and families who are living with monumental fear.” He added that business owners are also feeling the pinch as fewer people fill restaurants and retail stores, staying home instead to avoid the authorities. He’s also noticed an increase in police presence, even before Doral and Homestead became the latest cities in Miami-Dade to sign 287g agreements with the federal government to help the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department in the identification and detention of illegal immigrants (more on that later).
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
“This is not the America that Carlos Gimenez, Maria Elvira Salazar, Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart were brought to or raised in, to believe that we all should be hopeful of achieving the American Dream,” Wills said. “We have an immigrant community that is living the American nightmare.”
Where is Carlos Gimenez hiding? Behind a bill he has proposed to create a federal task force to focus on security for the upcoming major intentional events coming to the U.S. over the next four years — including the FIFA World Cup, some of which will be played in South Florida, America’s 250th birthday celebrations next year, and the 2028 Olympics. He’s hiding behind a call to end travel and remittances to Cuban families on the island prison from Cuban families in the U.S. (mostly in Miami). He’s hiding behind a petition to the Department of Homeland Security to deport Cuban nationals he believes to be regime agents. While Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen visits the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, to make sure that Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a man married to a U.S. citizen with U.S.-born children who the Trump administration admits was deported in error and ordered returned by a federal judge — hasn’t yet been killed, Gimenez is hiding in Guantanamo on a trip to check out the concentration camps where Trump had planned to send illegal immigrants.
He couldn’t help but take a selfie, ’cause he was in Cuba for the first time in 64 years.
Gimenez is just too busy to stand up for his community, right?
Ladra stands up for our community. Please help Political Cortadito keep shining a light on our local politicians and their shortcoming with a contribution to independent, watchdog government journalism.  And thank you for your support!

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It’s not just about immigration and national security. It’s not just about veteran’s rights and climate change. It’s not just about education and the raiding of treasury records and the tariff wars that are going to raise consumer prices and the manipulation of the stock market and the tanking the global economy for personal gain and the marginalization of the LGBTQ community.
It’s about all of it.
A protest planned for this Saturday in downtown Miami is described as being more like a “full-scale mobilization” against “the
billionaire takeover” and all things Trump/Musk. “Because this administration has betrayed us on all fronts,” an email flyer says. “They want us silent? We’re showing up with pots, pans, and purpose.”
Pots and pans! ¡Ya tu sabes!
Read related: Palmetto Xway billboard compares Donald Trump to Cuba’s Fidel Castro
The event is being promoted by the 50501 organization — which stands for “50 protests, 50 states one movement” — that also helped organize the national Hands Off! protests April 5 that saw hundreds of thousands of people show up in Washington, D.C, New York, Los Angeles, Utah and everywhere — with some very creative signs.
According to Newsweek, the group has posted on social media that the goal is to get 3.5 percent of the U.S. population — which would be more than 11 million individuals — to the different protests nationwide. This is apparently the threshold for “sustained resistance in order to make a difference,” the magazine article reported.
Among the speakers slated to be at the Miami event is United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats, a onetime candidate for lieutenant governor, who will speak on behalf of teachers, parents and students. She said that it is important for people to know what it really means to lose the federal Department of Education for special needs and economically disadvantaged students. The real ramifications, she said, are shuttered programs and kids left out.
“It’s important that our people mobilize,” Hernandez-Mats told Political Cortadito. “It’s not going to slow down. It’s going to keep up ramping up.
“Countries that are successful against authoritarianism are countries that have under representation, but also big movements.”
She said the goal is to encourage congressional leaders to take action.
“These fascist, authoritarian attacks are unprecedented and we’re hoping Congress takes back its power.”

There will also be “action stations” to engage voters:

Indivisible Miami Action Team will help you start organizing in your own backyard—because change begins at the block level.
50501 Florida is setting up a mobile call center—with scripts and info ready—so we can flood our Congressman’s office with calls. Just show up, sit down, and dial in.
@Moms4Libros and @ehrforce will register voters, help them make vote-by-mail requests, and recruit poll watchers to “defend democracy at the ballot box.”

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It’s been 19 days. Less than three weeks ago, President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, the de facto leader of the free world. But it seems like it’s been several months already. Maybe a year.
Ladra is exhausted. Numb. Scared. Angry. Dumbfounded. All at the same time. People are calling it emotional whiplash.
It’s weird that it keeps getting worse, even though you think it can’t get worse.
It couldn’t get worse than calling it the Gulf of America. Then it couldn’t get worse than approving immigration raids at schools and churches and hospitals. Then it couldn’t get worse when he rescind the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Then it couldn’t get worse than the dumbest trade war in U.S. history, maybe world history. Then it couldn’t get worse than calling Canada a potential 51st state of the union. Then it couldn’t get worse than abolishing the Department of Education. Then it couldn’t get worse than proposing we “own” Gaza and redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” as if it were some real estate deal.
Then, Thursday, Russell Vought, co-author of Project 2025 — remember when Trump said he knew nothing about it? — was confirmed as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which often goes under the radar but can be key in implementing Project 2025, er, the president’s agenda. As has become the norm, it was a totally partisan vote.
“Confirming the most radical nominee, who has the most extreme agenda, to the most important agency in Washington,” is what Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it in a floor speech. “Triple-header of disaster for hardworking Americans.”
It shouldn’t be surprising anymore and to some degree, it’s not. People have Trump fatigue. Our news alerts have never come in so fast and furious. Mental health experts are urging us to shut off notifications.
“Trump officials eye daily migrant detainee flights to Guantanamo Bay.”
“Illinois locked in legal battles with Trump administration over immigration policy.”
“Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Cout for investigating Israel.”
“Trump’s tariffs will raise the roof on home prices.”
“How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid.”
“Miami-Dade teacher with DACA faces deportation after being detained by Ice.”
That’s just a small sampling over a 24-hour period.
The last one is about a middle school science teacher in Miami-Dade, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, otherwise known as a DREAMer (someone brought to the country as a child), who had gone to a regularly scheduled immigration hearing, which is the process to legalize one’s status. This is someone who was raised here, educated here and certified here to teach our children. In other words, not a criminal.
Miami-Dade Public Schools, preparing for the impending raids, saying that student information is protected and that immigration officials can only enter a school campus if they have a judicial warrant.
This rapid fire of changes and information is a strategy, folks. They call it “flood the zone” and it is meant to overwhelm the media and public opinion so they can sneak shit in.
Did anybody catch the fact that Trump signed an executive order Tuesday pulling out of the United Nations Human Rights Council? Probably not. But it makes sense. He’s violating human rights right here in America, so why be a hypocrite?
Did you know that hours after her confirmation, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “weaponization working group” to review all the cases against Trump? Let’s call it a political retaliation group because that’s what it is.
And while we were busy reeling at the crazy confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, nobody paid attention to the fact that employees at the new Elon Musk DOGE department were told to stop using a team communication platform called Slack at work until they can transition to a different platform that is “not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.” They don’t want anyone to know what they’re up to.
That’s the whole philosophy behind this “flood the zone” rapid fire strategy: Get people so confused and exhausted that they can’t really see the big picture. But we have to resist. We must stay vigilant.
Drink more coffee. Take your vitamins. Do whatever you have to do to stay on top of the Trump administration and its efforts to dismantle our democracy.
It’s only been 19 days. We have 1,442 days to go. At least.
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Florida State Rep. and House Speaker Daniel “Danny” Perez attended some of the inauguration festivities in Washington D.C. last month, as did many other South Florida electeds who were there. But Perez flew to DC in a private jet with fundraiser Brian Goldmeier and several political influencers, including John Ruiz, the University of Miami booster who wanted to build a stadium at Tropical Park and who is under federal investigation for fraud.
Perez would not comment on the flight and refused to answer any questions about the passengers and whether or not he was provided the air transportation via an in-kind donation or gift. He referred all inquiries from Political Cortadito to his deputy chief of staff, Amelia Angleton, who also did not return phone calls and text messages. Ladra has given her lots of time told Ladra Friday morning that the Speaker paid for his flight. She said that “there was no legislative business” on the trip so the office has no further information on who was paid and how much. It was a personal flight and he paid personally, she told Political Cortadito.
Maybe Perez has been too busy fighting with Gov. Ron DeSantis on the immigration bill that is likely to be vetoed. Perez, who didn’t even agree with having a special session, went on Jim DeFede’s Facing South Florida show last weekend to defend the bill that the legislature passed to “disincentivize” illegal immigration and blast DeSantis and his own version of the bill, which was rejected.

“The problem is he has two years left and unfortunately he is trying to stay in a place of relevance,” Perez said about DeSantis, reminding viewers that DeSantis lost in the primary to Donald Trump, “one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had.
Read related: Rep. Danny Perez enters Miami-Dade politics — as precursor to mayoral run?
“At this point, there’s no time for pride and ego. We just have to find a solution that gets us to the end point, and the governor is getting in the way of stopping illegal immigration in the state of Florida,” Perez said, also blasting the guv’s idea to appoint an immigration czar. “He wants to appoint some bureaucrat inside his office, not elected by the people, so he has all the power.
“This is about Ron DeSantis wanting to be the deporter in chief and the legislature wanting it to be President Trump.”
Perez sounds like he’s still high from the trip to the capitol.
There are rules about accepting gifts that are valued at more than $100 as an elected Florida official. Perez may have would have had to report the flights as a gift if he didn’t pay for it — or if it wasn’t his plane. Ruiz has a private jet, a Boeing. Ladra is still waiting to hear from Angleton who the Speaker paid for the flight and how much it cost.
Ladra doesn’t recognize all the people aboard on the flight, but Ruiz is the guy on the left in gray. He is a University of Miami booster whose Coral Gables based company, LifeWallet, is being investigated by federal authorities, according to the firm’s recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year. It has been characterized as a Ponzi scheme. Federal civil and criminal subpoenas have sought corporate documents about the company’s data analytics as well as its stock price decline, marketing materials and agreements offered to potential investors.
Goldmeier’s wife, LSN Partners Chief Operating Officer Nicole Gomez Goldmeier, was also on the flight, which served as a gender reveal party for their impending parenthood. It’s a boy, by the way. ¡Felicidades!

Also on the private jet ride was Mexican actor and “Catholic” activist Eduardo Varestegui, who is MAGA’s man in Mexico, even though he could not gather the signatures necessary to run for president (he tried).
Varestegui was a member of the boy band Kairo before going solo and embarking on an acting career and then political life.
One of Ladra’s followers on the platform formerly known as Twitter identified the two flanking in front as Sean and Ana Wolfington. Sean Wolfington is a technology entrepreneur with businesses in the automotive, ad-tech and film industries. He is founder and chairman of CarSaver, a mobile auto buying platform that is Walmart’s exclusive partner for auto sales, finance and insurance. The person identifying them said they are good people and probably don’t know how dirty Ruiz is.
But Perez should. He willingly went on this private jet with Ruiz knowing the trouble he’s been in.
And then, he didn’t want to talk about it.
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Healthcare business titan Benjamin Leon Jr.,  who founded Leon Medical Centers and made a fortune off Medicare patients — and who gave more than $3 million in campaign contributions last year — was appointed this week by President Elect Donald Trump as his new ambassador to Spain.
Think of it as a thank you.
More than half of the contributions that Leon made to different candidates and political action committees in 2024 went to help get Trump elected, according to records with the Federal Election Commission. He poured $1.18 million into the Make America Great Again PAC and nosher $928,000 to the president’s Trump 47 Committee. Leon also gave $413,000 to the Republican National Committee and $10,000 each to every state Republican Party — including Guam’s.
He has given to both sides of the aisle, but favors GOP candidates, giving $46,000 to Sen. Rick Scott‘s efforts and more than $13,000 to support Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar. He only have $6,000 to Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Trump wasn’t his first choice in 2016, however, when records show he gave $2.5 million to Sen. Marco Rubio‘s presidential bid.
“Benjamin is a highly successful entrepreneur, equestrian, and philanthropist,” Trump wrote this week on his own personal social media platform, Truth Social. Why does he include equestrian? Are horses the main way of transportation in Spain?
“He came to the U.S. from Communist Cuba at 16-years-old, with only Five Dollars in his pocket, and proceeded to build his company, Leon Medical Centers, into an incredible business,” Trump continued. “He has helped support many worthy causes, like La Liga Contra El Cancer, and important medical research at Johns Hopkins and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Benjamin has also invested in training our future doctors and nurses by supporting Miami Dade College’s Benjamin Leon Jr. School of Nursing and the Benjamin Leon Center for Geriatric Research and Education at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.”
He also recently gave a $10 million gift to FIU for the new home of the school’s CasaCuba, a gathering spot for scholars, artists and activists to discuss Cuba’s past, present and future.
Read related: Kevin Cabrera tapped as Panama ambassador; so who will replace him?
Leon’s net worth is estimated at $500 million, so it’s easy to give back. Especially for naming rights.
He got the thumbs up from several Miami area Republicans (though not Salazar), including Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who posted on his social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Congratulations to my dear friend, Benjamin Leon Jr., a true titan in the healthcare field, who is making a profound difference in the lives of seniors and families in Miami-Dade County.
“As an outstanding member of the exiled Cuban-American community, he consistently gives back, advocating for freedom and standing up for those who are oppressed,” Diaz-Balart wrote. “Benjamin embodies the American dream and is a true patriot who will represent U.S. interests with great honor in Spain.”
Said Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega: “Like my parents, he came to this great country from Cuba in search of freedom and opportunity and has dedicated his life to giving back. His leadership and generosity, exemplified through his transformative support of our Benjamin León School of Nursing, have changed countless lives.” 
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told Trump it was a “great pick,” on his social stream. “I couldn’t be happier for my good friend. Seeing Benjamín become U.S. Ambassador to Spain is a testament to his hard work, big heart, and dedication to helping people.”
How is this 80-year-old equestrian — because he bought a bunch of expensive horses and a stable in central Florida — qualified to be an ambassador? Especially in a country with universal healthcare that doesn’t cost its citizens anything at the point of delivery? Is he going to learn anything to bring home? The U.S. Mission in España is considered a critical European outpost, with a bunch of U.S. agencies working on economic, political, and defense and security matters.
Someone said on X that Leon is just going to shake hands, make introductions and throw flamenco parties. So this is what to expect of our ambassadors?
Those parties better not run too late.
Leon becomes the seventh person from Florida that Trump has named to a cabinet position or ambassdorship. Rubio has been nominated for Secretary of State, longtime campaign chief, Susie Wiles, for chief of staff and former State Attorney General Pam Bondi for U.S. Attorney General after Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, withdrew his name from consideration.
Trump also nominated Kimberly Guilfoyle, his son’s fiancee, to be the ambassador to Greece and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Merino Cabrera, who has also helped on his campaigns, to be the ambassador to Panama.
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It popped up overnight along the Palmetto Expressway in the Miami Lakes area near the Northwest 67th Avenue exit, just north of Hialeah: A billboard comparing former president Donald Trump to the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

“No to dictators — no to Trump,” it says in Spanish, with The Donald and the dead oppressive Communist criminal regime leader facing each other on opposite ends of the giant, bright red sign.

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