“¡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?
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Environmental entrepreneur Richard Lamondin Jr. — a Miami native and self-made water conservation businessman — announced Wednesday that he is “considering” a run next year against Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida District 27 after much “encouragement.” This may seem early, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently just put Salazar on its national list of vulnerable GOP-held “Districts in Play” targets in 2026.
What makes Lamondin think he can do any better than former State Sen. Annette Taddeo, who lost to Salazar in 2022 (57% to 43%), or former Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller, who just lost against Salazar by 20 points in the Trump Train November election? Answer: Democratic political consultant extraordinaire Christian Ulvert, who will likely be Lamondin’s campaign manager.
Ulvert authored an optimistic memo this week that highlights recent victories by Democrats across the state and country, results that he says indicate there are opportunities for the Democratic Party.
“April 1st was no April Fool’s Day as election results across the nation showed voters from all parties reject extremism and embrace pragmatic, balanced leadership,” Ulvert wrote.
From a Chicago suburb council turning Democratic majority to the historic victory of Susan Crawford against Elon Musk‘s money in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race to the two special elections in Florida’ 1st and 6th Congressional District , which were both lost to Republicans but marked significant gains in Republican strongholds, Ulvert and other Democrats suggest these results show that flipping the House in 2026 is within reach.
One prominent example was how Gay Valimont, who lost the race for Floridas 1st Congressional District to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (57 to 42, won by three points in Escambia county, which went to Donald Trump by 19 points in November. That’s a 16-point gain. And Trump endorsed Patronis.
“Democrats must seize this moment by recruiting and supporting young, pragmatic candidates who are not afraid to speak up and speak out,” Ulvert said.
And Lamondin, who has been hitting Salazar on the platform formerly known as twitter since late March, might be the perfect example of that.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
The 36-year-old is co-founder and CEO of ecofi, environmental services company dedicated to demonstrating that sustainability is beneficial for business, which he and his brother built from the ground up. The company boasts saving over 10 billion gallons of freshwater and preventing more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions while saving property owners $100 million in utility costs. He started in 2012 with a company called CondoSavers that aimed to reduce the water costs for condominium owners. Basically, they installed efficient toilets.
This evolved into ecofi after he and his brother Lawrence realized that “the high cost of utilities, particularly water & sewer, presented an opportunity to do great things for the environment while benefiting businesses and residents,” Richard Lamondin said in a Medium interview published last summer. “We slimmed down our services. We focused on water conservation…
“Today, we have grown to be much more than just an energy and water conservation company. We are now the sustainability team for the real estate industry, supporting them in whatever they need on their journey,” Richard Lamondin said.
These are good campaign points. It also seems to be a possible source of campaign funding.
Richard Lamondin in a Miami Community News podcast posted on YouTube four years ago.
Another good campaign point is his Italian immigrant wife, Martina Spolini, who is executive director of Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade, a non-profit that helps low-income, vulnerable homeowners, small business owners, and community organizations by providing critical home repair and accessibility modifications at no cost. One of its principal aims is to preserve current affordable housing. The couple have a 3-year-old son.
All of this is campaign gold.
A graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in international relations, Lamondin has been recognized as Endeavor Miami’s Entrepreneur of the Year and named one of South Florida Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He serves on multiple nonprofit boards focused on community development and youth empowerment, including Project Transforming Hope, Engage Miami, and the ADAPT Foundation.
He sounds like a Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appointment.
“As a proud native Miamian and firm believer in the power of our democracy, the promise of the American Dream, and the duty we have to protect one another, I’m grateful for the encouragement to run for Congress,” Lamondin said in a statement. “Our communities are calling for action, not empty political slogans.
“It’s time to focus on making life more affordable, protecting our neighbors, and giving small businesses and working families a real chance to rise. My success didn’t happen overnight. Like many of my neighbors, I have struggled with medical debt and the rising costs of insurance, housing, and childcare,” Lamondin said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.
“In the coming weeks, I’ll be having serious conversations about the issues that truly matter, and how I can use my decade of entrepreneurial experience and community work to better support the people of South Florida. It’s time for new leaders who show up, work hard, stand up for what’s right, and find common ground.”

Salazar has recently come under fire for misrepresenting herself — again — when she took credit and thanked the Trump administration for reversing the suspension of temporary protected status for Venezuelans, who were on the verge of being deported before a federal judge, not the White House, stopped it. The Trump administration has actually appealed.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
The congresswoman, a former journalist who once fawned over Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has a habit of misrepresenting herself. Last year, she took credit for local federal appropriations — even though she had voted against it in Washington.
The daughter of Cuban political exiles, as she likes to remind everyone all the time, and champion of democracy in Latin America has been basically complicit in the Trump administration’s mass deportation of immigrants, wether they are criminals or not. She is one of four Cuban-American Republicans targeted in a billboard campaign funded by the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus and called a “traitor” for her complicity.
And, yet, she will be difficult to beat. Especially by a nobody Johnny Come Lately.
Ulvert doesn’t think so.
“Voters want to see Democrats lead with a bold economic agenda that puts families first, protects every aspect of the American Dream, and advances a foreign policy agenda that truly puts America First by leading with mutual respect, which has been done since our nation was founded nearly 250 years ago,” Ulvert wrote in his memo. “In Miami-Dade, Congressional districts like CD-27 can very much be in play and lead to a competitive environment given that the incumbent congresswoman has carried the district over the last three cycles by an average margin of 12 points.
“Given the numbers we’ve seen over the last two months… Democrats are over-performing by an average of 18 points.”
He says there is just one thing missing: Money.
“Now, it’s up to the national and state parties, along with the party committees to invest swiftly to create the environment Democrats need to win in November,” Ulvert wrote in what sounds like a pitch for his firm to get some Democratic Party money.
“Let’s not wait until the 11th hour to fumble the ball.”
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Once again, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar is trying to take credit for something she didn’t do.
Salazar, who was re-elected last year, was called out when she said she had brought millions in federal dollars to her district and the Miami-Dade area when she actually voted against two federal bills during the Biden administration, including the bipartisan critical infrastructure bill that funded $2.5 million to expand healthcare for seniors and families, $8 million for flooding mitigation along the Miami River and in Little Havana and $3.75 million for police initiatives, among other projects.
She posed for photo ops with big, cardboard checks and then lied about not knowing how she voted on Jim DeFede’s Sunday politics show, Facing South Florida.
This week, Salazar took credit for getting the temporary protective status of Venezuelans extended for 18 months for 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. whose TPS had been rescinded by President Trump.
“¡EXCELENTE NOTICIA,” she exclaimed on the platform formerly know as Twitter with an alert emoji. “@DHSgov and @SecNoem will extend TPS for Venezuelans for 18 more months. I have led this fight and I have been asking for this for MONTHS! Thanks to the administration for doing the right thing.” She signed off with U.S. and Venezuela flag emojis.
Except she didn’t do anything. Supporting the introduction last month of the Venezuelan Adjustment Act (H.R. 1348) that was sponsored by Democrat Congressman Darren Soto may have given legal status and a path to citizenship for some Venezuelan nationals who arrived before on or Dec. 31, 2021. How would this stop the deportations of Venezuelans who were scheduled to lose their protections this coming Monday.
It was a federal judge this past Monday put stop to the deportation, something the Trump administration is appealing.
The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem‘s reversal of those protections “threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”
Chen also said the government failed to provide evidence of “real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries” and that there is a likelihood that the secretary’s actions “are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.”
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar sends campaign mailers from congressional office
So, it wasn’t Salazar, after all. It was Chen and the attorneys who argued in front of him on behalf of the immigrants. In fact, Salazar’s dear friend Noem already filed an emergency appeal.
But Salazar isn’t fooling anyone. Not only is there a “readers added content” note saying the congresswoman is “deliberately lying,” but she also got more than comments on her X post Thursday in less than 12 hours — all calling her a liar and an opportunist.
“But it was the Trump administration who took it away [TPS status], it was a judge that restored them, not DHS. But lady!! Do you live in a parallel universe or are you just acting like a crazy person,” asked one user.
“Si, ella tiene la cara bien dura,” responded someone else, using the Cuban term for being able to lie with a straight face.
“You’ve led this fight? This chic talks shit,” says one comment.
“The last straw is to give yourself credit for solid a problem that your boss is responsible for. Thanks to the judge and all the Venezuelans who made this possible,” says another.

Someone calling himself Juan Fuentes said “Fuera #MariaMentiraSalazar for being a shameless liar and hipócrita with no principles or values. You are afraid of Trump and MAGA and want to fool the victims. The party doesn’t matter. Out with the hypocritical liar.“
Tomás Castellanos said, “Lying comes easy to this woman.”
Carlos Viana wrote that the judge had ordered the TPS extended and that Noem called them “basura,” or garbage. “You supported it and didn’t move one finger. We are not idiots, Maria Elvira. Stop being the ridiculous one.”
Richard Lamondin had harsh words, too: “You had nothing to do with this. This victory was won by the valiant Venezuelans who dared to defy the cruel actions of the government. The silence and absence of Congress are the reason why the courts had to act. Do your job.”
“Thanks to who????!!!!!. Please Representative,” posted someone else, “don’t play with the intelligence of your constituents. It was a JUDGE who decided to maintain the 18 month extension that Secretary Mayorkas gave them under the BIDEN administration.”
“You and your entire Republican gang are scoundrels with no morals whatsoever. TPS for Venezuelans continues because a judge prevented the TPS CANCELLATION issued by Kristi Noem and the Trump administration. YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE,” posted another user.
And it goes on and on and on. Ladra would not be surprised if there are more than 1,000 such comments by morning.
Maybe Salazar wouldn’t have to take credit for doing things she didn’t do if she would actually do something.
The post Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar wants everyone to know what she’s doing in District 27. She says she is working to reduce the cost of living for families, support small business owners, create new jobs, make affordable housing more accessible and cut unnecessary government expenses.

Well, not all unnecessary government expenses.

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Two Democrats who want to face Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in District 27 this November will be at a forum on Thursday sponsored by the Democrats of South Dade Club.

The August 27 primary will pit former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, an employment attorney, against Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Baez Geller, a former high school English teacher.

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Miami-Dade voters painted the town red Tuesday when ballots counted showed that Republican candidates had won all but one local partisan race.

The only exception: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who handily beat her opponent, Jesus Navarro, with 71% of the vote.

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