Remember those lifetime term limits that Miami commissioners are set to put on the ballot? The one that would prevent legacy professional politicians from coming back again and again?
Not so fast, gente. There’s now a loophole for the most professional of all, current Commissioner and former Mayor Joe Carollo, who is threatening to run for mayor, and former Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who then went on to serve as Miami-Dade commissioner in District 7 and is still reportedly mulling a return to the Miami mayoral post.
What started as a bold move to end Miami’s reign of revolving-door political reyes y reinas is now looking more like a cleverly disguised no-bid traffic circle. And another huge bait and switch.
Commissioner Damian Pardo, who swore this change, which would have to be approved by voters in November, would be “transformational” (his word, not ours)—is suddenly looking super bendy after some behind-the-scenes tweaking ahead of a final vote this week. And surprise, surprise: the edits might just open the door for both Carollo and Suarez to run for mayor in 2026.
Because in Miami, “lifetime” apparently means “unless you wait a little while and come back with a different haircut.”
The original version of Pardo’s plan was simple and actually had teeth: two terms, period. Whether as commissioner or mayor, and regardless of whether you served a full term or just a couple of cafecitos’ worth of time in office. Even a single day would count. That would’ve effectively cut off career politicians like Carollo and Suarez from ever returning to the throne.
Pero no, caballero. That was before the city lawyers and political calculators got involved.
Now? The resolution on the actual language for the ballot includes a tidy little clause: “time served as a result of having been elected to fill a vacancy” won’t count toward term limits. Translation? If you got in through a special election, sorta like Commissioner Ralph Rosado did last month, you still get to serve two four-year terms after that. And if you only served part of a term, like Carollo and Xavier Suarez has, that doesn’t count.
¿Y entonces? ¿What was the point? Didn’t Pardo also champion the change in election year, effectively cancelling this November’s election for mayor and two commissioners, precisely to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
Read related: Miami lifetime term limits, election year change intertwined, like bait & switch
Pardo, who does not return Ladra’s calls anymore, has always insisted this isn’t about any one person. The Miami Herald quoted him saying, “I don’t know how it impacts Joe Carollo or anyone.” But, as Charlie Cale from Poker Face would say: BS. Even his advocates, the ones he recruited to support this on social media videos, are absolutely sold to the change in election year, which gives everyone an additional 12 months in office, because the “sacrifice” is worth getting rid of Joe Carollo forever.
Pardo says it’s about fairness. About legality. About making the reform “legally defensible.”
Does he really mean that this is what is needed to get the votes? Carollo should get on board now — even though this could technically prohibit his brother Frank Carollo for running for his seat again. And it also helps defend against a possible veto from Mayor Francis Suarez, if he wants to do his dad a solid.
“Joe Carollo has been mayor twice. Xavier Suarez has been mayor four times,” former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who is running for mayor, told Political Cortadito. “If this ‘lifetime’ term limit doesn’t apply to them, then it doesn’t mean anything.”
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
He also raises an interesting question: How did this language change from the first vote, which directed the city attorney to draft language that would exclude everybody, regardless of the length of terms they served? Did he get orders from Pardo to make the change? Who put their finger in the pot?
Did he get consensus from the commissioners? Like, finding out what it would take to get it to pass? Wouldn’t that be a violation of the Sunshine Law?
This change has gone under the radar. The Miami Herald’s Tess Riski wrote about it over the July 4th holiday weekend and most people, Ladra would argue, don’t even know about it.
The city commission meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall and can also be viewed online at the city’s website.

The post Bait and switch on lifetime term limits proposal for Miami mafia politicos appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Pressure mounted after weeks of inaction, soft words
Finally! After weeks of soft punches and lackluster response, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava has found her spine and is fighting back against the fascist forces that built and are operating a secret immigration jail in the middle of the Everglades — on an abandoned airstrip that we, the people, own, by the way — without so much as a whisper of due process or transparency.
As far as Gov. Ron DeSantis is concerned, Miami-Dade can go pound sand. Who needs local government or Home Rule when you have emergency powers and delusions of grandeur?
Up to now, Levine Cava has been too polite, citing mostly environmental and financial concerns in very bureaucratic messages. But on Tuesday, she demanded the state provide the county with actual accountability and a peek into the 3,000-bed detention compound plopped down like a giant slap in the face — or federal middle finger pointed at Miami-Dade leaders and residents.
It was almost like she had no political aspirations after this.
But that changed this week, just as the first detainees were getting uncomfortable in their new digs, perhaps in response to a letter sent to the mayor from a coalition of community groups and a pair of billboards that called her out and told residents to urge her to sue the state. Maybe she had to poll first?
In the sharply-worded letter of her own to Attorney General James Uthmeier (a.k.a. DeSantis’ old chief of staff turned full-time enabler), the mayor asked for monitoring access, remote video, weekly updates, and in-person inspections of the sprawling complex, which the AG himself proudly branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” That name ain’t even creative or ironic. It sounds like the punchline of a bad Florida Man joke.
They even have merch. For $30 you can own a t-shirt and for $27, a “trucker’s hat.” Proceeds go to the Republican Party of Florida. Because they see Alligator Alcatraz as a revenue source. Maybe that’s the punchline.

To be fair to the mayor, this quiet power and land grab has happened faster than the cafecito turnaround at the Versailles ventanita. The state took over the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on June 23, and poof — that was the end of local authority. One minute it was county land in the middle of Big Cypress swamp; eight days later, it was a DeSantis internment camp, complete with chain link cages, a 10,000-foot runway to sneak people out of the country and zero press access.
Even Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to distance itself from this abomination, pointing fingers at Florida. This is all the state’s doing.
So, what’s changed Levine Cava’s tone in two weeks? Let’s see…
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s fluoride veto was carefully cast
National horror story newscasts about the inhumane conditions in ICE facilities and poor treatment of detainees, including a 75-year-old Cuban man who was detained for deportation because of an 1980s marijuana arrest and died in custody in Miami, may have gnawed at her. Half of the deaths in ICE custody since the beginning of the year, by the way, have been in Florida. And that’s before they built a concentration camp of soft-sided tents on a patch of flood-prone wetlands at the edge of the Everglades to keep immigrants that are being snatched off the streets.
Videos have been posted of water pooling around electrical wires at the grand opening tour taken last week by President Donald Trump and DeSantis, which was catered — gotta have finger food for the hungry haters — by local eateries that are now being boycotted. Family members of the first detainees have reported their loves are lacking food (they get one meal a day), basic hygiene and access to legal representation. A group of state legislators were denied entry, even though they have a legal right to come up in for a surprise inspection whenever they want.
Digital billboards shaming the mayor into action — at I-95 and NW 135th Street and on the Dolphin Expressway, facing west — followed a letter sent by a coalition of more than 50 organizations asking La Alcaldesa and the commissioners to sue the state and get Alligator Alcatraz shut down. The letter points out how the whole deal is rips off the county, which is smart because the way to our electeds hearts is through their wallets. The state has offered to pay just $20 million for land worth ten times that, and that would be paid out of disaster funds allocated for things like hurricane relief. The annual operation is estimated at $450 a year, while the state expects to see a $2.8 billion budget shortfall next year.

“DeSantis’s move to seize land owned by Miami-Dade County worth an estimated $195 million has been met with almost no resistance by local officials,” starts the letter from the organizations — which include the ACLU, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida Rising, Community Justice Center, Dream Defenders and Engage Miami, among others. They expect more from our leaders in a county with the highest percentage of immigrant residents in Florida, where more than 54% of residents are foreign-born and more than 70% are Hispanic. They criticized Levine Cava’s “meek resistance” and said her previous communication with the governor had been “technocratic.”
They pointed to “catastrophic” potential impacts, which range from environmental to fiscal to humanitarian.
“The mad dash to open a 3,000 person detention camp is irresponsible and dangerous. Confining immigrants in cages within tents on the ancestral land of the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes during Florida’s extreme summer and hurricane seasons is a deliberately cruel scheme designed to inflict suffering on those held there. That kind of cruelty is reminiscent of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s inhumane tent city in Arizona, which was shut down after years of lawsuits from mistreated prisoners.
“Environmentally, Alligator Alcatraz threatens one of the most ecologically significant and fragile landscapes in North America. The proposed development site is surrounded by sensitive habitats that are already under increasing pressure from climate change, invasive species, and human encroachment. The heavy infrastructure and increased activity associated with a high-security detention camp, including lighting, road traffic, noise pollution, water discharge, and waste generation, would further fragment wildlife corridors and degrade ecosystems protected under federal and state law.”
Then there’s the slap in the face to the native Americans who were in the Everglades before we were. For Florida’s indigenous peoples, the site is priceless sacred ground. Miccosukee tribal member Betty Osceola has been out there protesting almost every day.
Read related: Miami-Dade commissioners sit silent as resident is dragged out of County Hall
“There are also serious questions about how such a site would protect any semblance of due process for immigrants,” the letter states. “Will those detained in this Everglades Detention Camp have access to lawyers? Will loved ones be able to visit and keep in touch with those in detention? Will there be any oversight by third-party groups on the conditions at this detention camp and the treatment of those detained there? Considering the horrific conditions at other detention facilities in Florida, like Krome Detention Center, the mistreatment and death of detained immigrants seems inevitable – and intentional.”
It’s almost certain that people will die at Alligator Alcatraz. If they haven’t already. Authorities denied that there was a medical emergency even after an ambulance was seen leaving the compound this week. A local hospital official confirmed that they had treated a detainee from the brand new facility. Once caught, authorities admitted someone was transported, without providing any details. But they said he came back and was fine. How can we believe anything they say?
“Authoritarianism festers when executives like Ron DeSantis are allowed to rule by decree. Even before Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis had defined his political legacy by gleeful cruelty against immigrants. Miami-Dade officials have to unequivocally stand up for all their constituents and push back against those profiting from human suffering in Florida. While we appreciate that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava offered some mild resistance with her letter to the Governor outlining environmental and financial concerns with the project, this moment requires leadership and courage and unequivocal opposition by this body to stop the state law enforcement descension on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport site in the Everglades.
“We call on Mayor Levine-Cava and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners to file a lawsuit to stop the operation of Alligator Alcatraz, the dehumanization of Florida residents, and the destruction of our shared natural resources. Any failure to act now implies complicity for the human rights abuses and deaths that will follow if Alligator Alcatraz is allowed to operate.”
What’s she gonna tell her grandchildren?

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Their vote to change election year is illegal, he says
What is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waiting for?
Last week, DeSantis said that he could suspend the Miami city commissioners who voted to move the election from odd years to even, effectively cancelling this November’s mayoral and commission races, and giving themselves an extra year in office. This, even though State Attorney General James Uthmeier had warned they could not do that without first going to voters.
Three commissioners voted last month to move the elections to coincide with midterm and national cycles to (1) save at least $200,000 a year and (2) increase turnout quite a bit. At least that’s what they say. The move gives Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo, who were termed out this year, another 12 months in office. As if term limits were mere suggestions. It also gives Commissioner Christine King, who was up for re-election this year, another year before she has to campaign.
Carollo, who has threatened to run for mayor this year, voted against it. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. So did Commissioner Miguel Gabela. And these two rarely agree on anything.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
King and commissioners Damian Pardo and Ralph Rosado voted for the change. They would be the ones eligible for suspension, if DeSantis makes good on his threat.
“The reality is local governments have to abide by Florida law,” the governor told CBS4 News Miami. “Could it come to the point where commissioners can get suspended? The law does provide me that as one of many recourses.”
Well, tick, tock, Ron.
Apparently, the “law and order” governor suddenly remembered the Florida Constitution exists after the public outrage reached DEFCON 3. Ladra can’t help but wonder what political pressure he’s getting. Because it’s not like he didn’t know this was coming. Back in April, the governor said he was “highly skeptical” of the proposal to change the election — which, in Tallahassee-speak, is what you say when you know it’s wrong but don’t want to get your boots dirty just yet.
Why didn’t he act then? Why wait until the ordinance passed? Hmmm. Could he have been waiting for the veto deadline to pass before so he could include Suarez in the suspensions? After all, by signing the legislation, Suarez has endorsed or, effectively, voted for it. And DeSantis is not a fan of Baby X. Not because they were both vying for the presidential nomination — Suarez was just posing — but because the Miami mayor once boasted he voted for Andrew Gillum.
But Suarez didn’t veto the ordinance. And his suspension sounds like a good idea — until you realize that could leave Joe Carollo, the vice chair of the commission, free to appoint all the replacements all by himself. Shudder.
So why has the state not taken any legal action? After all, it is another available recourse.
In fact, the only one who has sued so far is former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, one of 10 announced mayoral candidates, who has asked the court to weigh in on the ordinance’s constitutionality. His lead attorney is none other than former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson — so, you know, not some guy with a fax machine. “The City of Miami Commissioners unconstitutionally bypassed the democratic will of the people in a way that the Florida Constitution, the Miami-Dade Charter, and the City’s Charter expressly prohibit,” Lawson wrote in the complaint.
Read related: First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election
Translation: This isn’t just shady and self-dealing, it’s illegal. And it’s especially offensive in a community like Miami, where many voters have been stripped of their ballot box power before. In the lawsuit, Lawson compares Miami to lawless governments in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The city’s attorneys took issue with that in their motion to dismiss.
“As for inflammatory hyperbole and political rhetoric, the complaint references ‘regimes’ like ‘Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, or Cuba’ to argue the City lacks a legal basis to move the date of elections by ordinance. What purpose does this serve? As far as the City can tell, none — except to distract from the weakness of plaintiff’s legal theories,” wrote Assistant City Attorney Eric Eves.
But even AG Uthmeier made the connection in a social media post: “Home to thousands of patriotic Cuban Americans who know better than most about regimes that cavalierly delay elections and prolong their terms in power, the City of Miami owes to its citizens what the law requires.”
Only in Miami, when politicos aren’t out screaming “comunista” at each other, they’re scrapping elections.
There’s a hearing on the Gonzalez lawsuit and the city’s motion to dismiss next week (July 16). Meanwhile, there are 10 mayoral candidates and eight commissioner wannabes in limbo. Should they be knocking on doors? Should they be binging on Netflix?
DeSantis can end all this nonsense with a flick of the wrist. Then Miami voters can have an election in November for the mayor and four commissioners.
The post Tick, tock, Guv: Ron DeSantis threatens to suspend Miami commissioners appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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‘Conflicting data’ and lack of strategic plan cited
The Coral Gables Fire Department has flunked a national assessment that evaluates the agency’s performance, response and delivery of fire emergency services to the community, resulting in the failure to get re-accreditation for the first time in decades.
But the mayor and the fire chief say it’s no big deal. The city can take the test again in about a year.
The department’s reaccreditation — which marks an agency’s commitment to excellence — was denied in April. Deferred is the official term. Which is government speak for denied for now.
In a very polite but unmistakably scathing letter, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (that’s the big leagues, gente) let Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa know that the Coral Gables Fire Department’s bid for reaccreditation was — how do we say this gently? — a big nananina.
People should not believe the hype at last week’s city commission meeting from De La Rosa, who acted like an administration cheerleader rattling off a far too long monologue of achievements — this many hires, that many fire stations built — and “the greatest fire enhancement since 1993.” He said that with a straight face. Just like  how the department “led in the response and recovery of COVID.” Which was in 2020.
Shouldn’t they have more recent wins?
De La Rosa — who at one point wanted to fire 40% of the fire department as the fire chief in Hialeah (2009-2013) — was there at the request of Commissioner Melissa Castro, who fielded concerns after a story on the letter was published in the new, resurrected Coral Gables Gazette, which has already earned the ire and disapproval of Mayor Vince Lago — so you know they’re doing something right.
The fire chief said the deferral didn’t have any real life effect on the residents or businesses in the city. It does not affect insurance rates or the city’s ability to get grants, he said. That might be true. The city still has accreditation, after all. And insurance rates are based on the ISO (Insurance Service Office) classification, and the Gables is still a Class A.
But that’s completely irrelevant. Neither the letter nor the story mentioned insurance rates or grants.
And it seemed, from the language and tone of the statement that de la Rosa read from the podium, that his response was written by Lago himself.
“It is unfortunate that the very process that we use to push ourselves to be the best… is misrepresented with a political rhetoric of unsubstantiated allegations that have been presented time and time again in various venues,” De La Rosa read, adding that he was there “to address some of the allegations that were made in the post that were, frankly, made to create community concern and outcry.”
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago scores trifecta on post-election revenge tour
He was really there, however, to give Lago a match to light under the union leadership, specifically President David Perez, something the mayor has done repeatedly and increasingly as they have supported his political opponents. In a long-winded attack, Lago blamed Perez for disclosing the letter, which Perez told Political Cortadito on Wednesday that he knew nothing about until it was published in the Gazette. It doesn’t matter. This gives the mayor political cover to go after him. He even got his shiny new puppet, newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara, who has been in office for ten minutes, to suggest Perez resign from the department if he was the one that leaked the letter.
Huh? This letter is supposed to be a secret? Of course it is. What else does Lara not want Gables residents to know?
Let’s blame everybody else and keep the attention away from the contents of the letter, shall we? Because the official letter from CFAI, which is posted below, speaks for itself. Here are some Ladra-picked highlights:
After reviewing the department’s self-assessment, community risk analysis, and so-called “strategic plan,” the CFAI team unanimously decided that they’d rather not waste the gas on a site visit. Not this year, thank you. Not with those documents.
“Supportive materials lacked detail,” wrote Jim White, CFAI program manager at the Center for Public Safety Excellence.
Translation? Y’all made it up and hoped we wouldn’t notice.
They also pointed out that the department still hasn’t implemented annual program appraisals they were already told to do in a prior recommendation. So, either nobody read the last report, or someone at Station 1 is allergic to calendars.
Then there’s the strategic plan — or should we say, the strategic suggestion list? According to CFAI, the Gables Fire Department’s plan is really just a mishmash of city-wide goals and some loose program ideas duct-taped together and labeled “strategy.”
Apparently, asking people what they want before writing goals would’ve helped, too. The department’s “stakeholder engagement” process was so informal, it probably involved someone shouting questions from the new public safety building to pedestrians across the street.
Wait, there’s more.
The “Community Risk Assessment/Standards of Cover,” which is supposed to show how the fire department protects actual people based on real risk, was riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions.
The planning zones? Not fully defined.
The benchmarks? Based on geography — not population density.
The data? “Conflicting” numbers about response times, call volumes, and demographics. Which is super comforting, especially if your house is on fire. Let’s hope and pray someone read the right spreadsheet.
Read related: Coral Gables police, fire union: Lying Vince Lago is no pal of public safety
And while the CFAI folks were gracious enough to offer a second chance — with a Sept. 30 deadline to update those shoddy documents (or, if they really can’t get it together, March 31, 2026) — it seems evident that unless the department brings receipts, references, and something resembling accuracy, this accreditation train won’t be making a stop in Coral Gables, even next year.
The city has been instructed to “track changes” between now and then, because, well, nothing says professional fire safety planning like Microsoft Word’s editing tools, am I right?
De La Rosa blamed the findings on the lack of documentation — a real Sherlock Holmes, here — and called the criticism “an administrative deferral that gave us more time to meet” requirements or criteria. “Specifically an internal departmental strategic plan and an enhanced community risk assessment.”
Oh? Is that all?
Pero, por supuesto, the fire chief didn’t address any of those concerns. His speech was more like a pep rally or campaign stump than an actual response to the issues raised in the letter. There was lots of talk about the “core mission” being public safety and the “public trust” that the men and women of the department hold dear. Lots of talk about the “Coral Gables brand,” which De La Rosa is quick to instill in every veteran and new recruit.
He even had stickers printed up to hand out.
De La Rosa also failed to mention any problems with the city’s newish $4 million computer-aided dispatch system, installed in 2023 that, sources say, could be the reason for the “conflicting data” and documentation issues.
But hey, now that the public is aware of and heated about the fire department’s performance and assessment, maybe it will spark some real discussion that isn’t a blame game and political theater.
Or maybe it all goes up in smoke.
Coral Gables Fire Department FL Letter of Deferral by Political Cortadito on Scribd

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A group of elected officials flew to Panama City last week for the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July celebration, at the invitation of Ambassador Kevin Cabrera, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and Republican Party committeeman who was tapped for the overseas job by Donald Trump early in his new administration.
But almost all of them said they did so on their own private dime — and not using taxpayer funds.
“It was a great honor to celebrate 249 years of the United States Independence with our new Ambassador Kevin Marino Cabrera in Panama,” wrote Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia in an Instagram post where she poses alongside Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon and State Rep. Omar Blanco.
“God Bless the USA,” Garcia wrote.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Kevin Cabrera leaves for Panama, county gets set to appoint
She did not return a call and text to her phone, but according to Ivan Castro, communications director for the Elections Department, the trip was official county business.
“The Supervisor of Election’s trip to Panama was an official trip, at the invitation of the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera, a product of Miami-Dade County. There are also around 90,000 registered voters living in Panama, many of them Miami-Dade County voters,” Castro told Political Cortadito.
“As a public servant, The Supervisor of Elections promotes all democracy in the U.S. and abroad,” Castro said, adding that all expenses were paid personally by Garcia “at o expense to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”
Fernandez was also there on his own dime, said Manuel “Manny” Orbis, the tax collector’s chief of staff. “He went private, paid by himself. It had nothing to do with the office,” said Orbis, who was once also Cabrera’s chief of staff.
Naturally, he and his wife, newly appointed Miami-Dade Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis — who replaced Cabrera on the dais — were also invited. He said they only stayed one night at the La Compañia, a luxury Hyatt hotel that is also the restoration of a historic site in Panama City. Prices range from $200 to $300 a night.
Read related: Is a fix in for the District 6 appointment at Miami-Dade County Commission?
They were back in time for Fourth of July celebrations in Miami-Dade.
Blanco and his wife, a Miami-Dade schoolteacher, spent two nights and three days at the same hotel.
“My wife and I hadn’t spent a lot of time together this year,” Blanco quipped about the his first special session. “So we decided to make it a little vacation.
“I paid my own flight. I paid my own hotel. I paid my own food,” he said.
“I’ve known Kevin for a long time and he invited everybody, all the Dade electeds,” Blanco told Political Cortadito.
Neither Hardemon nor anyone on his staff returned calls from Ladra. And there was no response Tuesday to a query to Nicole Gallagher, Cabrera’s communications director, about who was invited and what the itinerary included.
But in a statement Friday, Cabrera underscored the U.S. government’s commitment to promote prosperity and security not just inside our borders but abroad to U.S. partners.
“President Trump is ushering in a new Golden Age for the United States, an unprecedented era of opportunity and strength,” Cabrera said. “As President Trump has said, ‘the story of America makes everyone free.’
“The United States and Panama have built a strong partnership that strengthens our countries and the entire hemisphere. Under President Trump’s leadership, we seek to expand our cooperation, which will make both countries safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
Does “expand our cooperation” include taking over the canal, as Trump has threatened to do?
The post Miami-Dade elected officials say they went to Panama on their own dime appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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County commissioner endorses Jackie Garcia-Roves
Surprise, surprise. Not.
Miami-Dade Commissioner René García officially pulled the plug last month on his not-so-convincing bid for Hialeah mayor, confirming what just about everyone in political circles and their abuelas already knew: He was never really in it to win it.
The District 13 commissioner — whose turf includes parts of Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Miami Lakes, and some of that unincorporated no-man’s land in northwest Dade — filed in March to run for mayor in the November election. But from day one, Garcia was bluffing like a Magic City poker player with a busted flush.
He filed quietly, without any fanfare or press conference. Remember when former Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, who resigned in March to go lobby in Washington, D.C., (where his wife works with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ) went on La Poderosa to say he was trying to convince Garcia to step up and run for mayor — eight days after the county commissioner had already filed paperwork? Because not even Bovo knew.
That paperwork, by the way, was stamped by the city clerk on April Fool’s Day. Was that a forewarning?
Read related: ‘Rene Garcia for Hialeah Mayor’ could be a decoy for someone else to run
Garcia, a former state senator who started his career as a Hialeah Council member, gave Political Cortadito and other media outlets classic politico non-answers to questions in April — something about Florida’s resign-to-run law and how he had months to decide. “I am considering it seriously” he told Ladra, two weeks after he filed the paperwork. He said he was “talking to residents and trying to figure out where I best serve.”
Guess he got his answer. Garcia is staying put in his comfy county commission seat, saying he can best serve his constituents there and citing the tough budget year ahead. “Now is not the time to step away. Public service is not about chasing titles,” he said in a statement, practically polishing his halo. “It’s about answering the call to serve where you are most needed.”
Or it’s about answering the call to be a placeholder until Bovo and the Hialeah political cabal could figure out who to back, between former Council Member and Interim Mayor Jacqueline “Jackie” Garcia-Roves and Councilman Jesus Tundidor, who would have run for the county commission seat if Garcia had stayed in the city’s mayoral race. Spoiler: It’s Garcia-Roves.
Garcia snubbed Tundidor — his former political protégé, having once served as his legislative aide in Tallahassee — and endorsed Garcia-Roves last week, when she officially filed to run and had a press conference to announce it. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. Although it seemed obvious from the love René showed Jackie at her swearing in (photos from Rene Garcia’s social media).

“Although I know votes are not transferable,” René Garcia said to the TV cameras last week, standing in front of City Hall, “and Jackie is going to have to work to assure the voters in this city that she is the most upstanding, because I know she is the most upstanding and capable to serve our community.”
He did not return calls from Ladra to provide more specific details as to what makes her the most upstanding nd capable.
The interim mayor resigned her council seat, which she won in an unopposed re-election in 2023, on the day after René Garcia said he was not going to run. And Ladra doesn’t believe in coincidences.
Read related: Steve Bovo’s parting gift: Retirement benefits for himself, Hialeah electeds
So, what did Tundidor fail to promise the establishment? Or what did Garcia-Roves offer?
“I really don’t know what it is,” Tundidor told Ladra Tuesday, sounding a little hurt. “René Garcia is a mentor of mine. I worked for the guy. I did everything I could to help him.”
Rene Garcia did stick his neck out to go against the establishment, supporting Tundidor when he first ran in 2019.
“I guess it has to do with other people. I think they got to him more than I did,” said Tundidor, who resigned his seat last month, on the same day that Garcia announced he would not run. It’s not effective, however, until the new mayor is sworn in. Por si las moscas.
“The good thing is, we’ve been down this road before. We’re a lot more known now than in 2019, so this road doesn’t scare me. I’ve been battle tested. I’ve proven myself,” Tundidor told Political Cortadito. “I hope people really look back to see who’s done what while they were in office.”
Hialeah’s mayoral race is always a political blood sport. And this year is no exception. Qualifying ends July 28, and there are already at least six hungry candidates circling City Hall like it’s a fresh croqueta tray at a campaign event. They include mixed martial arts fighter Manuel “Manny” Reyes Jr. 79-year-old commercial real estate owner Bernardino Norberto Rodriguez, and real estate investor Marc Anthony Salvat.
But, really, there are only three viable candidates, so far. Garcia-Roves, Tundidor and former Council Member Bryan Calvo, who lost his primary race for Miami-Dade tax collector last year, getting 48% of the vote, and has already been campaigning for about five months. All three served on the council together.
Calvo — who tangled loudly and publicly with Bovo over public records and emergency response times — is seen as the anti-establishment choice and could benefit from a tug-of-war between Tundidor and Garcia-Roves over the establishment support (read: money) and vote.
Garcia-Roves has more people pulling on her side of the rope, including Hialeah Housing Authority Executive Director Julio Ponce, who has access and serves as gatekeeper to thousands of vulnerable voters (more on that later) and who gave the interim mayor a big hug when she filed last week, captured by Univision 23.
First elected in 2019, beating longtime activist Milly Herrera with 54% of the vote, she was part of the corrupt Carlos Hernandez Seguro Que Yes council. She drew no opponents four years later and recently had a campaign event that raised almost $70,000 for her political action committee, New Conservative Leadership, even before she announced her candidacy last week. The most recent campaign finance report, filed for the quarter ending June 30, shows that $20K of those contributions come from the same maquinita coin game companies that donated heavily to the campaigns for Hernandez and former Mayor Julio Robaina before him. She uses the same longtime Hialeah campaign consultant, Ana Carbonell.
It’s like the whole Hialeah mafia is lining up.
But Garcia-Roves has not sponsored a single piece of legislation in more than four years.
“Clueless,” is a word mean people use to describe her. Too often. Las malas lenguas say she is easily controlled and will be a puppet for Bovo and René Garcia and even Hernandez to continue pulling the strings.
Tundidor was first elected in 2019 and was also re-elected in 2023 without opposition. Before that, he was on the city’s planning and zoning board. He won his seat in his first race working against the establishment and the Hernandez campaign machinery. He has sponsored several key legislative initiatives in the city, including a ban on permanent RV homes in single family residential neighborhoods, and recently passed an affordable housing ordinance. He told Political Cortadito Tuesday that he’s already knocked on 800 doors.
Calvo was elected in 2021, winning in a runoff against Angelica Pacheco with more than 67% of the vote (Pacheco was subsequently elected in a different election and suspended by the governor after she was arrested on healthcare fraud charges last year). Calvo resigned to run for tax collector last year and lost in the primary to Dariel Fernandez, but still got more than 50,000 votes and only came up 4,000 short. Add that to the fact he’s been knocking on doors since February and he’s got plenty of name recognition. Some might argue that it’s more than Garcia-Roves and Tundidor, who are at slightly different degrees of relative anonymity.
They are certainly going to be easier to run against than Rene Freaking Garcia.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
“For me, it’s great news,” Calvo told Political Cortadito on Tuesday. “Rene was always the person with the most positive name I.D.”
Calvo also challenged the other two candidates — both of whom have advantages as current electeds (more on that later) — to a debate. “Every resident deserves the opportunity to see and hear directly from the candidates and to ask questions about the issues that matter most,” he said.
“Their game is to hide the candidate,” Calvo told Ladra, adding that Garcia-Roves’ public statements are “highly edited and scripted.”
Anyway, this latest round of musical chairs in the City of Progress promises to be one of the best telenovelas this year. With a crowded mayoral field and with five council seats — including two special elections — on the November ballot, the city is heading into one of the most crowded and, likely, chaotic election seasons in recent memory.
Stay tuned. Ladra will be watching. With popcorn. And a cortadito. Dark, por supuesto.

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