President Obama‘s diplomatic breakthrough with Cuba last December has been met mostly with approval in the Tampa Bay area among political and business leaders.
A delegation from Pinellas County visited the communist island for the first time in January, while the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce is planning another visit in May. And Hillsborough County area U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor will soon be hosting a summit on Cuba in Tampa.
But that excitement is not shared across the state — and certainly not by Miami-area Republicans in the state Legislature.
This morning the Florida Senate voted almost unanimously in a voice vote to denounce the president’s decision to resume relations with Cuba. The measure is mostly symbolic in scope, though it does call for the federal government to not place a Cuban consulate in Florida, something that Castor and other officials are pushing to happen in Tampa.
The measure was proposed by Miami Republican Anitere Flores, who spoke for nearly 12 minutes on the Senate floor this morning in a multi-media presentation. She showed still photographs of the Ladies in White, the wives and family members of Cuban dissidents who often hold protests in Cuba. She also showed a video clip of the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue plane by the Cuban air force back in 1996.
She talked about Cuba having enshrined an apartheid-type system of government, where tourists can have it all, but residents actions are controlled by the government.
“This is a place where foreigners, where the government elite can go to the best hospitals, can have an amazing healthcare system, but where residents are told they have to bring their own sheets, they have to bring their own light bulbs, and if they can get to see a doctor, they’ll wait for several months.”
“Those of us who have been elected to speak for those who can’t speak themselves,” Flores continued. “If we don’t stand for freedom. Then who will?”
After Flores’ powerful speech, there was a momentary pause, leading Senate President Andy Gardiner to prepare to call for a voice vote. But that’s when Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner became the only one on the Senate floor to speak out against the resolution.
“I feel your pain and your passion,” the Tampa Democrat said to Flores. “But the Obama administration took historic steps to chart a new course in the United States relations with Cuba.” She said that in her heart she was convinced that Obama meant “no malice” in promulgating the diplomatic breakthrough.
Joyner’s response seemed to move two other Miami-Dade County senators to rise out of their seats and express their disdain toward the Castro brothers and the administration’s outreach to them.
Hialeah state Sen. Rene Garcia said that if he thought that President Obama’s actions could change things on the Cuban island for the people, he’d be supportive. “But those Cubans on that island woke up the same way they woke up yesterday. And they will wake up the same way tomorrow. Nothing will change as a result of this policy shift for the island of Cuba.”
Another Miami Republican legislator, state Sen. Miguel Diaz de La Portilla, said that his Cuban-born parents had to leave the island when they were 21 after Fidel Castro took power. He said, “Their youth had been stolen by the two octogenarian dictators 90 miles away from Florida’s coasts.”
The proposal was then passed on a voice vote, with just one member dissenting.
After an earlier Senate committee voted on the resolution earlier this month, Castor told Florida Politics that it was “very disappointing.”
“I’m not sure that the Florida Legislature has the legal ability to tamper with federal diplomatic relations,” she said. “They can try, but they ought to listen to this community, to the businesses and families that want to see improved relations.”
A similar resolution is moving through the Florida House, sponsored by South Florida state Reps. Manny Diaz Jr. and Jeanette Nunez.
