Vol. 72/No. 39      October 6, 2008

Musa, a garment worker, and his supporters have stepped up campaigning in the district, which extends from Kendall through Hialeah in Miami-Dade County into Miramar and Pembroke Pines in neighboring Broward County, areas with a substantial Cuban American population.

The incumbent, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Cuban American attorney, has held the seat since 1993.

Diaz-Balart is part of a Florida congressional trio strongly opposed to the Cuban Revolution. It includes his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart, who has represented the 25th District for five years, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, representative in the 18th District since 1989. The three are all Republicans.

They are being challenged by Democrats who are also opponents of the Cuban Revolution. Democrat Raúl Martínez, a Cuban American businessman and former mayor of Hialeah, is challenging Lincoln Diaz-Balart. A July poll showed Martínez only four percentage points behind Diaz-Balart, while Democrat Joseph García trailed Mario Diaz-Balart by only five percentage points. Colombian-born businesswoman Annette Taddeo is challenging Ros-Lehtinen.  
 
Debate on embargo, travel ban
Last week, after Hurricane Gustav wreaked massive destruction on Cuba, a debate among South Florida capitalist politicians broke out on whether and how to modify the embargo and travel restrictions. Martínez and García called for a temporary easing of travel and remittance restrictions to the island, as did Ramón Saúl Sánchez, head of the so-called Democracy Movement, a Miami group that actively organizes provocations against the Cuban Revolution.

In response to the broad questioning of the embargo, Ninoska Pérez Castellon, director of the Cuban Liberty Council, trying to shore up support for U.S. policy, attacked Cuban Americans seeking a way to send money and aid and visit their relatives in Cuba.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he agreed with Martínez and García, emphasizing that he was not for ending the embargo. “This is a time when the Cuban people—not Castro—need and deserve American compassion and assistance,” Obama said.

Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, and Republican U.S. senator Melquiades Martínez announced in a joint statement that they continue to oppose lifting restrictions, and that the U.S. government should instead directly help hurricane victims.

The debate reflected the growing sentiment among Cuban American workers and others against Washington’s severe trade and travel restrictions.

Musa explained that capitalist politicians of the Democratic and Republican parties share a common hatred of the Cuban Revolution and that their tactical differences represent different assessments of how best to carry out U.S. imperialism’s goal of overturning the Cuban Revolution and its government of workers and farmers.

“Neither Obama, McCain, Martínez, nor García have called for the freedom of the Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrerro, Fernando González, and René González,” Musa said. The five Cubans were arrested in 1998 in Miami, convicted and railroaded to prison on frame-up charges of “conspiracy” to commit espionage. They have been in U.S. prisons for 10 years.

“None of my opponents are part of the fight against government actions to intimidate immigrant workers,” Musa continued. “None support legalization for all.”

“Our campaign calls on working people to break with the Democratic and Republican parties and to organize a labor party based on a fighting union movement,” Musa continued.  
 
Cuban American workers
The political space here to discuss the Cuban Revolution has been changing for some time. Musa noted that he and his supporters have participated this year in a number of caravans opposing the travel restrictions to Cuba that have driven through Hialeah and other largely Cuban workers districts with placards demanding the right to travel. “We always get a largely positive response,” Musa said, “with many waving and giving a thumbs up reaction.”

Campaigning outside the Winn-Dixie grocery store in Hialeah’s Flamingo Plaza, Musa and his supporters found many, including workers born in Cuba, who agree with or are open to discussing the Socialist Workers platform.

Olidi Rodríguez, a Cuban American, told a Musa supporter, “I’m against the U.S. embargo and for the right to travel to Cuba. The embargo is difficult. It limits what Cubans here can do to help the people of Cuba eat.” Others said the embargo should stay until the government changes. A woman born in Cuba said, “The embargo is necessary. I’m for individuals being able to send money.”
 
 
Related articles:
Cuban gov’t leader speaks in New York
End the embargo against Cuba!
Government of Cuba mobilizes population in wake of hurricanes  
 
 
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