Miami sees a return to Cold War cultural hard line on Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Miami sees a return to Cold War cultural hard line on Cuba
Gisela Salomon, Associated Press
Updated 5:47 pm CST, Tuesday, February 4, 2020



Photo: Esteban Felix, AP
IMAGE 2 OF 3
FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2018 file photo, Randy Malcom Martinez and Alexander Delgado of the Cuban duo "Gente de Zona" perform during the Vina del Mar International Song Festival at the Quinta Vergara coliseum in Vina del Mar, Chile. Platinum-selling reggaeton act Gente de Zona were barred from a New Year’s Eve concert in a Miami park on Dec. 31, 2019. As President Donald Trump tightens the trade embargo on Cuba, some members of the United States’ largest Cuban-American community are once again taking a hard line on performers like Gente de Zona who support its communist government or don’t speak out against it.


MIAMI (AP) — Platinum-selling reggaeton act Gente de Zona were barred from a New Year’s Eve concert in a Miami park. The mayor of Miami declared another Cuban singer persona non grata and her concert in a private club was cancelled. Fellow artists Jacob Forever y El Micha were shut out of a July 4 concert in the neighboring South Florida city of Hialeah last year.

As President Donald Trump tightens the trade embargo on Cuba, some members of the United States’ largest Cuban-American community are once again taking a hard line on performers from the island who support its communist government or don’t speak out against it.

The degree of support for a hard line on Cuba among South Florida’s roughly 1.2 million Cuban-Americans could influence the 2020 presidential election. Partly because of Republican anti-communism, Cuban-Americans have long been an historically GOP-supporting bloc in a swing state with 29 electoral college votes.

While some polls in recent years have shown weakening Cuban-American support for the embargo, observers say Trump’s attempts to cut off the government’s income is emboldening activists who want to punish the Cuban government and its supporters in hopes of fueling regime change.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Miami-sees-a-return-to-Cold-War-cultural-hard-15027881.php#photo-18977997

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[flamingdem]

1. Hard to believe we're going through this again!

Kudos to the Cuban people for keeping their heads high.