Jeanette Núñez snafu causes Cuban Miami firestorm
Jeanette Marie Núñez, 50, was born in Miami. Her parents were born in Cuba, she was not. That same woman from Miami, now Lieutenant Governor Núñez, stuck her foot in her mouth recently on a Miami radio station. She was asked about the wave of migrants coming to Florida from Cuba and said the [Gov. Ron] DeSantis administration would take a hard line, adding “That’s why the governor has worked with the legislature, to secure funding to make sure…that people that are coming illegally…that they don’t stay here with their arms crossed, thinking about what they will be able to do. … We are going to send that person, frankly, to Delaware, the president’s home state.”
Many in the Miami Cuban community went berserk. How dare she!? The lieutenant governor realizing her gaffe started reeling in her comments, and also blamed Democrats for political smearing ahead of this week’s primaries.
When I heard this, it reminded me of similar comments made in Miami over the years. One that came to mind immediately was that of former Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, suspended five games during the 2012 baseball season, after he told Time magazine that he loved Fidel Castro. Adding that he respected the Cuban leader because he had managed to stay alive for decades even though many would have liked to see him dead.
There’s an argument to be made of whether Guillen was denied his First Amendment right to express himself as he sees fit, but that is not the case here. Guillen, a Venezuelan living in Miami at the time, should have known better than to mention Castro glowingly in this town. There was no question that any positive comment concerning Fidel Castro in Miami would immediately cause a fire storm. And it did, eventually costing this once World Series-winning manager with the Chicago White Sox his job with Miami.
So in the case of the lieutenant governor, I asked myself whether she is just plain stupid, or has she fallen under the spell of Governor DeSantis, who as Florida’s highest ranking politician, has demonstrated fascist tendencies and a total disregard for democracy. I opt to think that it is both. Núñez does not appear to be the sharpest tool in the woodshed, but you can tell she is also enamored of what the governor represents.
Even former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who is a Cuban American and chairs the Florida Democratic Party, called on Núñez to distance herself from DeSantis’ rhetoric about immigrants. During a press conference this week, Diaz said, “I have known Lieutenant Governor Núñez for decades. This is not the Jeanette Núñez I used to know.”
I am not exactly sure what the former mayor was trying to say, but it shows that Nuñez feels herself part of that group of MAGA Americans who will stop at nothing to make this country what it used to be: European white with an economy that depends on the abuse and exploitation of the unfortunate to push it forward.
What Jeanette Nuñez still does not realize is that one day, this woman born in Miami and who apparently feels empowered working for DeSantis may one day be thrown in those same buses shipping immigrants elsewhere. And by that time it might be camps not meant for summer fun.
