Former Miami mayor out to make Radio and TV Martí viable

MIAMI – Cubans have this great expression that uses the word ‘botella,’ which means bottle. In slang the word can be used differently. One way is to “coger botella,” or hitch a ride by the side of the road, for example. Then there’s also the case of former Miami mayor Tomás Regalado, who was just rewarded by Senator Marco Rubio for years of loyalty and service to the ‘Cuba cause’. His ‘botella’ implies employment where little is expected of him. Often times, in fact, the most harrowing part of the job is the drive to the office on Friday to pick up your paycheck. 

Regalado, you see, has just been named director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB). The OCB is in charge of Radio and TV Martí. Established in 1983 and 1990, respectively, they are both federally funded propaganda programs supposedly aimed at bringing down the “demonic Cuban state” established by Fidel Castro after the triumph of the revolution in 1959. 

Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC show host, once famously said that “Radio Martí and TV Martí have spent more than $500 million to reach less than 1 percent of the Cuban population, and as far as we can tell, change their minds about nothing.” The one percent figure just cited is hopeful at best, by the way.

I will  re-emphasize the fact that little is expected of Regalado. This is a program that has spent half a billion of our taxpayer dollars over the last quarter century, and careful study shows that it has accomplished but one thing: creating juicy jobs for sycophantic Cubans who are paid handsomely [One of Regalado’s sons, Tomás N. “Tommy” Regalado, has worked for the stations for the past 15 years.] for not straying beyond the party line established by anti-Cuba Cubans, mostly from Miami, who can’t stand the fact that Fidel Castro scared them off the Island, whipped their asses and continued to do so, until his death.

Foreign Policy, the respected publication, had this to say about the U.S. government program: “It’s difficult to find a more wasteful government program.”

Whatever… Tomasito, as his followers refer to the 71-year-old former anti-Cuba radio host, has landed safely and with golden parachute fluttering softly behind him, at a job where little can be expected of him and where he will be paid handsomely. The figure has not been released, but in 2012, according to the website Along the Malecon, the OCB director received $170,000 a year in compensation. 

For what?… Nobody’s really sure. The fact is, though, that Radio and TV Martí have been swindling U.S. taxpayers since 1983.  

But fret no more. I am sure Tomasito has donned his red, white and blue cape with that big ’S’ embroidered on it, and is ready to do battle against ‘lefty’ windmills. 

His goals are ambitious. He told Nora Gamez of the Miami Herald: “I do not want Radio and TV Martí to be an alternative, I want it to be the main means of communication for the people of Cuba.” How he hopes to achieve this nobody really knows. In fact, Tomasito has no idea himself, but it sounds good.

His objective, according to the Herald reporter, is to “increase the penetration of stations’ signals on the island, improve the coverage of breaking news and modernize radio programming.”

So the former mayor of Miami, famous for never doing anything of note, plans to revolutionize Radio and TV Martí, and for the first time in its history give the anti-Cuba-Miami media outlets meaning. It’s almost funny if not for the fact that it’s sad, and the money spent wasteful — especially in a city where the dollars could be used to attack poverty, climate change and so many other problems.

But Regalado has never been one to worry about others. At least, it doesn’t seem so. I remember seeing Tomasito standing outside the Los Van Van concert, the first one held here back in the early part of the century, and urging-on protestors tossing bottles, batteries and terrorizing concert-goers. He was already a Miami commissioner then. 

And Regalado has always had a penchant for following the easy buck — he started small chasing free gasoline from the city where he was investigated for filling up family car tanks, two at a time, sometimes twice a day, and now landing a six-figure salary from the U.S. government for radio and TV stations very, very, very few have ever seen or heard.

My friend Francisco Aruca used to call what was happening here in Miami, especially among politicians, the Anti-Cuban Industry. He would then expose them on his radio program, demonstrating how many of these staunch anti-communists were simply using ideology to milk the U.S. government’s tit for millions of dollars. After Obama, many of us thought this would soon be over. But now under Trump, and under the leadership of Rubio and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, the industry seems to have caught its second wind and is thriving again. 

Just ask Tomasito… if you can find him. Or, just look for him on Fridays.