¶ Overview
- In 2023, Salazar criticized the Biden administration for not being tough enough on Cuba. In 2022, Salazar received $750 in campaign donations from an alleged Cuban spy arrested by the U.S. government. Salazar’s campaign spokesperson claimed she planned to return the money and said she had no personal relationship with the suspected spy. She was the only candidate he had donated to that year. =
- In 2018, Salazar faced criticism for a 20-year-old interview she had conducted with Fidel Castro that resurfaced. She responded by claiming the video was manipulated and fought to have it taken down. There were roughly 280,000 Cubans in Salazar’s district. She later posted her interview with Castro on her YouTube page.
¶ Salazar’s Hard-Line Stance On Cuba Has Come Under Scrutiny Over The Years She Has Run For Public Office
¶ 2023: Salazar Criticized The Biden Administration For Not Being Tough Enough On Cuba
12/3/23: Salazar Urged The Biden Administration To “Wake Up” Because She Believed Cuba Was A Threat To U.S. National Security. According to a post on Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s Twitter, “A U.S. diplomat was reportedly arrested in Miami as an alleged spy for the Castro regime. Havana doesn't sleep in its effort to infiltrate our country and cause harm. The regime continues to be a danger to our national security. Biden administration, wake up!” [Twitter, @MaElviraSalazar, 12/3/23]
¶ 2022: Salazar Received A Campaign Donation From AN Accused Cuban Spy
2022: Salazar Received $750 In Donations From Manuel Rocha, A Man Arrested By The U.S. Government After Being Accused Of Spying For Cuba Since The Early 1980s. According to Politico, "Last year, Salazar received two donations totaling $750 from MANUEL ROCHA, the former career Foreign Service diplomat and ex-U.S. ambassador to Bolivia who was arrested Friday after being accused of being a spy for Cuba since the early 1980s. It’s the only donation he appears to have made to any federal politician, according to FEC records." [Politico, 12/6/23]
- HEADLINE: “Ex-U.S. Ambassador Accused Of Being Cuba’s Secret Agent Since 1981” [Washington Post, 12/4/23]
Salazar’s Campaign Spokesperson Claimed She Planned To Return The Money And Said She Had No Personal Relationship With The Suspected Spy. According to Politico, "After POLITICO inquired about the donation, a campaign spokesperson said Salazar would return the money and that she had no personal relationship with Rocha. ‘The Congresswoman believes that Rocha should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and has completely betrayed the Miami exile community and United States of America,’ the spokesperson said in a statement." [Politico, 12/6/23]
Salazar Was The Only Federal Candidate The Accused Cuban Spy Donated To That Year. According to the Washington Post, "Rocha had barely any involvement in electoral politics in the United States, public records show. He contributed to just one federal candidate last year, sending $750 to Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), according to filings with the Federal Election Commission." [Washington Post, 12/4/23]
¶ 2018: Salazar Faced Criticism For A Resurfaced Interview Of Hers With Fidel Castro from the mid-1990s
An Excerpt From An Interview Salazar Had With Fidel Castro In The Mid-1990s Where She Appeared Cordial Was Used In An Attack Ad By Her 2018 Campaign Opponent. According to the Miami Herald via the Dayton Beach News-Journal, "A journalist’s interview 20 years ago with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is making a return to the airwaves — not that she’s happy about it. As Maria Elvira Salazar runs to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Congress, an opponent has highlighted cordial excerpts from a rare sit-down she scored in the mid 1990s with the late Communist leader and used them in an attack ad. Hoping to paint her as a Castro sycophant, self-described ‘political hitman’ Stephen Marks is running grainy snippets of Salazar referring to Castro as ‘comandante’ and ‘un revolucionario por excelencia’ alongside an English-language appearance on Fox News following Castro’s death in 2016 in which Salazar referred to Barack Obama’s rapprochement as ‘noble.’" [Miami Herald via Daytona Beach News-Journal, 8/5/18]
- Salazar Defended Herself And The Interview, Claiming She Was Tough On Cuba And That The Video Was “Manipulated.” According to the Miami Herald, "Salazar did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. But in an interview last month on WPLG’s ‘This Week in South Florida,’ she called Mark’s ad ‘despicable’ and said her interview with Castro was ‘an hour long and there are many segments where I’m tough.’ […] ‘I have been one of the staunchest, most hardest critics of the Cuban revolution on the air, and for this guy to come on the air and say I’m a Communist, I am livid,’ she said on WPLG, adding that she tried to play the Castro interview ‘down the middle’ as an impartial journalist. ‘Not only because it’s conniving, because it’s not true. It’s manipulated. That video has been manipulated.’" [Miami Herald via Daytona Beach News-Journal, 8/5/18]
- Salazar Tried To Have The Ad Pulled Off The Air, Which Had The Potential To Damage Her Image In A District Home To 280,000 Cubans. According to the Miami Herald, "The attack — which Salazar has called defamatory and sought to pull off the air — is a potentially damaging salvo for a Republican running in a district that is home to 280,000 Cubans and represented by the first-ever Cuban-American elected to Congress in Ros-Lehtinen. Consider that about one year before Salazar interviewed Castro, Magda Montiel Davis, a liberal Cuban immigration lawyer who had just tried and failed to unseat Ros-Lehtinen, was besieged by death threats in Miami after being seen on television giving Castro a kiss during a visit to Cuba." [Miami Herald via Daytona Beach News-Journal, 8/5/18]
April 2019: Salazar Posted The Old Interviews She Did With Fidel Castro On Her YouTube Page.
[YouTube, Maria Elvira Salazar, 4/4/19] (video)