Cuban Americans, Hispanics, and government: organized white collar crime and the code of silence ... by gimleteye

Although The Miami Herald printed a softball guest opinion on Saturday, "Cubans' legacy at stake", the reader comments were anything but. Contributor Joe Cardona starts by noting the proliferation of Latino themes in US culture and politics (He's right: if you get the chance, watch the amazing PBS documentary on the Latino experience told through the filter of contemporary music: Latin Music USA.) He is also right to note that the explosion of the Latino influence in Miami is nothing new. "In Miami Dade County Hispanics are 62 percent of the population -- the majority of them of Cuban descent... As Cuban Americans we now face the challenge of being the majority in Miami. With majority status comes responsibility and an obligation to care about problems and challenges faced not only by Cubans but by everyone who shares this sacred land of freedom." Herald readers who commented on the paper's website immediately took the writer to task for noting that "Cuban Americans have excelled in many facets", but did not also amplify on the ways that corruption has proliferated on the Cuban American watch in Miami. The softball send off: "We will be judged for the compassion, understanding and respect we demonstrate for issues important to others." I think it is important to detail what those issues are and to question, especially, why the Cuban American leadership of Miami has been so utterly silent.

Medicare fraud. 60 Minutes last week broadcast an eye-opening episode on the concentration of Medicare fraud in Miami, costing taxpayers $67 billion across the nation. One convicted felon, who acted as an informant in disguise on the program-- who scammed $20 million--, guessed that there were 2,000 fraudulent storefront operators in greater Miami-Dade. It is not all Cuban Americans, to be sure, but where is the leadership from the Cuban American community demanding that this illegal activity shut down?

Drugs. This is from a recent (Oct. 18. 2009) Orlando Sentinel (by way of an expose by Miami New Times in 2007): "Cuban pot rings: Cops call them 'organized crime at its best". "Cuban refugees are dominating arrests in Florida's indoor-marijuana trade in what investigators call a nearly punishment-free crime."

And locally: Miami-Dade Charter Review. Everyone knows that Miami-Dade local government, managed by a strong mayor and a dysfunctional county commission, needs to be reformed. Strong recommendations were proposed by the Miami Dade Charter Review Commission in 2008 and 2009; they were shelved by the county commission. Where was the outrage among Hispanic and especially Cuban American leaders? Victor Diaz, for instance, who lead the Charter Review as a volunteer and now serves as an interim city commission on Miami Beach was an eloquent spokesman for change: why didn't a movement organize among Cuban American business leaders to support him and the conclusions of the Review Committee?

One of the issues underlying the rotted foundations of the current county commission is the Urban Development Boundary and what is required by developers and their favored commissioners to move the line to build more suburban sprawl. Latin builders dominate the political landscape in Miami-Dade, from zoning and permitting of condos and platted subdivisions. They work in tandem with large corporations/ production home builders like Lennar or WCI to push changes to local growth plans through the unreformable majority of the county commission. They also dominate Republican politics in Florida. Although many builders do not profit from moving the Urban Development Boundary, there have been NO Cuban American developers or builders who have spoken out against this commandeering of local government to serve development interests. Privately, leaders in the Cuban American community deplore the heavy-handed domination of local city and county commissions: they know who they are-- Jorge Perez comes to mind-- but their code of silence roars.

A decade ago, Cuban American business leaders formed the Mesa Rotonda and called for an end to the systematic corruption that plagued Miami-Dade and repressed the positive evolution of business and job opportunities here. Mesa Rotonda silently sunk below the waves. This is the reality that cannot be avoided, and yet the Herald and its Saturday editorial seem to express the thought that there is a "clean sheet" and it never hurts to just press forward, never mind the past.

The next Mayor of Miami will be a Cuban American. I dare him-- as should you-- to confront the issues of government corruption head on, beginning with a call by the Mayor to end the code of silence in the Latino community about corruption and organized white collar crime. Let's see how well that goes.