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Termed out of office after this year, Elian Gonzalez lawyer Manny Diaz will relinquish his throne as Mayor of Miami in November. At this point the two persons running — Commissioners Tomas Regalado and Joe Sanchez — represent more of the same. And although both may be decent human beings, neither seems the mayorly type.

But I understand that giving serious thought to a run for mayor is Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro. Not that he’s the mayorly type either, but Barreiro and his family for years have built a voting bloc around Little Havana that has made him nearly unbeatable. There control of elderly Cubans in the area is well-known. Tactics used to control them — questionable. But that’s another story for another day.
Word on the street is that Armando Gutierrez, yes! the same Armando who ran the Elian Gonzalez ordeal in Miami… right into the ground, is trying to talk the Barreiro clan from not jumping into the mayor’s race. Gutierrez is working on the Regalado race.

We will see how and where all this ends up. It just amazes me that Miami may have to settle for one of these three duds as mayor of the most important city in Florida.

I’ll keep you posted of what transpires.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

4-21-2009

There was an interesting mention yesterday in Radio Miami’s Max Lesnik’s section where he becomes El Duende (translated as something of an unruly ghost). During the minutes long report from beyond the tomb (as he likes to say), El Duende reports of rumors regarding writer and Miami Herald columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner. If you will remember, not too long ago in this same blog space, I called Montaner a “believable liar.” As I wrote then, “I have yet to see him in a media appearance where he doesn’t make up something along the way. He quotes statistics and studies that were never conducted — and people believe him. He has more information from inside Cuba than most anyone I know. Yet, he’s not been inside the island in years and from the BS he handles I doubt he really knows anybody inside Cuba.  He must make it up along the way…”

It turns out, and again I must emphasize this is rumor and I am simply citing a report from El Duende, the Obama administration is busy checking out all monies being spent by the U.S. government directly related to propaganda against Cuba. You’ve heard of these folks — from Radio and TV Marti to the many (right here in Miami) who ended up with Godiva chocolates, leather jackets and who knows what else, all bought with money that was supposed to go to Cuban dissidents. This happened a few years back.

Apparently, from what El Duende tells us, and he insists it’s rumor, one of the persons who has received bad news from the U.S. government is Carlos Alberto Montaner… like I said not too long ago, “A believable liar.”

Alvaro F. Fernandez

4-8-2009

For a while we’ve advertised the Eye on Miami blog through both versions of Progreso Weekly and Semanal. If you read them, you’ll understand why. They dedicate most of their time on stories that should have been covered by The Miami Herald right here in our own backyard. They currently have a story titled, Miami Herald redacts Associated Press article highlighting our blog that is a must read. Let me give you a taste:

REDACT: to obscure or remove text from a document prior to publication or release.

On Sunday, the Herald reprinted the AP story on foreclosures in Homestead whose original version appeared in many newspapers around the nation and featured our blog. The lengthy national story by former Miami New Times and St. Pete Times journalist Tamara Lush featured the foreclosure crisis and included the view we expound here, on Eyeonmiami. The Herald version on the weekend, printed in the Neighbors section, redacted the AP segment of the story that featured Eyeonmiami and, specifically, my views of the crisis.

Click above and read it. Folks, the higher ups in The Miami Herald have always been part of the problem… as for leaving out key parts of news stories. For those who’ve forgotten we used to document that with a column we call our B.S. Detector (for Bilingual Scam). They used to tell us one thing in Spanish and another in English. So this doesn’t surprise me.
Alvaro F. Fernandez

4-6-2009

What follows is a letter that appeared today (Sunday - March 29) in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.

CHOOSE EDUCATION OVER STADIUM

It is my opinion that the needs of our children and teachers must be considered greater than the need for a new Marlins stadium, or any other stadium for that matter. What is a half-filled stadium when compared to the half an education offered our children by the present educational system? Stop taxing, bonding and mortgaging our future for the sports arenas and spend the dollars where they will do the most good. Education comes first in benefiting our country’s future and our children’s future.

Carl Drakeley, Davie

If you’re surprised, sorry, but I will have to call you a fool. The Florida Marlins are halfway to getting a new stadium using more than 80% tax dollars (in other words, OUR money) and constructing the new baseball palace built for rich folks at the old Orange Bowl site in Miami’s Little Havana. The final vote before City of Miami commissioners was 3 to 2 (Angel Gonzalez, Joe Sanches and swing vote Michele Spence-Jones voting for… and Tomas Regalado and Marc Sarnoff against).

What’s next? A vote before county commissioners on Monday (March 23). Count on the votes being there (for the Marlins). If not, don’t be surprised if we see another postponement of any final vote — the strategy which has been used by a team of lobbyists, Marlins personnel and yes, politicians on the ball-team’s bandwagon (for whatever the rea$$on…).

Alvaro F. Fernandez

03-19-2009

Have you ever met people who sell their lies as truth? Then get away with these “croquetas“, as I would call them, and end up looking smarter than most? It’s how I view Carlos Alberto Montaner, a Miami Herald columnist, who is loved by hard-right Cuban extremists in Miami and Madrid, and whose writings are filled with bluster, lies and stories that are hard to believe. But you know what? he sells them. And apparently well.

I don’t know the character (in person), and honestly I’m not interested in meeting him, but I have kept pace with him through his columns, television interviews, radio appearances and other public appearances where he has shown a great mastery over members of the media and their viewers, listeners and readers. I say this because I have yet to see him in a media appearance where he doesn’t make up something along the way. He quotes statistics and studies that were never conducted — and people believe him. He has more information from inside Cuba than most anyone I know. Yet, he’s not been inside the island in years and from the BS he handles I doubt he really knows anybody inside Cuba.  He must make it up along the way…

Just today I read a column published by The Miami Herald titled “Raul Castro - No foes, more power” where after you’ve read it you ask yourself how he does it. Seriously, after reading this piece (and if I dared believe what he writes) you’d say he lived inside Raul Castro. He gives a blow by blow account of the new Cuban leader and why he is doing what he’s done. He describes events like if he had spoken just recently with Castro. He speaks of Carlos Lage and Perez Roque as if he knew them, but what’s most amazing about his writing is that at times you catch yourself believing the bullshit.

Carlos Alberto Montaner is a dangerous man. I say this because he’s talented, apparently intelligent and sells himself off as a person with deep sources of information in the most remote places he’s never been too. And people believe it. One last thing, for years many have wondered who he really answers to… some swear it’s that U.S. agency known worldwide by its three letters.

Come on Carlos Alberto, come clean. Tell us the truth, for once.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

03-17-2009

The Miami Herald has a new columnist, Jackie Bueno Sousa. I think she’s lost. Either that or she’s really trying to cozy up to Miami’s hard right Cuban population — probably the ones with $$ who might give her a job when she loses hers with The Herald (hey, everyone else is getting laid-off at that place…).

I woke up to her column today in the front page of the Metro section and started reading. Her headline drew me to a problem that has many of us very upset these days — top executives of large corporations getting outrageous salaries and bonuses while people under them are being fired, getting paid very little or simply getting screwed by those same highly paid execs. The interesting part was how she came out defending the executives saying we were stereotyping all of them and that only a few are giving the rest a bad name.

Interesting, I thought. But that’s when things really got weird. Three quarters of the way down the column she wrote about a joke she heard in Havana of all places. She traveled around the world in the joke and ends up with Cuba and a Cuban government official and a mansion… well, the joke made no sense and had little connectivity to her column.

I won’t link Bueno Sousa’s column because it’s really not worth the read. And like I just wrote, makes little sense. But it leads me to think that Jackie, who just got a job with The Herald, expects to lose it soon. Maybe a really stupid column like this one, which sticks up for highly paid executives and tries to insult Cuba and Cuban officials, will ingratiate her with some rich hardline Cuban in Miami who might offer her a job.

Oh my, The Miami Herald really has downgraded. Like I mentioned in an earlier comment, it’s sad.
Alvaro F. Fernandez

03-16-2009

This morning Miami Herald employees were met with more bad news. A memo from publisher David Landsberg informed them that there again would be a reduction of the workforce. Total today (March 11) was 175 employees losing jobs while 30 currently vacant position will not be filled, a 19% reduction. “The place looks like a morgue,” a Herald employee told me over the telephone.

Although in today’s economy a job is a job, things aren’t that great for those who survived the cuts in Miami’s only major newspaper. The Landsberg memo also informed those staying that their salaries were being slashed. Plans are to cut 5% of salary for anyone at the newspaper making between $25,000 and $50,000. Those making more than $50K will suffer a 10% slash from their paychecks. Changes will go into effect on March 23.

Yesterday I reported that Time Magazine had tabbed The Miami Herald as one of 10 major newspapers that would disappear as we know them. In their article they said The Herald would become a strictly online venture in both English and Spanish. Today’s news seems to add fuel to this fire which rages in our fair city.

On my end, I am sad to see what is happening. There are hundreds of people losing jobs on a weekly basis. And love them or hate them, I’ve been reading The Miami Herald since I was a little kid.

Alvaro F. Fernandez