Both Garcia and Rivera are well-known throughout Florida and D.C. political circles, and both have many devoted supporters that will be working in overdrive in the weeks leading up to the general election.  An important issue that always lurks in the background of Miami politics is the issue of travel to Cuba, and this campaign is no exception.  The Obama Administration has pushed the idea of lifting the travel ban that the U.S. Government has placed on Cuba since the 1962 embargo to allow Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba without any restrictions.

Last May in a campaign speech in Miami, Obama said, “It’s time to let Cuban-Americans see their mothers and their fathers, their sisters and their brothers.  It’s time to let Cuban-American money make their families less dependent on the Castro regime.”

Since then, travel restrictions have been eased and travel agencies along with their supportive partners and pro-Castro sympathizers have profited from the easing of this ban to the Island of Cuba.  Many of these sympathizers have deep rooted ties to Democrat Congressional candidate Joe Garcia, as the donations to his campaign over the past several years show. Now, questions are being raised as to how deep Garcia’s ties are to these individuals, and whether Fidel Castro’s influence in South Florida extends right through Joe Garcia’s congressional campaign.

Maria ‘Tessie” Aral- President of  ABC Charters
Donated- $5295
ABC Charters flew 10,500 passengers to Cuba this summer, up from 6,000 last year.

”I think all of that will be wonderful when all travel restrictions are lifted,” Ms. Aral said. “But we’re not there yet.”

Marvin Verble- Executive, ABC Charters MIA Operations
Donated- $2000
Married to Vivan Mannerud of ABC Charters (Airline Brokers Co.) Read more here

John Cabanas- Owner of C&T
Donated-$7100
Loann Cabanas
Donated-$800
Adalgiza Cabanas
Donated-$7100

“I support the revolution very strongly, very passionately,” he said. “I am integrated into the revolution in the deepest part of my being . . . I love Fidel like my father, and I believe he loves me like his son.”

John Cabanas, of C&T Charters, is perhaps the least known but the most powerful owner in a group that includes Vivian Mannerud, who followed her father into the business after he was convicted in the 1980s of “trading with the enemy,” in part for taking four Pepsi machines to Cuba; and Francisco Aruca, owner of Marazul Charters, who sneaked out of a Castro-run prison dressed as a child, but now praises Cuba on his Miami radio show.  A large man, quick to laugh and partial to linen Guayaberas with a gold plane pinned to the collar, Mr. Cabanas, 66, grew up in Key West, Fla., but spent 28 years in Cuba. He says his company is the largest of the seven or eight that fly there regularly. NYT: Charter Companies Flying to Cuba Thrive

Certainly since the new White House policy was announced last month, business is booming. “We used to send 15,000, 16,000 people a year,” Mr. Cabanas said. “Now I’ll probably handle 40,000 or 50,000.”

He insists that his prices —  though at least double the cost of flying to the Bahamas — are fair when seen in context. In his view, customers like Ms. Sabatela, who was traveling on a C&T flight to Camagüey, fail to appreciate the industry’s challenges.

Richard Reposa- Attorney/Accountant(Works closely with John Cabañas)
Donated- $4800
Maria Reposa (Wife)
Donated-$4800
Donated $2300 to Raul Martinez for Congress on 02/01/08
The second company to receive a license from OFAC, Miami International Charters, is a new player in the Cuba charter business. It was established last June and is owned and managed by Pompano Beach accountant Richard Reposa.

Reposa’s and Blanco’s new flights are likely to double the 8 to 10 charters now flying to Cuba per week, industry officials said, depending on decisions by Havana civil aviation officials. (CHARTERS)

Thomas Cooper- Founder, Gulfstream International Airlines(1988)
Donated-$500
Gulfstream operates initially as an “on-demand” charter airline serving South Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas.  Is a regional carrier for Continental Connect.
(“Gulfstream”) is a U.S. air carrier that holds a Part 121 Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. Gulfstream contracts with charter operators, under which Gulfstream will provide passenger charter air transportation services between Miami International Airport and various authorized points in Cuba (Havana, Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba). Charter operators must hold Carrier Service Provider (“CSP”) licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The CSP licenses authorize charter operators to market and sell the charter flights to Cuba. All passengers on the charter flights must be generally or specifically licensed (by OFAC) to travel to, from, and within Cuba.  Gulfstream also offers all-cargo charter air transportation services between Miami and authorized points in Cuba.

Francisco x. Gonzalez de Aruca- Founded Marazul Tours(1979)
Donated-$5200
Marazul Tours is the largest travel agency that provides travel service from the United States to Cuba. He is also a radio host on Miami’s “Radio Progreso”, WOCN (AM) (1450).

At the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, Aruca became involved with the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP), an organization led by Manuel Ray, an architect who had served as Fidel Castro‘s minister of public works. Aruca was the propaganda director of the student wing, and distributed anti-revolutionary leaflets and to organize strikes. He was arrested on January 5, 1961, and charged with counterrevolutionary activities, tried ten days later, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 years. Aruca was sent to Havana’s La Cabana prison. Since he was small and looked younger than 20 he was able to sneak out one day from prison pretending to be a visitor. He made his way to the Brazilian embassy and asked for asylum. He spent eighteen months there, until he was able to obtain a safe-conduct pass from the Cuban government. He went first to Ecuador, then to Colombia, and then to Miami.

Armando Marcia- President, Marazul Tours
Donated-$500
Marazul, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, has been in business the longest of the seven air-charter companies licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department to fly passengers between Miami and Havana.

New York Daily News: “No one is afraid anymore; many who never traveled before want to do it now,” Armando García said. “Things are so different that even the Cuban American National Foundation [CANF] is in favor of traveling.”

Eddie Levy and Xiomara Almaguer Levy-Co-Owners XAEL Charters.Inc.
Donated-$6000

Eddie & Xiomara Levy founded Jewish Solidarity.  Jewish Solidarity has been traveling to Cuba for over 8 years, licensed by the US Department of the Treasury – OFAC (Humanitarian Religious Travels) and the US Department of Commerce (Export of Humanitarian Assistance).
Eddy Levy, 75 said the entire travel industry, including charter companies like his own, were laying the groundwork for what they hoped would be a more significant opening.

“The important thing is the relationship between the two countries,” said Mr. Levy, who has focused on connecting Jewish families in Cuba and the United States. “It’s one very big step toward normalizing relations if the United States opens travel to the non-Cubans.”

Alfredo Duran- Attorney
Donated $5600(Duran and Duran Sr.)
In the early 1990s Duran began to urge negotiations with Castro’s government. In 1993 he was expelled from the Veteran’s Association of Brigade 2506 for “reasons associated with his public statements indicating his willingness to go to Havana to discuss the history of the Bay of Pigs invasion.”. As a result Duran established the Cuban Committee for Democracy (CCD).
PBS NewsHour: We must absolutely lift all restrictions for Americans to travel to Cuba. It’s a constitutional right of all Americans to be — it must be protected under the laws of this country. And I think that if Cuban-Americans are allowed to go, Americans should be allowed to go.

Isidora Borja- CEO,PEC International
Donated-$3500

“Get rid of the embargo, then get ready for boom time: One must try to discover the reasons why Miami has been given such a remarkable award as America’s Poorest City. Among many, I would suggest that one is our elected officials in Washington, who have been exchanging political favors in the House and Senate to maintain a useless embargo against Cuba instead of bringing badly needed federal funds to our area.” Miami New Times 2002

Augusto Maxwell- Attorney, Akerman/Senterfitt
Donated-$1000

At Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, lawyers such as Maxwell and his colleague Pedro Freyre say they have a ”significant number” of clients they assist by providing information on embargo regulations. That includes European companies that don’t want to run afoul of Helms-Burton.

The lawyers also work on matters related to exceptions to the embargo such as U.S. exports of food, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals to the island for humanitarian reasons. Spending in Cuba by certain groups, including academics, clerics, journalists, some on cultural exchanges and Cuban-Americans visiting relatives, also is permitted as an embargo exemption.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, commonly called OFAC, enforces more than 20 economic and trade sanction programs for countries around the world but its main focus has been Cuba.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, commonly called OFAC, enforces more than 20 economic and trade sanction programs for countries around the world but its main focus has been Cuba.

”I would say the bulk [of the firm's Cuba work] is OFAC-related,” Maxwell said. “What we’re beginning to grow now is two things: American businesses who are interested in understanding what the law is, and exile Cubans who are interested in understanding what rights they might have for properties in Cuba.” Read more

Ramon Cernuda- Art Dealer
Donated-$5500

In the Nineties, Cernuda embarrassed a number of private collectors who had spent tens of thousands of dollars on paintings that he very publicly deemed fakes. Simultaneously he angered the Coral Gables gallery owners who sold the alleged fakes — he even picketed outside their doors — prompting some of them to file defamation lawsuits claiming he had ruined their reputations and forced them out of business.

In the spring of 1988, he and a small group of fellow collectors organized a fundraising auction at the nonprofit Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Little Havana, featuring paintings by deceased masters Wifredo Lam, Rene Porto carrero, and Amelia Pelaez, plus contemporary artists living in Cuba who had not repudiated the Castro regime. Protesters disrupted the event; one anti-Castro activist bought a painting, took it outside, and burned it. Days later a bomb exploded outside the museum’s front door. Cernuda received so many death threats, he says, he stopped reporting them to the FBI. In June 1990 a much more powerful bomb caused significant damage, and the museum was forced to close for six months.
Then in 1989 U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen ordered a raid on Cernuda’s private collection and charged him with violating the federal embargo on Cuba, formally known as the 1963 Trading with the Enemy Act. In a landmark decision, a federal judge sided with Cernuda, ruling that art is protected under the First Amendment and thus exempt from the embargo.

Charlie Rangel- U.S. Congressman (D-NY)
Donated-$4000
Rangel, a frequent critic of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, met with Fidel Castro on a trip to the island in 2002, but only acknowledged that the Cuban government picked up part of the tab when a watchdog group began making recent inquiries.

Read more here- Rep. Charles Rangel’s Cuba Trip Subsidized by Castro

At a local Teamster’s and Plumbers and Pipefitters Union picnic this past weekend in Dover, Florida (yes, there is a Dover), Governor Charlie Crist was on the campaign trail pressing the flesh with local union members, hoping to get pry away votes from Congressman Kendrick Meek’s Big Union backers.  The AFL-CIO has already endorsed Congressman Meek, but Crist is still aggressively courting Meek’s labor voting block. Crist did not deviate from his cliched talking points- yes, it still is  ”all about the people”, and he denied that he met with President Barack Obama in Martha’s Vinyard several weeks ago.

But things got a bit chippy at Crist’s Q&A session with the press, where yours truly, Maha-Sharkie was assaulted and harassed by two of the local Teamster’s thugs-let’s call them Bubba and Cletus. As you will see in the video, Bubba and Cletus bum-rushed El Sharko and the camera, but what wasn’t caught on camera was an innocent young girl who was run over by these thugs as they attempted to shut down El Sharko.  I tried to make Cletus understand that he was embarrassing the Governor, but apparently he did not understand the English that was coming out of my mouth. I do speak several languages, including Spanish, English and Shark-ish, but if im going to stay on the trail with the Crist Campaign, I think I’m going to need to learn how to speak “Deliverance”.

Kendrick Meek delivered a fiery speech to the AFL-CIO teamsters and their families at their Labor Day picnic, imploring them to get out the vote for him and the rest of the down-ballot Democrats. Congressman Meek is coming off his victory in the Primary election against billionaire Jeff Greene, and he has risen in the latest polls that have been taken in the three-way race between Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist and himself for U.S. Senate.  Meek took a moment from the event to jump into the Shark Tank and discuss the race and what he thought about Governor Charlie Crist’s newly found ‘Independent epiphany’.  When I asked him about Crist running as an Independent, Meek said that the “Governor’s been very inconsistent in his leadership, I wouldn’t call it leadership.”   Meek also opined that Crist “became an Independent out of convenience, not out of conviction.”

To his credit, Congressman Meek is right, while he has always stood by his Democrat principles and Rubio by his Conservative ones, Crist pretends that yesterday never existed, and tomorrow could bring yet another flip-flop on the issues. Watch the Meek interview here:

UPDATE: Mario Rubio, Marco’s father, passed away last night. Our prayers go out to the Rubio Family on their loss during their time of mourning.

At an AFL-CIO picnic in Jupiter, Florida, Congressman Kendrick Meek announced that his scheduled debate with Republican nominee, Marco Rubio was cancelled. Rubio cancelled the debate that had been scheduled for Sunday on Meet the Press because his terminally ill father took a drastic turn for the worse on Friday, and his prognosis is not good. Marco and his dad remain in our thoughts and prayers.  Even though Congressman Meek and Rubio greatly differ on the issues, Meek showed that he is truly a respectable and honorable person, not to mention a formidable candidate for the U.S. Senate seat that these two men are vying for. Former Republican Governor Charlie Crist, now an Independent, was also in attendance and I asked him what he thought of the elder Rubio’s illness, to which he responded, ” Yeah, I heard about that.”

At last year’s Associated Press meeting of reporters, Sink was quoted as saying that the “first rule of business is to know who you’re dealing with.”  Well, there are oversights, and there are oversights. It is incomprehensible for Sink to not have vetted Mr. Rothstein– even as rumblings of his shady dealings were whispered rumors around Florida’s political circles.  But Sink was apparently much more interested in taking Rothstein’s donations- donations that would have the added benefit of stinging the GOP like pouring salt into an open wound. And even though Sink returned the contributions after Rothstein’s indictment, there may be no other Democrat running this election cycle that is more owned by special interests than Alex Sink.

Alex Sink is trying to run as a post-partisan, middle of the road type of campaign to appeal to all of Florida’s voters, employing as much conservative-sounding rhetoric as possible to cloak what really is a liberal agenda.  But Sink cannot explain away her support for the disastrous Obama Stimulus plan or her support for Government-run healthcare – “ObamaCare”-  both of which she campaigned for, just as Charlie Crist did.  More on the Sink-Obama connection to come here on the Shark Tank, stay tuned.

Scott’s selection of Representative Carroll may come as a bit of a surprise, but it is a fantastic pick.  Over the course of her legislative career, Carroll has proven herself to be nothing less than a solid conservative in the State House, and her voting record demonstrates that clearly.

In some of her more noteworthy votes in the House, we discovered that Carroll voted ‘Yes’ on a bill that would prohibit employers from prohibiting employees from possessing any legally owned firearm that is lawfully possessed & locked inside  a vehicle in  parking lot. (Firearms in Vehicles)  Another key vote Carroll made was when she voted ‘Yes’ on the controversial  pre-abortion ultrasound  bill that requires an ultrasound to be conducted by the Doctor who is to perform the abortion to let the woman view the live ultrasound images and explain the images prior to the woman signing off on the consent to have an abortion. (Ultrasound Bill)

On the votes she has made in regards to fiscal matters, Carroll has held true to fiscal conservatism throughout her career, voting in favor of small businesses and lower taxes time and again.

Representative Jennifer Carroll is a married mother of 3, and  a retired Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, is originally for Trinidad, and resides in Fleming Island, Florida.

We tip our hat to Mr. Scott for making this brilliantly shrewd pick for Lieutenant Governor. In the most recent poll taken by Rasmussen, Scott is ahead of Florida CFO Alex Sink in the Governor’s race.  Scott’s pick of Lt. Commander Carroll could be the torpedo that will ‘Sink’ the USS Obama, as it tries to navigate Florida’s waterways in November, for as you already know, sinking ships provide lots of chum for El Sharko…

GOP Gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott is vowing to unify the state Republican Party as well as lean on them to support all Republican candidates running in both Congressional and  State races. The state GOP has long been accused of meddling in contested Republican primaries, as well as not supporting all Republican candidates. In the 2008 election cycle, I, as well as many other well connected people were told that RPOF resources would only be expended on ‘races that the party thought were winnable’. So what the party was telling us back in 2008 was that a candidate the caliber of Allen West was not a “viable candidate” and the it RPOF was the final judge as to would win or lose any race.   Fast forward 2 years-  and the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is broke, but Scott’s vow to help all candidates is good news for all candidates statewide.  Is it fair to assume that Rick Scott is now holding the purse strings at the RPOF?

In a press conference Tuesday, Mississippi Governor and Head Honcho of the Republican Governor’s Association(RGA) told reporters that the RGA would be playing a large role in the upcoming Gubernatorial race in Florida. Barbour said that the RGA would  be committing millions, not hundreds of thousands to keep the Governor’s mansion in Tallahassee in GOP hands.

Appearing at a press conference in Sweetwater, FL along with Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Republican Gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott predicted that his ideas for creating jobs were ideas that most Floridians will support, and he predicted a big victory for himself in November. Scott addressed the crowd of over 250 and stood side-by-side with his primary opponent’s supporters- a strong show of solidarity within the GOP.  Scott did not comment when asked who he would pick as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor as he faces a general election matchup against Alex Sink and the rest of the Obama Administration.  One rumor that is swirling around Miami-Dade County is that outgoing State Senator Rudy Garcia is on the short list of candidates for the Lt. Governor position.

If this rumor proves to be true, Garcia could be very problematic for Scott, since Garcia has been a long time supporter of  turncoat Governor Charlie Crist and stuck with Crist after Crist switched party’s. (Read more here-RPOF)

“Miami-Dade County Chairman, Elected to the Florida Senate for the 40th District in 2000, Member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1994-2002.” Read more here WMBB News 13. There is no love lost between passionate Republican Rubio supporters around the state, especially in Miami-Dade County- with politicos and voters who remain loyal to Governor Crist.  There are several who have already gone on record saying that they will not support Scott if he Garcia picks as his running mate. Many of these Crist loyalists have already been or will be purged from their respective GOP clubs for violating the Republican Party of Florida’s loyalty oath.  Senator Rudy Garcia would be a very bad choice for Lt. Governor by Mr. Scott.

Nationally renowned know-it-all and political strategist extraordinaire Roger Stone took some time off form his busy Saturday to jump into the Shark Tank for a brief Q&A session with yours truly, El Sharko. I met up with Roger on Miami Beach and in typical Stone fashion, Roger walked up to our not-so-secret location wearing his trademark sunglasses and plaid shorts, a very relaxed look for Stoney.

Roger chimes in on the Rubio Senate race and how he feels that it is Rubio’s to lose. He then rips into Senator LeMieux for his purported involvement with Jim Greer and Charlie Crist-I am going to place my bet that Roger doesn’t like George so much. And lastly, Stone weighs in on the race to unseat his own Congresswoman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  He had endorsed Karen Harrington in the Republican primary and feels that she can beat DWS in the coming general election.