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Sanchez: Obama Will Make Pitch To Cubans

Posted May 14, 2008 by William March

Updated May 14, 2008 at 09:29 PM

There’s no word yet on where Barack Obama will appear in Tampa May 21, but according to a prominent Tampa supporter, his three-day tour of Florida next week will include a speech in Miami to the Cuban American National Foundation.

That could be highly significant, because it indicates an attempt by Obama to cut into what has long been a strong, unified base of support for Republicans, the South Florida Cuban exile community.

CANF has long been known as a hard-line anti-Castro organization, strongly aligned with Republicans—the Bush family in particular. But there are indications that it has moderated its views recently, and may be sympathetic to Obama’s stances on how to deal with the island dictatorship.

According to Frank Sanchez of Tampa, Obama’s adviser on Latin American affairs, CANF has agreed to alter the date of its annual celebration of Cuban Independence Day, May 20, to hold its celebration luncheon on May 23, during Obama’s May 21-23 tour of Florida. Obama will speak at the lunch.

May 20, 1902, was the date Cuba achieved independence from Spain, and tratitionally has been the biggest celebration day of the year for CANF.

CANF spokesmen couldn’t be reached to confirm or deny the report late Wednesday—the organization’s web site still announces the date of the lunch as May 18.

But it seems likely the group’s political loyalty could be up for grabs. Its former executive director, Joe Garcia, is a Democrat, running for Florida’s District 25 U.S. House seat from Miami against Mario Diaz-Balart, one of the staunchest supporters of hard-line anti-Castroism in South Florida.

A group of hard-liners, the Cuba Liberty Council, split off from CANF five years ago. Sanchez said CANF’s moderating views have made political waves in South Florida, and that the organization and Obama are not far apart on their views on Cuba. For example, Obama favors easing the restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to Cuba to visit their families, and sending money to their families. Under the George W. Bush administration, those restrictions have been tightened to the point where many Cuban-Americans call them inhumane.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is still up in the air as to what Obama will do and where he’ll appear on the most dramatic day of his Florida tour, the first day, May 21, when he’ll appear in Tampa.

A high-profile, mass rally, open to the public, to demonstrate the excitement Obama can generate and help overcome his long absence from Florida voters, is the most attractive option to the campaign, insiders say. The campaign is checking venues including the Sun Dome and the St. Pete Times Forum.

But partly because of Obama’s avoidance of in Florida, due to the Democratic candidates’ boycott of the state’s Jan. 29 primary, Obama has virtually no organization in Florida. Campaign officials are worried about whether they can bring off the logistics—security, ticketing and so on—necessary for a large-scale event.

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