![\"United](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MIA_2025-01-03AD2360VenezuelaCelebration.JPG\" "\\"United")
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United States Repsresentative Maria Elvira Salazar speaks during a joint press conference with Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez held in Doral, Florida, to discuss the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro on Saturday, January 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n
adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Former CBS Miami journalist Eliott Rodriguez posted an attack ad Saturday against Miami Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, claiming she \u201ccozied up\u201d to Cuba\u2019s former President Fidel Castro to secure an exclusive interview with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe cozied up to a dictator and, now, she is cozying up to another wannabe dictator, Donald Trump,\u201d Rodriguez, who is challenging incumbent Salazar in Florida\u2019s 27th Congressional District, said during the commercial.<\/p>\n
Her response: to accuse her opponent of being even cozier with the dictator-run nation by aligning with donors who want to re-open the U.S. relationship with Cuba.<\/p>\n
Both Salazar and Rodriguez are Cuban Americans, who are former journalists. They are both vying for a seat in a heavily Hispanic district in Miami-Dade, which includes Little Havana. In the commercial, the snippets of Salazar show her 1990s sit down with the late Communist leader. Rodriguez claimed Salazar praised the revolution, \u201csaying all these wonderful things\u201d about Castro during the interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou, Comandante, the man who captured the imagination of the entire world in the 1960s,\u201d Salazar said to Castro, according to the commercial. She later referred to speaking about the revolution \u201cas somewhat romantic\u201d at the time, the commercial shows.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez also included footage of him following Castro down a hallway after a press conference in Cuba. He said in the commercial he wanted to ask Castro tough questions about democracy, political prisoners and efforts to have free elections in Cuba, but Castro\u2019s bodyguard shoved him out of the way. It was a much different story during Salazar\u2019s interview with Castro, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time bits of the interview have been used against her in a political ad. In 2018, Stephen Marks put together a commercial that highlighted excerpts from the sit-down<\/a> while running against Salazar in the Republican primary for Florida\u2019s 27th congressional district.<\/p>\n \u201cRecycling clips unsuccessfully used by prior Salazar opponents will not shield Eliott from the fact that he is backing a democratic socialist for Senate nor that he is funded by a who\u2019s who of donors seeking to normalize relations with the Cuban dictatorship,\u201d Ana Carbonell, a spokesperson for the Salazar campaign, told the Miami Herald.<\/p>\n