Sanders comments on Castro could pose hurdles
MIAMI >> Like many young votersinFlorida,JaredMachado is concerned about rising sea levels, college tuition and landing a job when he graduates from the University of Florida in a few months. But the political science and history major can’t ignore how his father and grandparents came to the United States: as refugees fleeing communist Cuba.
As he considers his options for president in Florida’s March 17 primary, Machado was disappointed and disturbed when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, seemed to praise former Cuba dictator Fidel Castro in a recent interview.
“He doesn’t understand the traumatizing experience endured by the Cuban people,” said Machado, 22, whose grandparents left the island more than a half century ago, carrying his father, then just a few months old.
Making inroads into Latino communities has been a priority among Democrats and Republicans alike — and Sanders’ big win in the Nevada caucuses Saturday demonstrated his progress toward that goal. But the 78-year-old senator’s remarks, aired Sunday as the candidate was still celebrating, may also show where Sanders’ outreach hits a speed bump.
Sanders’ socialist identification and his willingness to praise leftist regimes have given his Democratic opponents ammunition to question his electability in a state with a large Cuban American population that remains fiercely skeptical of leftist governments.
In Florida, where Hispanics account for nearly one in every five voters, that skepticism could present a major hurdle for Sanders in the state’s primary, and for Democrats hoping to win Florida’s 29 electoral votes in November.
“Candidates need to understand our immigrant communities’ shared stories, as well as provide solutions to issues that matter to all Floridians,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo said Monday.
During an interview aired Sunday on the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” Sanders said he opposes Cuba’s authoritarian regime but “it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad.”
He went on to say: “You know, when Castro came in office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even if Fidel Castro did it?
A Sanders spokesman on Monday downplayed the controversy.
“Senator Sanders has clearly and consistently criticized Fidel Castro’s authoritarianism and condemned his human rights abuses, and he’s simply echoing President Obama’s acknowledgment that Cuba made progress, especially in education,” said the spokesman, Mike Casca.
During a CNN town hall on Monday night, Sanders forcefully stood by his comments, saying he’d criticized “authoritarian regimes all over the world,” including Cuba, Nicaragua and Saudi Arabia, But he added that, after Castro took power in 1959, “the first thing he did” was initiate a literacy program.
“I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing,” Sanders said on CNN, adding: “That is a fact. End of discussion.”
Pressed about congressional Democrats from Florida who have criticized him as too sympathetic to Castro, Sanders shot back.