Colombian-American Annette Taddeo is running for the U.S. Congress in Florida's 26th congressional district. Taddeo began her public service by heading the Democratic Party in Miami-Dade County before being tapped by former Republican Governor-turned Democrat Charlie Crist, as his running mate for his failed 2014 gubernatorial campaign against sitting Florida Governor Rick Scott (R).
Taddeo will face off with freshman Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo, who is one of the staunches opponents of the recent normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, and who opposes lifting the decades-long embargo against the Castro regime.
While Curbelo's position on Cuba is unwavering, Taddeo's stance on Cuba is a bit shaky.
Back during the 2014 election cycle, Taddeo differed with Charlie Crist about doing business with Cuba. Crist supported opening up business relations with the Castros, while Taddeo opposed the move.
I don’t think we should be doing business with Cuba-Annette Taddeo (August, 2014)
Fast forward a few months to December 17, 2014, and Taddeo sings a different song on the U.S. relationship with Cuba.
Appearing on MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Taddeo praised President Obama's call to normalize relations, Taddeo said the following:
"It's (normalizing relations with Cuba) going to do great things not just for the United States relations in our relations with Cuba, but for Latin America and our relationship with Latin America..."
Taddeo then went on to say that by normalizing relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba, the U.S. "will be able to put more emphasis on those bad things that the Cuban government does to people," adding that the Cuban government "will no longer be able to use the excuse the U.S. has this thing over our heads."
On the day that the Cuban flagged was raised in Washington, D.C., and the American flag went up in Havana, Taddeo avoided the issue on social media, rather preferring to acknowledge Colombia's independence day.
Curbelo on the other hand, held a press conference with Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart to rail against the opening of the embassies, and the ongoing human rights violations and "bad things" Taddeo herself has pointed out are being committed against the Cuban people by Fidel and Raul Castro.
