The recent US midterm elections had a mixed result, leaving Democrats in control of the Senate and narrowly majority Republicans in the lower house.
But like any national order election in United States of Americait has consequences for its foreign policy and on this occasion it has opened the door to what could be a new formulation in its dealings with Cuba and Venezuela.
This time the impact is simple: the Republicans have literally rebelled against Florida, to the point of winning 20 of the 28 seats that make up their delegation in the lower house, the Senator Marco Rubio was comfortably re-elected and the governor of the state, Ron De Santis, he was so overwhelmingly reappointed that he is now considered a very serious contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In other words, it is an important state by population and economy, but like Texas for Republicans and California for Democrats, everything indicates that it is no longer a competitive state in presidential elections.
And even more, in a state where politics is dominated by Latin American exiles and children of exiles, especially Cubans, Venezuelans and Central Americans, 54% of the Latin votes favored the Republicans.
According to polls, Hispanics in Florida generally favor a tough stance on Cuba and Venezuela.
Hispanics make up 27 percent (5.8 million) of Florida’s nearly 22 million residents, and with varying trends in a national population where 60 percent are of Mexican and pro-Democracy descent.
But at the same time, Florida’s political influence waned thus openly favoring the republican party and indeed the current president Joe Biden he lost the state vote in November 2020.
Without the incentive to compete for Florida, which has 29 votes in a presidential election, Democrats have more freedom to try out different policies.
It is in this sense that one hypothesizes what could happen in the Latin American causes favored by the Republicans.
On the one hand, it is recalled that Biden was vice president when Barack Obama re-established formal diplomatic relations with Cuba – which could have affected the Democrats of that state – and more recently, driven by the oil supply problems created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he it allowed a US company to resume work in Venezuela, in what is interpreted as a political change.
Democrats have internal opposition, such as that represented by the powerful Senator Robert Menendeza Cuban-American who represents New Jersey and chairs the House Foreign Relations Committee.
But the fact is that domestic politics has opened the door to new possibilities.
BY JOSE CARREÑO FIGUERAS
[email protected]
@CARRENOJOSE1
MAZ
