While the island nation of Cuba was sending more than 29,000 doctors to 59 different countries to battle the deadly coronavirus pandemic, officials in Miami-Dade County were allowing God knows how many thousands of people to pack the beaches for Spring Break at a time when the CDC was highly recommending people practice social distancing. This hasn’t stopped rabid right-wing Cuban exiles in Miami from blaming their mother country for the rapid spread of the virus throughout South Florida, with one County Commissioner even going so far as to invoke the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s.

Without any basis in fact, County Commissioner Javier Souto suggested that the coronavirus could in fact be a case of biological warfare by Cuba against the United States government. Leaving aside the fact that it is the U.S. that has a history of planning biological warfare against Cuba, it defies logic to think that Cuba is responsible for Miami-Dade officials being irresponsible enough to allow for thousands of college kids to gather at Miami beaches and ultimately become carriers of the novel coronavirus.

Nevertheless, county commissioners have used the opportunity to approve a resolution urging the FAA to prohibit all travel to and from Cuba for at least 60 days. They insist, without a shred of evidence, that Cuba is not being honest about the number of COVID-19 cases on the island, and that they are responsible for its rapid spread across the South Florida county. “You can’t believe anything that’s coming out of Cuba,” insisted Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, “just like you can’t believe anything coming out of China.” While casting aspersions on Cuba and its government, these same county officials haven’t called for any restrictions on travel to and from New York, which currently has more COVID-19 cases than any single country in the world. If there’s one constant in Miami-Dade politics, it’s that exile politicians never let an opportunity to stir up hatred for Cuba and its socialist revolution go to waste.

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