MIAMI, United States. – Hialeah, the city with the highest proportion of residents of Cuban origin in the United States, reported this Thursday the activation of an emergency plan to respond to citizen celebrations that could occur if an eventual “fall of the regime” occurs in Cuba, according to an office of the EFE agency.
The mayor of Hialeah, Bryan Calvoexplained in a conference that the Police and Fire departments already have a security plan and that the authorities estimate that at least 10,000 people could gather in spontaneous celebrations.
Hialeah is part of the metropolitan area of Miami-Dade County and has around 300,000 inhabitants, of which three quarters are of Cuban origin, according to the same report.
Calvo framed the preparations in the symbolic and demographic weight of the city within the Cuban exile. “Hialeah is the city in the United States where there are the most Cubans living at the moment and it is also the city in the entire world where the most free Cubans live; so it is very important for us and we are closely monitoring the situation that is escalating on the Island of Cuba,” he declared.
Along these lines, the mayor maintained that “the days of that regime, of that dictatorship, are coming to an end” and linked that perception with what he described as regional effects after actions by the United States in Venezuela.
Although Calvo clarified that the City Council does not have “any event planned,” he anticipated that, if a relevant event occurs “in the coming days, weeks or months,” there could be “large demonstrations in this community.” “We do not know exactly what is going to happen, when or how something is going to happen on the island of Cuba, but we know that there is not much time left and we are monitoring the health conditions and the things that are happening on the Island,” he stated.
The mayor insisted that the objective of the operation is to prevent incidents and guarantee that, if celebrations break out, they take place without violence, so that “it is a peaceful celebration, a celebration of pride of the Cuban people and that there are no bad actors who intercede or try to cause disruption or any damage to property or person,” he said.
In total, more than 1.5 million people of Cuban origin live throughout Florida, almost two-thirds of the national total in the United States.
Calvo also mentioned the “national emergency” declared by Donald Trump due to “the threat” that the island’s regime would represent. In this context, the mayor recalled that in January the City Council identified around 280 businesses with possible links to Cuba, and that it is reviewing whether these relationships imply violations of the law or warrant withdrawing licenses. “We are focused on the civil part, but if we are talking about money laundering, obviously, that is a crime,” he told EFE.
