Sweetwater mayoral runoff is a ‘shoot-out’ between arch enemies

Attack campaign jingles, scantily clad women at polls and the alleged attempted murder of a campaign worker whose car was reportedly shot at Monday morning as he drove around with a loudspeaker urging voters to support one of the mayoral runoff candidates.

It may be one of Miami-Dade’s tiniest cities, but elections in Sweetwater always promise high drama. And this year has been no different.

Last week saw the end of an era when both Commissioners Prisca Barreto and Manuel Duasso — who have been elected for 26 and 24 years, respectively — were ousted by newcomers who won despite a little, um, baggage. Saul Diaz, who beat Barreto with 61% of the vote, was investigated for absentee ballot fraud two years ago. And Sophia Lacayo beat Duasso — and former Commissioner Isolina Maroño on her second consecutive loss — with just over 51%, even though she has been dogged by allegations that she (a) doesn’t live in the city and (b) used a younger, thinner, better looking double in her campaign advertising.

That is how sick of the incumbents citizens have become that this baggage doesn’t matter.

Which doesn’t bode well for Mayor Orlando Lopez, who is headed into a runoff with former Mayor Jose M. Diaz. Lopez may have come in first place with 47% of the vote, but former Commissioner Idania Llanio, left, who came in third with 24%, is backing Diaz, who got 29% of the vote and could win if Lopez hit his ceiling. So already a majority of voters rejected him.

The mayoral runoff May 28 becomes a rematch of sorts. And also an epic battle between two arch enemies with a long history of animosity. Diaz was forced off the ballot by a judge four years ago because he didn’t adhere to the resign to run law. That was followed by a failed recall that Diaz had supported (and some say launched). There was no way this would be a civil reprisal.

Already there has been an anti-Diaz parody jingle by Carlucho, a popular Spanish-language TV personality, and a scantily-dressed woman with hand prints on her, um, dress on Election Day, intimating to voters that one of the candidates is a cad. But antics like that have come to be expected in Sweetwater, which some call South Hialeah. Violence? Not so much.

The alleged shooting incident on Monday is either an act of political violence or an elaborate campaign gimmick, depending on who you believe.

One of Llanio’s volunteers — having swapped out the Llanio sign on the roof of his minivan to one for Diaz — was on his daily rounds driving slowly and yelling for voters to “end corruption” when he was reportedly shot at just before 10 a.m. as he turned the from Southwest 6th Street onto 106th Avenue.

Ricardo “Mateo” Rodriguez said he didn’t hear the shots, but felt the impact on the driver’s side door as he drove at no more than 5 MPH. He stopped the car and got out — and then gasped when he saw two bullet holes.

“It was right under where my legs were,” Rodriguez said late Monday, still shaken up. He said he went straight home and called Commissioner Marcos Villanueva, a Diaz ally helping on his campaign. Rodriguez didn’t dare call the cops, who he says are in the Lopez camp.

In fact, about two or three blocks and a few minutes before the shots were fired, Rodriguez said he was stopped by a Sweetwater police officer and told to get moving because he was going too slow — though he suspects it was because Lopez lives on the block he was on.

The officer was nowhere to be found when the shots were fired, he said. “Suddenly, he was gone,” Rodriguez said with a nervous laughter.

Such is his distrust for Sweetwater Police that he said he later called Miami-Dade Police, instead, to file a report. “They were doing tests, looking at the angle it came from,” Rodriguez said, adding that they told him it was likely the work of a long-range high-powered firearm.

And the father of two, including a four month old, doesn’t think he’s going out to campaign again.

“When it first happened, I acted hard, like a man, you know? But then my wife told me why am I risking my life for this,” Rodriguez said. “They’re going to shoot me in the head.”

Diaz told Univision 23 that he didn’t want to suppose that it came from the Lopez campaign, but in the same breath said “if it did, that would be the dirtiest and most dangerous political campaign in Florida history.”

Lopez has said that the whole thing was invented by the Diaz campaign to “get some news because they know they were losing” and smear him a week before the runoff. But one would think they needn’t go to such lengths.

The incumbent mayor has been at consistent odds with the commission. There has been a downpour of bad news in the city even after the 2013 arrest of former Mayor Manny Maroño, left, on federal bribery charges: police corruption arrests, lawsuits, political stalemates, a failed recall effort and a financial emergency that forced the city to stop paying into the pension and ask employees to give up two weeks pay. Lopez had repeatedly asked former Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a financial oversight board, like he did for Opa-Locka, which commissioners blasted as a maneuver to take control away from them.

It seems the Diaz camp has plenty of smear material without having to create a false shooting.

We will update this story with more information when we get the police report.

Jose M. Diaz, Orlando Lopez, Sweetwater politics

Sweetwater mayoral runoff is a ‘shoot-out’ between arch enemies added by Ladra on May 20, 2019
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