A political ecosystem behind the racist, antisemitic, misogynistic FIU group chat

The racist group chat scandal tied to Republican student political circles at Florida International University did not materialize overnight, out of thin air. It grew from something. Over time. It was nurtured by an environment that not only tolerated this kind of hate speech, but secretly and subtly encouraged it.

Sure, people are falling all over themselves now to denounce the statements posted on an FIU College Republicans message group and leaked to Javier Manjarres of The Floridian, who published them earlier this month. But are we to believe that this happened in a vacuum? Several Republican electeds spoke to the same group during a series of civic speeches at the school. One of the main participants has been tied to Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and two of the four commissioners.

Now, a 31-minute video found online raises new questions about the role Lago may have had in shaping these young minds.

The video shows the Gables mayor speaking on campus late last year, in what appears to be a conversation with students about politics, leadership and, yes, ideology. During the talk, Lago leans heavily into themes of Catholic identity, patriotism and grievance politics, warning students about what he portrays as a left-wing agenda targeting traditional values and neighborhoods.

At one point he complains that the political left wants to “tax white neighborhoods more.”

Front and center in the audience: Dariel Gonzalez, one of the student participants in the racist group chat that first included a slur to disabled people and was later changed to “Gooning in Agartha,” a vague Heinrich Himmler reference that only Hitler fans would know and what Gonzalez himself called “Nazi heaven.” Also, “gooning” is a slang term for prolonged masturbation with delayed gratification. So basically, the name of the group was “intensely masturbating in Nazi heaven.”

The scandal has rocked not only the FIU community, but wider political circles. Many electeds from both sides of the aisle, from municipal mayors and commissioners to state reps and senators, have denounced the language and attitude in the group chat. Even those who have been guests to the group. Are these just performative statements because they got caught in proximity?

State Rep. Juan Carlos Porras — who was also one of the guest speakers during last year’s Civic Engagement Series put on by the FIU GOP — issued a statement where he called for the immediate resignation of Miami-Dade Republican Party Secretary Abel Alejandro Carvajal, who created the group chat and seemed to participate in the name-calling.

“Hatred toward Jewish Americans, racist rhetoric, calls for violence, all these ideas have no place in our party, our state or our country,” said Porras, who championed the renaming of a portion of Southwest 107th Avenue in front of FIU as Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue. And of course, he had to use the opportunity to slap the Democrats a little.

“This is the difference between our party and the modern Democratic Party,” he posted. “Republicans police our own. We hold our leaders to a higher standard because the voters who trust us deserve nothing less.”

But c’mon. Porras was either complicit in November when he went to speak before the group or he is so dense he can’t see and smell outright incel racist rage when he’s stuck in a room full of it. Ladra wishes there was a video of that conversation.

Remember, this is the same Miami-Dade GOP that had been infiltrated by members of the Proud Boys just a few years ago. Back then, Republican leaders swore it wasn’t a big deal.

The video of Gables Mayor Vince Lago at his civic series event is from Nov. 3. So, it is about 20 weeks old. Ladra is surprised it hasn’t been scrubbed yet. Maybe the new Jewish female president of the FIU College Republicans administers the site and thought it should be preserved.

What’s striking about the video isn’t just who’s in the room — which is Lago, Gonzalez and literally six other people. Siete gatos. So lame. How embarrassing for him.

No, what’s striking is the tone.

He compared “ultra-Democrat” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and told the students that the then-upcoming election in Miami was important because it would pit a Democrat against a Republican in the runoff. “What I believe that Democrats are trying to do to us as a country is divide and conquer,” he tells them.

In the highly self-aggrandizing speech, L’Ego patted his own back for being a successful businessman and also claimed to invent “open door Fridays,” which have been his office hours for years.

But the remark about the left wanting “to tax white neighborhoods more” was delivered as part of a broader critique of progressive policies and should draw attention and scrutiny in light of the group chat scandal, which includes many reiterations of the N-word and some awful suggestions of violence toward Black people. Lago’s speech echoes the kind of identity-based grievance politics that has increasingly defined parts of the national conservative movement. Ala Andrew Tate.

Ladra would say it veers uncomfortably close to the language associated with white Christian nationalist rhetoric, where religion, patriotism and demographic anxiety get blended together into a single political narrative.

Either way, it’s not the kind of talk many residents expect from the mayor of Coral Gables, even though parts of it are sort of a reflection of the political culture inside Coral Gables itself, where Lago has been known to treat women with disrespect.

In particular, the public mistreatment of Commmissioner Melissa Castro, who has frequently clashed with Lago and his allies on the dais. Those debates have often gone beyond policy disagreements, critics say, morphing into ridicule and efforts to portray Castro as illegitimate or hostile to the city’s interests. His holiday message to residents included a graphic of Castro with overly-exaggerated curves in tight clothing singing “Santa Baby,” which everybody knows has sexual connotations.

His community defenders — anonymous trolls online and a very poorly written desperate-for-attention anonymous Substack author that seems to be another incel — also attack Castro with inappropriate almost pornographic images and content that debases her as a woman. And nobody — not even Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson — puts a stop to it.

The bigger story, though, may be the network surrounding the group chat and the FIU speech and tying it all together into a political ecosystem.

The video places Lago in the same political space as Gonzalez and other young activists tied to the FIU student political scene — a world where campaign operatives, political families and local officials frequently overlap with student politics. The lines between student activism, campaign politics and local government networks can get blurry. Very blurry.

Dariel Gonzalez was reportedly volunteering or working for Lago, Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara at early voting sites last year. Social media posts confirm he was there to support them, though he wasn’t wearing a campaign t-shirt, probably because, as New Times noted in an article, he wants to be an extra in the next Great Gatsby film. Gonzalez wears the same costume pretty much everywhere, even to a Coral Gables museum gala where he sat at the mayor’s table.

Lago brushes it all off as an inconsequential connection, but in the video from FIU, the mayor is mentoring these young racists and misogynistic anti-semites. Ladra can’t help but wonder if that’s the political culture at Coral Gables City Hall, too.

Which brings the story back to the FIU chat scandal.

The messages that shocked many readers with their racism, antisemitism and misogyny did not appear in a vacuum. Young political activists tend to absorb the cues of the political culture around them — how leaders speak, how opponents are treated, and what kind of rhetoric earns applause. They’re taking those cues not just from Donald Trump. But from local leaders like Lago they can actually touch.

When humiliation and grievance become common political currency, escalation isn’t far behind.

That doesn’t mean Lago wrote any of the messages in the group chat. No one has suggested he did. But leadership shapes environments long before scandals expose them.

And the resurfaced FIU video is a reminder that the culture surrounding the chat — the rhetoric, the networks, the overlapping relationships — has been developing in plain sight for a while.

Sometimes, all it takes is a scandal for people to start watching more closely.

This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

Juan Carlos Porras, Miami-Dade Republican Party, Vince Lago

A political ecosystem behind the racist, antisemitic, misogynistic FIU group chat added by Ladra on March 22, 2026
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