Politics
After Senate hearing, Kevin Marino Cabrera strongly positioned for Panama Ambassador confirmation
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera faced a fairly friendly audience as he spoke to Senators at his confirmation hearing to become U.S. Ambassador to Panama.
During the hearing, Cabrera fielded questions from both sides of the political aisle on how he views his potential role. Things never grew heated and featured only one potentially contentious exchange. Otherwise, the discussion centered solely on policy, particularly how Cabrera planned to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda for the Central American nation, its pivotal canal, foreign influence on trade, immigration and drug trafficking.
Asked about Trump’s calls for the U.S. to reclaim control of the Panama Canal for national security purposes, Cabrera said his job would be to “serve at the pleasure of the President” and reiterated Trump’s assertion that “all the options are on the table.”
“Part of ‘all the options’ includes diplomacy,” he said, adding, “President Trump is our Commander in Chief, and I stand behind him and his policies.”
Cabrera, a government relations specialist who led Trump’s 2020 campaign in Florida and was elected last year as a Republican State Committeeman, emphasized his nonpartisan work on the 13-member Miami-Dade Commission, where he has served for the past two and a half years.
He said cross-aisle support he enjoyed in his ambassadorial candidacy from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commission Vice Chair Kionne McGhee, both Democrats, and others from all political stripes.
He stressed that as an Ambassador, he would endeavor to fulfill Trump’s foreign policy mandate to make the U.S. “stronger, safer and more prosperous” while doing his best to maintain the Panama Canal’s neutrality.
But there are concerns. The Chinese Communist Party has exercised increased influence on the region and Panama, which Cabrera noted was both the first Central American country to enter and leave China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
China’s tendrils are likely still embedded there, Cabrera said.
“You’ve seen it in cities like Colón, with the cybersecurity grants (China gave) for cameras in the area. You don’t know where that cloud information might be stored, who has access to it, and some of the reports were they have cranes that have been given to them by the Chinese government as well,” he said.
“As a County Commission, we have seen where many times (foreign entities, working through a local business proxy, will) underbid these sorts of things to get their cranes in there by a significant (discount). A lot of these companies are partially government (owned).”
One way the U.S. can counteract China’s influence, he argued, is through economic diplomacy.
“When (American companies) compete, they win, because we have a better product,” he said. He added that China’s sponsorship of Confucius Institutes at all five public universities in Panama and its relationship with government-run TV stations, which “never criticize China,” still pose challenges.
Cabrera said that a lot of work remains to be done to crack down on trafficking and illegal migration, but much has already been accomplished under Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the past 60 days, including a 95% drop in crossings through the Darién Gap, a 60-mile roadless stretch or rainforest on the Colombia-Panama border.
That’s a big deal, he said.
“This is an area where two years ago, you had over 500,000 folks crossing, “he said. “Stopping migration … helps us at the southern border and helps America to make sure these drugs aren’t infiltrating.”
For the most part, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s hardest questions were reserved for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for Israel Ambassador, and his efforts to distance himself from his past rhetoric on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Huckabee and Cabrera fielded questions Tuesday alongside Reed Rubenstein, who served as Deputy Associate Attorney General during Trump’s first administration and is pending confirmation as a Department of State legal adviser now.
Early into the hearing, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate against Trump in 2016, asked about a 2018 incident in which Cabrera, then working as a lobbyist, was caught on video protesting alongside members of the far-right Proud Boys group outside the office of former U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala.
Cabrera has repeatedly maintained that he was exercising his First Amendment rights and denounced the Proud Boys and “any group that espouses any sort of hate.” He repeated that statement, verbatim, when Kaine asked him to condemn the Proud Boys.
“I believe there is no place for (hate), and we have to work together, and I think it would make for a better world,” he said.
Kaine thanked him for being clear on the matter.
Trump tapped Cabrera, who serves as Vice Chair of the Miami-Dade International Trade Consortium, to be his Panama point person in late December, writing on Truth Social that Panama was “ripping (the United States) off on the Panama Canal, far beyond their wildest dreams.”
“Kevin is a fierce fighter for America First principles,” Trump wrote. “Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin — he will do a FANTASTIC job representing our Nation’s interests in Panama!”
A vote on his confirmation will occur at a to-be-determined date.
Florida’s tradition of pro-Israel legislation is on track to continue in 2025, as Senate and House measures punishing so-called academic boycotts are moving through committees.
An anti-boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) measure (SB 1678) that would defend Israel against its opponents in schools and non-governmental agencies advanced through the Senate Appropriations Committee with unanimous support. The companion measure (HB 1519) cleared the House State Affairs Committee by a 23-2 vote.
Sen. Tom Leek, the Senate sponsor, said the bill was necessary to stop “attempts to weaken the state’s ability to conduct trade and exchange with Israel” and to “close the loop on prior good work” by the Legislature in combating anti-Israel sentiment that “often amounts to ethnic and religious discrimination.”
Rep. Hillary Cassel, the House sponsor, extolled the “mutually beneficial relationship” and “economic partnership between Florida and Israel” by contextualizing previous anti-BDS laws and making the case for the proposal, which she said would ensure that “this is where antisemitism goes to die in Florida.”
The measures propose that anti-Israeli actions undertaken by “an educational institution, a nonprofit organization, an agency, a local governmental entity or unit thereof, or a foreign government” amount to an “academic boycott.”
They also would mandate cessation of state contracts and grants with those entities on the wrong side of the ideological conflict if they don’t change their ways.
These entities would have 90 days to correct their noncompliance and be removed from what would be called the Scrutinized Companies or Other Entities that Boycott Israel List under this proposal. Otherwise, the state would divest itself of contracts with them.
If the bill is passed, public funds, such as the State Board of Administration or State University System, cannot invest in these companies. Additionally, it requires that arts and culture grants not go to support antisemitic work.
The bill would also target agreements, like foreign exchange programs, with foreign universities deemed to be supporting antisemitism.
In the Senate panel, Leek was asked about “guardrails” protecting free speech, and cited court precedent establishing the right to pass anti-BDS laws.
The House discussion was more lively, with Cassel asked about whether an individual doing a “Nazi salute” would represent a violation of the law, whether “commercial speech” was protected speech, and whether “unscripted” remarks in art installations could merit a grace period for “correction.”
Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich argued that the slippery slope from criticism of Israel to overt antisemitism in today’s culture make this legislation “extremely needed.”
“It now turns to beyond just being Israeli but being Jewish,” the legislator from Palm Beach said. “Many of you have heard this story where I’ve been out of gas station, someone’s seen my Jewish star and wished I crashed and died and called me a Jewish murderer.”
Four words. That’s all it takes to unravel a parent’s world: “Your child is sick.”
The diagnosis is rare, the prognosis grim. He’s only six, but there’s hope: a new kind of treatment that can be customized to his DNA — a marvel of modern medicine promised for decades that is now a reality.
The potential cure has a gatekeeper, though. While the clock continues to tick, the government won’t allow your child to try this last chance at saving his life.
More than 2 million Floridians suffer from rare diseases, and for thousands of them, outdated federal regulations and the entanglement of bureaucracy continue to block cutting-edge treatments that could mean the difference between life and death. But now, lawmakers in Florida have an opportunity to place life-and-death decisions back in the hands of patients and their doctors, where they belong.
Florida leaders can enact a new law, the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments, that allows Floridians with rare diseases to access innovative, highly personalized treatments without first begging the federal government for permission.
The problem isn’t hypothetical. It’s tragically real.
Take Elijah Stacy, for example. At just 6 years old, doctors gave Elijah a crushing diagnosis. He had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare, incurable, and fatal genetic disease that slowly erodes muscle strength and robs young people of their independence. As they reach adolescence, DMD patients start losing strength in their arms. Eventually, their heart and diaphragm weaken, too. Death typically comes by the mid-twenties.
Waiting on the government to go through reviews and testing, granting approvals, and making recommendations isn’t a luxury someone like Elijah can afford.
When Elijah was only 11, the disease had already taken away his ability to walk. Now, at 23, he’s struggling to use his arms. But that hasn’t stopped him and he’s not saying goodbye. Elijah has led the fight for his life — and the lives of thousands of others — by advocating for the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments.
The reform, which is now law in nine states and currently under consideration in the Florida Legislature with HB 1333/SB 680, defies a federal system that prizes red tape over relief, rules over recovery, and leaves dying patients trapped as they wait for the end to come. It recognizes that those facing debilitating, rare diseases need action now and allows patients to access cutting-edge therapies tailored to their genetic profiles, even if the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve.
“Right now, I can be willing to try a new treatment, the manufacturer of the treatment can be willing to allow me to try it, and a doctor can be willing to administer it — yet Uncle Sam is not willing and stops me from receiving a lifesaving treatment,” Elijah said. “This is completely backwards. After all, doctors know their patients better than a far-off bureaucrat who doesn’t even know the patient exists. Why should I have to beg the federal government for permission to try to save my own life?”
Elijah’s story is far from unique. Tens of millions of Americans, including thousands in Florida, live with rare diseases and want to try anything they can. Although new technology has ushered in an age of personalized care customized to a patient’s unique DNA, regulations have not kept pace, leaving many stranded. Too often, those suffering from degenerative or rare diseases have to wait years for a therapy that could help them today.
By enacting the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments, Florida lawmakers can advocate for some of the state’s most vulnerable, empowering them to fight to save their own lives despite distant regulators standing between them, their doctors, and a treatment.
“The reality for me is that I’m going to die, likely before I reach middle-age,” Elijah explains. “The average lifespan for people with Duchenne is 25. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
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Brian Norman is the director of State Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he assists in developing and implementing Goldwater’s national legislative affairs strategy.
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