Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart Has Died in Florida

He was a giant in Little Havana USA!!

     Despite two foreign wars that direly concern the United States, the death today at age 70 of Lincoln Diaz-Balart in Miami is headline news. He was born in Havana in 1954 during the height of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba and while the Fidel Castro-led Cuban Revolution was well underway in far eastern Cuba in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, although in 1954 it was not a huge worry to the powerful dictator Batista in Havana. In 1954 one of Batista's top ministers/politicians was Rafael Diaz-Balart, who was Lincoln's father. On January 1st in 1959 things changed drastically with the victory of the Cuban Revolution that chased Batista to his getaway airplane, which was bound for dictator Trujillo's Dominican Republic. It also chased Rafael Diaz-Balart to southern Florida where Lincoln became a powerful lawyer and an even more powerful anti-Castro politician. As the headline today on March 3rd in 2025 from Washington by Axios News says, it was Lincoln Diaz-Balart "who put the Cuban embargo in law" in the superpower United States.

      In fact, Lincoln Diaz-Balart was a prime architect of all the major U. S. laws that were intended to destroy Revolutionary Cuba and to enrich and empower Cubans in Miami's Little Havana area. Those two major laws shown above, of course, have been the ageless Helms-Burton Law and the endless Cuban Embargo.

       So the death at 70 of Lincoln Diaz-Balart is resonating loudly today, especially in Havana where Lincola was born and in his beloved Little Havana USA in Miami.

     The father of Lincoln was Rafael Diaz-Balart who was born in Fidel Castro's hometown of Banes, Cuba in 1926 the very same year that Fidel Castro was born there. They were close friends through Law School but to say that they became bitter political enemies would be an historic understatement. Fidel became a rebel fighting to overthrow dictator Batista while Rafael became a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship. In fact, after Fidel's ill-advised attack on the Moncada Army Barracks on July 26th in 1953, Batista considered giving Fidel amnesty as a gesture to the majority of Cubans who loved Fidel madly. But the person in the Batista dictatorship that spoke successfully against the amnesty and advocated successfully for at least a long prison sentence was his childhood friend Rafael Diaz-Balart.

       

      In fact, this photo shows Rafael Diaz-Balart in one of his forceful anti-Castro speeches that influenced dictator Batista to sentence Fidel to a long prison sentence in the Isle of Pines prison in 1953. In 1955 Batista did release because the U. S. advised him to do so to appease the Cuban peasants.

    This historic photo shows Rafael Diaz-Balart, in the center wearing a holstered pistol, at an anti-Castro/pro-Batista rally in Cuba.

      This montage of photos show Rafael Diaz-Balart standing in the center next to his father who was also named Rafael. The two photos on the right show father Rafael's two sons Lincoln, who was born in Havana in 1954, and Mario, who was born in Florida. Lincoln was in the U. S. Congress from 1993 till 2011 when he retired back to Miami and was succeeded in the U. S. Congress by his brother Mario who remains there until this day in March of 2025. So from 1993 until today Rafael Diaz-Balart has had an anti-Castro son in the U. S. Congress. Both, of course, tried to bring an end to Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, which incredibly remains in power in Cuba although Fidel himself died at age 90 in 2016. And, by the way, Rafael also had two other sons -- one of whom is a nationwide news anchor at NBC News and another son that is a highly successful banker in Miami.

       The amazing history of the Diaz-Balart & Castro families intertwined wildly. Rafael Diaz-Balart's sister was Mirta Diaz-Balart and, incredibly, she became Fidel Castro's wife. They had a son named Fidelito.

        But today -- on March 3rd in 2025 -- the amazing Love-Hate saga of the Diaz-Balart and Castro families focuses on the death of Lincoln Diaz-Balart in Miami. And, of course, the reactions in Havana and in Little Havana USA are particularly profound.

*&*************************&*