Coming from a family of anti-communist politicians from Florida, he served in the House of Representatives for 18 years during a time when Cuban Americans were the most influential people in U.S. politics.
Listen to this article · 6:55 min Learn more
- Share the full article
Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2003. In the heavily Cuban Miami district he represented in Congress for 18 years, his name became synonymous with the cause of a free Cuba – so much so that he was asked if he hoped to eventually run for office in Havana.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a staunch anti-communist and Florida Republican who helped enact into law the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and who championed immigrant rights during his nearly two decades in Congress, died Monday at his home in Key Biscayne, Fla. He was 70.
His death was announced in a statement by his two younger brothers, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, and television host Jose Diaz-Balart of MSNBC and NBC News. The cause of death was cancer, according to Representative Diaz-Balart's office.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the scion of a political family in Cuba, built his own political career on the other side of the Florida Straits, becoming a fiery orator and persuasive behind-the-scenes legislator in the House of Representatives at a time when Cuban-Americans were exerting the greatest influence on U.S. politics and elections.
In the heavily Cuban Miami district he represented for 18 years, Mr. Diaz-Balart's name became synonymous with the cause of a free Cuba – so much so that he was sometimes asked whether he hoped to someday run for office in Havana.
As a congressman in 1995, he was arrested outside the White House while protesting President Bill Clinton’s more-engaged Cuba policy, and later helped craft the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which codified the trade embargo and other sanctions into law. The legislation prevented Mr. Clinton and subsequent presidents from unilaterally lifting the embargo without congressional support. Critics of the embargo say it failed because Cuba’s communist regime remained intact.
ImageMr. Diaz-Balart in 1998 sits next to Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American Republican who has worked with him throughout his time in Congress. “The oppressed people of Cuba have had no greater champion of their freedom than Lincoln,” she said.Credit: Joe Cavaretta/Associated Press
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we check access. If you are in Reading Mode, please sign out and sign in to your Times account or subscribe to all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we check access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want to receive every issue of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
