MIAMI — A decades-old interview between Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has returned to the political spotlight just as Florida voters begin casting early ballots in one of Miami's most closely watched congressional races.
The footage, recorded in 1995 when Salazar was a television journalist, is featured in a new campaign advertisement released this weekend by her Democratic challenger, Eliott Rodriguez, another Cuban-American former journalist. The ad contrasts the two candidates' encounters with Castro, questioning the anti-communist credentials that have become central to Salazar's political identity.
Rodriguez, a longtime CBS Miami news anchor, is challenging Salazar in Florida's 27th Congressional District, which includes Little Havana and other heavily Hispanic communities where Cuba's political history remains a defining electoral issue.
"She cozied up to a dictator and, now, she is cozying up to another wannabe dictator, Donald Trump," says Rodriguez in the ad. The advertisement shows Salazar addressing Castro as the man who had captured the world's imagination during the 1960s. In another excerpt, she describes the way the Cuban revolution was discussed at the time as something romantic.
Rodriguez uses those remarks to draw a sharp contrast with his own encounter with Castro, when he attempted to question the Cuban leader about democracy, political prisoners and free elections.
In the footage, a member of Castro's security detail pushes Rodriguez aside as he tries to approach the communist leader following a news conference. The Democrat argues that while he confronted Castro, Salazar secured an extended interview and spoke to him in flattering terms.
The advertisement goes further, linking Salazar's past encounter with Castro to her present-day relationship with President Donald Trump.
Maria Mentira Elvira Salazar has ALWAYS been cozy with socialists and communists, unlike Eliott Rodriguez who always DENOUNCES them. Watch the video below, the difference speaks for itself and leaves no doubt who the real lover of socialists and communists is.👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/UegUa3k979
— Eliott Rodriguez (@ERodforCongress) October 17, 2026
Salazar Says the Castro Interview Was Taken Out of Context
This is not the first time Salazar's interview with Castro has become campaign material. In 2018, Republican primary opponent Stephen Marks used excerpts from the same conversation in an advertisement questioning her political convictions.
Salazar rejected the criticism at the time, arguing that the selected footage distorted an hour-long interview during which she had also challenged Castro.
"The interview was manipulated," she told ABC News in October 2018, explaining that opponents had selected only a few portions of the conversation to create a misleading impression.
She also told WPLG that she had been one of the Cuban revolution's most persistent critics during her broadcasting career and strongly objected to suggestions that she sympathized with communism.
Her campaign has responded to Rodriguez's latest advertisement with a similar defense, while turning attention to the Democrat's political associations. Campaign spokesperson Ana Carbonell accused Rodriguez of recycling previously used footage and criticized him for supporting a democratic socialist Senate candidate and accepting contributions from donors who favor normalizing relations with Cuba.
The renewed controversy comes as Salazar faces a difficult reelection fight in a district she first won in 2020.
Although both candidates are Cuban-American former television journalists, their campaigns have increasingly focused on immigration enforcement, affordability and Trump's policies.
Salazar recently aired an advertisement criticizing Trump's immigration crackdown, saying the president had gone too far. She has also promoted her bipartisan Dignity Act, which proposes changes to the immigration system.
Rodriguez has questioned whether her legislative record matches her public criticism of the administration. Meanwhile, Salazar has defended her efforts to secure immigration reform while maintaining her Republican allegiance.
The Castro advertisement introduces another issue into that debate: how the candidates' journalistic pasts reflect the political identities they now present to voters.
The timing is significant. Early voting began Monday, October 19, at 28 locations across Miami-Dade County and continues through November 1, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
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