The journalist and former mayor of Miami Tomás Regalado, of Cuban origin, was appointed as the new director of the Office of Transmissions to Cuba (OCB) of the United States Government, the organization reported today.
Regalado, awarded in 2014 in Spain with the Commendation of the Order of Isabel la Católica for its defense of the Hispanic heritage in Florida, will oversee the function of Radio and Television Martí, two media financed by the US Administration.
In a statement in Washington to the channel Miami AmericaTevé, Regalado, 71, said that the “only solution for Cuba” goes through “freedom and democracy”, principles that are the axes of the action of Radio and Television Martí.
“I have always considered that these organizations have to bring Cubans the truth about Cuba and help them advance in the cause of democracy and freedom,” stressed the Cuban-American, who arrived in Miami in 1962, aged 14.
The also Cuban-American senator from Florida Marco Rubio applauded the election of Regalado as the new head of the entity and praised the “professional and human experience” of Regalado, a person, he said, with “knowledge of democracy that is going to carry out a very important function “in relation to the island.
In the same vein, Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, also of Cuban origin, congratulated Regalado and expressed his conviction that the journalist “comes at a key moment” and “understands what the function is” of these two media: ” Help the Cuban people to find out what is happening. ”
“It is a key appointment of the right person for the history of the cause of freedom of the Cuban people,” reiterated Díaz-Balart.
Regalado arrived in Miami (southeast of Florida) in the so-called Operation Pedro Pan, which made it possible for 14,048 children to leave Cuba, in what is considered the largest child exodus of the 20th century in the West.
In his long career as a journalist, Regalado became the first “Cuban-American” correspondent of a Miami media outlet in the White House.
He was elected mayor in 2009 and renewed his mandate in November 2013 with 78% of the vote. In 2017 he left the position of alderman.
As mayor of Miami Regalado (Havana, 1947) he was a continuous defender of the Hispanic heritage in Florida and signed twinning agreements with leading Spanish cities.
