In Florida's Congressional District 27, State Senator Annette Taddeo (D) is hoping to unseat Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R) and regain the seat Democrats lost in 2020. Sen. Taddeo is running as a moderate Democrat opposed to socialism and communism. However, Taddeo's LanguageSpeak, Inc., a business which provides translation services for other businesses, has a client in Goldman Sachs, who infused billions of dollars into Venezuela's government.
In 2017, the financial giant purchased nearly $3 billion in stocks for $865 million from Venezuela's state-run PDVSA oil company, effectively financing the Maduro regime. The investment, which is said to have delivered a "crucial financial lifeline," led to widespread violent protests in Venezuela, leaving 60 people dead as a result of the ensuing chaos.
“‘We recognize that the situation is complex and evolving and that Venezuela is in crisis. We agree that life there has to get better, and we made the investment in part because we believe it will," stated Goldman Sachs to the Miami Herald.
This is not to say Taddeo is a hypocrite, for her business did not make the decision to fund dictator Nicolas Maduro's government. However, her anti-socialism, anti-communism platform could be perceived as hollow when one of her business's clients helped prop up a socialist regime. Moreover, this puts Taddeo at odds with the larger Democratic Party.
As The Floridian covered last year, Taddeo and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell were two of the few Democrats who continued to voice opposition to socialism, while many prominent Democrats in Florida and around the country spoke favorably of socialism. These Democrats included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Donna Shalala, and Carlos G. Smith.
Mucarsel-Powell even went so far as to say Republicans were not only the party of populist authoritarianism but of socialism, too, in response to a video put out by Rep. Salazar celebrating the rejection of socialism in Ecuador's previous election.
More recently, Taddeo has condemned Gov. DeSantis's and Lt. Gov. Nunez's support for sending illegal immigrants who arrive in Florida further north, saying that they "turn their backs on those fleeing communism and socialism."
Republicans like DeSantis, Jeanette Nuñez, and María Salazar talk a big game, but turn their backs on those fleeing communism and socialism.
They’re willing to weaponize the pain of those fleeing Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for political gain. pic.twitter.com/KP0PwGCGOT
— Annette Taddeo (She/Her/Ella) (@Annette_Taddeo) September 7, 2022
"Republicans like DeSantis, Jeanette Nuñez, and María Salazar talk a big game, but turn their backs on those fleeing communism and socialism. They’re willing to weaponize the pain of those fleeing Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua for political gain," stated Taddeo.
Then again, Taddeo has not spoken against Charlie Crist's running mate Karla Hernandez-Mats, who has previously expressed sympathy after the passing of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
