As Russia Invades Ukraine, Miami Herald Columnist Tweets, “Should Biden Help Himself to Cuba?”

As users condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fabiola Santiago suggested invading Cuba.
By Joshua CeballosFebruary 25, 2022
Protesters give Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel the finger during the Patria y Vida protests in Miami last July.

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Adversity can bring out the best in people. It can also bring out the worst of the internet.

Take, for instance, the news of Russian forces invading Ukraine Thursday in an effort to overthrow the democratically elected government in Kyiv. As dozens of Ukrainians died in attacks and explosions, tweeters took to Twitter to impart their two cents in 280 characters or less. Some condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin. Others offered condolences to the Ukrainian people.

And then there was Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago, who amid the fog of collective angst as to whether the invasion will instigate World War III or Cold War II, took to the internet soapbox and hashtaggily addressed her 6,000 followers: “I’m just gonna put out there what’s on a lot of people’s minds in #Miami today re #RussiaInvadedUkraine: Now that Putin has helped himself to Ukraine, should Biden help himself to #Cuba? Asking for the 11 or so million humans on [an] island being crushed 90 miles south of #Florida.”

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Santiago, who was born in Cuba and arrived in Miami on a “freedom flight” in 1969, is an award-winning Miami Herald columnist. Recent Santiago columns have addressed the high-profile firing of Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ comments on immigrant children, and vaccine mandates.

Usually, she’s right on target when it comes to voicing what’s “on a lot of people’s minds.”

Asking whether the U.S. ought to invade Cuba was not one of those times.

Santiago’s 10:15 a.m. salvo, though, was suddenly “on a lot of people’s minds”: To date, more than 700 respondents have quote-tweeted her, the vast majority to denounce her take as tone-deaf.

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Her tweet, meanwhile, has netted a little over a hundred “likes.” That’s what the kids like to call getting ratioed.

Some, like Twitter user BlindManBaldwin, reveled in the sudden chorus of tweets about Ukraine, writing, “raw id running rampant. everyone showing their entire ass to the whole world.”

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Others stressed that the U.S. should “leave Cuba the fuck alone” and accused Santiago of being “imperialistic.”
 

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Several users invoked the pejorative term gusano, or “worm” – a term Fidel Castro used to describe wealthy white Cubans who fled Cuba in the 1960s – to refer to Santiago and other Miami Cubans who might share her opinion.

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New Times could not reach Santiago for comment. But the columnist did follow up on her initial tweet by apologizing for “navel-gazing” and clarifying that she did not mean to diminish what’s happening in Ukraine.

She then doubled down on her Cuba-centric focus in a subsequent tweet, mentioning that Thursday marked the 26th anniversary of the day the Cuban government shot down two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over international waters and concluding: “Crime unpunished.”

What’s that other thing the kids like to say? Oh, yeah: Sorry not sorry.

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A Florida International University alum and a born-and-bred Miami boy, Joshua Ceballos served as a staff writer for Miami New Times from early 2020 until late 2022, when he signed on as a reporter at WLRN-FM.

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