FIU Board Chair's Company Is an Alligator Alcatraz Contractor

The chair of Florida International University’s (FIU) Board of Trustees runs one of the state contractors that helped build Alligator Alcatraz deep in the Everglades.

Carlos Duart is the president of CDR Companies, formerly known as CDR Maguire, a consulting firm whose affiliate companies include emergency management, disaster recovery, engineering, and health and medical services. Over the years, the firm has received numerous state contracts. Duart is one of several Gov. Ron DeSantis allies whose companies helped the state quickly build and open the controversial detention facility that will house up to 3,000 detainees in the coming days.

"With offices across the nation, the firm has expanded to provide engineering consulting services, emergency management solutions, and disaster health and medical services, overseeing over $2 billion in construction, over $10 billion in disaster recovery, and $500 million in COVID-19 related medical services," the company's website reads.

In October 2021, DeSantis appointed Duart to the FIU Board of Trustees, reappointing him to the board on December 19, 2024. On the same day in late 2024, DeSantis appointed Duart's wife, Tina Vidal-Duart, to the board of trustees at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). As first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, the couple and their companies have donated $1.9 million to the Republican Party of Florida and two political action committees supporting DeSantis.

Vidal-Duart is the CEO of CDR Health, a healthcare consulting company headquartered in Miami. The company offers emergency and disaster health solutions, refugee health programs, mobile health solutions, and vaccination and testing services.

"CDR Health has the resources to provide 'boots on the ground' emergency disaster health and medical services immediately following a state or national health disaster," its website states.

She is also the chair of the Florida Grand Opera Board of Directors and the vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. Vidal-Duart also serves on the board of the Hope Florida Foundation, Casey DeSantis' charity, embroiled in controversy after it received a $10 million donation from a Medicaid settlement "funneled through the Casey DeSantis-affiliated Hope Florida Foundation to attack a referendum staunchly opposed by her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, to legalize cannabis," according to WUSF.

According to the Miami Herald, the funds "consisted of Medicaid dollars owed to state and federal taxpayers, contrary to what the governor and other officials have publicly asserted."

Duart confirmed to the Associated Press that his firm is involved in Alligator Alcatraz but did not disclose what services they are providing, pointing to a nondisclosure agreement.

Some state contractors working at the 39-square-mile site have covered logos and USDOT numbers on their trucks, in violation of state and federal regulations. Despite these attempts to evade public scrutiny and criticism, these companies, like Fort Lauderdale's Classic Recycling, have received numerous complaints on Yelp as a result.