Cuban-born Maximo Alvarez, whose parents fled Fidel Castro’s regime, said Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is “influenced by radical people.”
“I will no longer use the word ‘socialist’ because this happened in my country, this is in my bones, this is in my body. Socialism is just a name that communists use to fool you. And Mr. Biden may be or may not be, but I’m telling you, his policies, he’s being totally influenced by radical people,” Alvarez told Fox News’s Bill Hemmer on Wednesday.
Alvarez fled Cuba to the United States in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, which brought more than 14,000 minors to the U.S. as dictator Fidel Castro rose in power in Cuba. He went on to found Sunshine Gasoline Distributors in South Florida.
Alvarez said that countries such as Cuba and Venezuela have been destroyed by communism and warned the same could hit the U.S. if President Trump doesn’t continue “putting America first.”
“Cuba is long gone. Venezuela is lost. We need to solve our problem. You cannot solve your neighbor’s problem until you solve your own family’s problem,” he said. “And this is what Donald J. Trump is promising because he’s always been putting America first. We solve our problems here around, and then we’ll help every neighbor that we have. This is the most generous country in the world. I am living proof. If this country would not be as generous as it’s been, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
Alvarez made headlines last month for his speech at the Republican National Convention, where he warned about Democrats taking power in the upcoming election.
“I’ve seen movements like this before. I’ve seen ideas like this before. I am here to tell you — we cannot let them take over our country,” Alvarez said in August. “I heard the promises of Fidel Castro. And I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises. They swallowed the communist poison pill.”
