Trump picks a Miami-Dade commissioner as ambassador to Panama amid canal controversy

Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald on Dec 25, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President-elect Donald Trump wants a Miami-Dade County commissioner to serve as ambassador to Panama. The nomination comes as Trump is threatening to retake control of the Panama Canal over fees charged U.S. ships in the waterway.

Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, a Republican who won his county election two years ago after an endorsement by Trump, got the ambassador nod on Christmas Day through a social media post by the president-elect. The nomination comes days after he met with Trump at his Palm Beach private club, Mar-a-Lago.

“I am pleased to announce that Kevin Marino Cabrera will serve as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Panama, a Country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal, far beyond their wildest dreams,” Trump posted on his Truth Social website. “Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin – He will do a FANTASTIC job representing our Nation’s interests in Panama!

The announcement puts the 34-year-old Cabrera, a former lobbyist, on track to be the Trump administration’s point person in a Central American nation that’s already been a target of saber rattling by the president-elect. Trump is warning Panama that the United States will attempt to retake control of the Panama Canal if fees charged U.S. vessels aren’t reduced.

Cabrera was director of Trump’s 2020 Florida campaign. In 2022, he was a lobbyist running for the open District 6 seat against a Coral Gables commissioner when a Trump endorsement vaulted Cabrera ahead in fundraising and then in votes in a district Trump won by 33 points this year.

“I am committed to supporting President Trump’s America First vision and will work tirelessly every day to uphold his bold approach to international diplomacy,” Cabrera said in a statement Wednesday. “Representing the United States abroad is a duty I take with the utmost pride.”

The Spanish-speaking Cabrera’s planned departure to Panama will give the remaining commissioners the chance to name his replacement if the 13-seat board opts not to call a special election to fill out the remaining two years in Cabrera’s first term.

Among the potential contenders for the seat: Bryan Avila, a Republican state senator; Eric Diaz-Padron, the Republican mayor of West Miami; Natalie Milian Orbis, a West Miami city commissioner and wife of Cabrera’s District 6 chief of staff, Manuel Orbis Jr.; and Francisco Petrirena, legislative director for the city of Miami.

Cabrera, born in Miami to parents who fled Cuba, was the first Republican commissioner to endorse Trump in a GOP primary where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was briefly favored to win.

He has also been Trump’s top surrogate among the six Republican commissioners. In November, he sponsored the county legislation that led Miami-Dade to recognize Hialeah’s creation of President Donald J. Trump Avenue outside of City Hall. Since 2023, Cabrera has worked as Florida director for the America First Policy Institute, a think tank aligned with Trump.

In Cabrera’s 2022 run for the District 6 seat representing parts of Coral Gables, Hialeah and Miami, he leaned on his backing of Trump, and made “Dade First” his campaign slogan and Miami-Dade First the name of his political committee. In that race, Cabrera beat Jorge Fors, then a Gables commissioner, by 22 points.

Critics called Cabrera extreme for his role in a 2018 protest of a Nancy Pelosi visit to Coral Gables organized by the local GOP that also drew members of the far-right Proud Boys organization. Video showed Cabrera and others banging on the door of a Democratic campaign office and demanding Pelosi and other Democrats inside “open up.”

Assuming Cabrera is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he will be working for another Miami-Dade Republican: Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state.

Trump’s fight with Panama may still be waiting for the next ambassador. This week, Trump posted on Truth Social that fees charged U.S. ships transiting the canal are “ridiculous” and warned the United States would take back the waterway if the costs don’t go down. Panama also can play a key role in reducing illegal immigration into the United States by increasing enforcement at the Colombian border — which is already a U.S. priority.

It takes about four hours to fly from Miami to Panama City, so Cabrera’s post won’t keep him too far away should he choose to run for county mayor in 2028 after the county’s current Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, finishes her second and final term.