Jesse Scheckner
Less than three years after he won his seat on the 13-member board, Kevin Marino Cabrera is leaving the Miami-Dade Commission to serve as President Donald Trump’s chief liaison to Panama.
In a Monday letter to county Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin, Cabrera said he is resigning “immediately” to take the U.S. Ambassador to Panama post to which he was confirmed last week.
The power to choose his replacement falls to the Miami-Dade Commission, since the vacancy came by resignation.
Cabrera, 34, called serving on the Miami-Dade Commission “the honor of a lifetime” and thanked his colleagues on the dais, county employees and members of his District 6 team for making his tenure at County Hall productive.
“As I transition into this role, I carry with me the values that guided my services in Miami-Dade: a commitment to accessibility, accountability, and delivering results,” he wrote.
“As Ambassador, I will work to ensure that our foreign policy advances American interests and makes our nation stronger, safer, and more prosperous. Though my role is changing, Miami-Dade County will always be home.”
A first-generation Cuban American and the husband of state Rep. Demi Busatta, Cabrera won his seat on the Miami-Dade Commission by a landslide in November 2022 after receiving a rare endorsement for local office from Trump.
He served as Florida State Director for Trump during the 2020 election cycle. Prior to his elected work, Cabrera was a lobbyist and political operative whose employers included former Gov. Jeb Bush, ex-Congressman Carlos Curbelo, Florida Supreme Court Justice John Couriel, the LIBRE Initiative and Mercury.
He was elected as a Republican State Committeeman last year. His first elected post was as a Miami-Dade Zoning Board member.
On the technically nonpartisan County Commission, Cabrera pushed for policies to address traffic congestion, curb speeding, counteract reckless boating, streamline county permitting processes and renovate Miami International Airport, among other things.
He also successfully sponsored a resolution late last year to rename a street after Trump, who announced Cabrera’s nomination on his Truth Social platform by saying, “Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin.”
During his confirmation hearing March 25, Cabrera fielded questions from both sides of the political aisle on how he views his potential role.
Asked about Trump’s calls for the U.S. to reclaim control of the Panama Canal for national security purposes, Cabrera said his job would be to “serve at the pleasure of the President” and reiterated Trump’s assertion that “all the options are on the table.”
“Part of ‘all the options’ includes diplomacy,” he said, adding, “President Trump is our Commander in Chief, and I stand behind him and his policies.”
He stressed that as an Ambassador, he would endeavor to fulfill Trump’s foreign policy mandate to make the U.S. “stronger, safer and more prosperous” while doing his best to maintain the Panama Canal’s neutrality.
But there are concerns. The Chinese Communist Party has exercised increased influence on the region and Panama, which Cabrera noted was both the first Central American country to enter and leave China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
China’s tendrils are likely still embedded there, Cabrera said.
“You’ve seen it in cities like Colón, with the cybersecurity grants (China gave) for cameras in the area. You don’t know where that cloud information might be stored, who has access to it, and some of the reports were they have cranes that have been given to them by the Chinese government as well,” he said.
Cabrera’s confirmation came on a 51-45 vote along party lines April 9. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who serves as the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined her Republican colleagues in voting for him.
