New radio spots from the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have begun running on Miami stations, including Univision’s influential News/Talk WAQI-AM “Radio Mambi,” in which former Cuban political prisoner Roberto Martin Perez compares his imprisonment to the time McCain spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The ads, in Spanish, except for McCain’s “I approved this message” at the end, don’t mention Sen. Barak Obama (D-IL), but declare that “As someone who has survived the harsh conditions of the Vietnamese prisons, John McCain knows that freedom in Cuba won’t be achieved with concessions to dictatorships.”
The audio has been posted on YouTube, but the campaign has also posted an English translation on its website.
"The harsh reality is that millions of my fellow Cuban citizens are prisoners in their own country," says Perez in the spot. He declares that McCain knows that Raul Castro is just like his brother and will do almost anything to stay in power. “While some support a dialogue with Raul Castro, John McCain believes we should support the courageous men and women who continue to stand up for freedom in Cuba,” Perez declares.
The McCain campaign has been using Spanish radio recently to target Latino voters. Ads which began running recently in New Mexico and Nevada, where most Latino voters are of Mexican heritage, were geared to McCain’s stand on economic issues. The Miami spots target an issue of importance primarily to Cuban-Americans – whether to continue a tough US stance against the repressive Castro regime in Cuba.
