The neighborhood, not removed from Amelia Earhart Park, is a group of palm-tree-lined single-story houses, lots of them surrounded by white fences and finely manicured landscaping. The neighborhood is on the north aspect of Hialeah, one of many Miami space’s most reliably Republican-leaning cities, with a robust contingent of conservative Cuban voters.
As a longtime Hialeah resident, Monzon — as soon as generally known as the “Cuban Confederate” for his help for Southern states’ secession — seemingly felt at residence canvassing in the neighborhood.
While handing out political flyers selling Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Ron DeSantis, Monzon ran right into a pair of native residents with violent rap sheets, who have been hanging by a brand new Mercedes Benz SUV with two German shepherd guard canine within the again seat.
Police data state that Monzon bought into an argument with the 2 males — 25-year-old Javier Jesus Lopez of Hialeah and 27-year-old Jonathan Alexander Casanova of Miami — after they instructed him they did not need him of their neighborhood.
The dispute devolved right into a brutal beating wherein the duo fractured Monzon’s eye socket and severely bruised his face, based on Hialeah police. Lopez slammed Monzon into the bottom and continued punching him whereas he was defenseless on the pavement, police say. In the center of the combat, Casanova allegedly opened his 2021 Mercedes sport utility automobile and let his canine out. According to the police data, he inspired the 2 German shepherds to assault Monzon whereas Monzon was being assaulted by Lopez.
Lopez was arrested on scene, however police have been unable to right away find Casanova, who fled the realm in his automobile earlier than officers arrived.
While Monzon was being handled at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, a politically charged firestorm erupted after Rubio publicly acknowledged that Monzon was assaulted as a result of he’s a Republican and was carrying garb in help of the senator. Rubio indicated on his social media that the attackers instructed Monzon that Republicans “aren’t allowed of their neighborhood.”
Lopez’s arrest report made no point out of a political dispute. His mom, Diana Rosa Lopez, instructed the Miami Herald that her son has by no means voted, and that she didn’t know what political motivations Rubio was referencing.
When Casanova was arrested in Miami Beach two days after the incident, Hialeah police authored a second report that detailed Monzon’s sworn allegation that Casanova focused him as a result of he’s a Republican, which was in line with what Rubio had posted earlier within the week.
As of October 27, the publicly out there police data embrace statements from Monzon, however none from Lopez and Casanova. The alleged attackers haven’t commented on what sparked the confrontation, and the Miami-Dade public defenders’ workplace has not responded to New Times’ request for remark.
The Hialeah Police Department claims that video surveillance footage corroborates Monzon’s assertion that he tried to maneuver away from Lopez and Casanova once they confronted him on the sidewalk. (New Times has submitted a public data request for the video.)
In the times following the incident, Sen. Rubio has criticized the media for citing Monzon’s previous as a white nationalist and his completely reported historical past of anti-Semitism and racism. Rubio particularly attacked the Miami Herald over the article wherein the paper interviewed Lopez’s mom.
“When a republican volunteer is savagely crushed the standard media treats the sufferer because the legal and the legal as a pleasant younger man who likes fishing & simply made a mistake,” Rubio tweeted on Tuesday.
The controversy comes two weeks earlier than a midterm election wherein Rubio is seeking to fend off Democratic challenger Val Demings.
A evaluation of Miami-Dade County legal courtroom data reveals that every one three males concerned within the altercation have a historical past of felony costs arising from alleged violent conduct.
In 2016, Casanova was charged with armed theft and kidnapping; he served probation on the primary cost. He was additionally hit with a felony rely of grand theft that yr, although that case was dropped by prosecutors.
Lopez is out on probation stemming from two separate housebreaking and theft circumstances relationship again to 2017 and 2018. In one of many circumstances, he was accused of robbing a neighborhood enterprise whereas armed with a knife. The different case concerned his arrest after police discovered him driving a stolen automobile.
Last yr, Lopez confronted one other legal case wherein he was charged with three counts of assault with a lethal weapon. The case was dropped by prosecutors and closed out in April 2021.
For his half, Monzon served probation and was ordered to attend anger administration lessons after he was caught on video utilizing a Confederate flag as a spear, lunging at rival demonstrators in August 2017. He dedicated the assault whereas protesting the City of Hollywood’s plans to re-label streets named after accomplice generals and a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, based on police data.
Weeks earlier, Monzon had attended the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the rally, Monzon was filmed waving a accomplice flag whereas chanting the racially charged mantra “they won’t change us.”
Last yr, throughout his failed candidacy for a seat on the Hialeah City Council, Monzon stated he had left his long-held put up as a member of the white nationalist group Florida League of the South, and that he regretted utilizing slurs in opposition to Black and Jewish folks. (Among different previous feedback, Monzon had allegedly expressed a want to “lynch negroes,” and that African Americans are “fortunate to be right here.”)
On his Instagram, the place he goes by Christopher Monzon Cedeno, Monzon apparently has posted solidarity with the Confederate military as just lately as August 2021.
