'Dictators like to ban artists': DeSantis compared to Fidel Castro at heated Miami meeting

Angry throngs turned out to Miami-Dade School Board meeting Wednesday to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' policies as the country tried to figure out how to handle right-wing activists challenging books, reported the Miami Herald on Thursday.

Some who attended the meeting even compared DeSantis to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Among those in attendance were people with Cuban heritage – who highlighted what they said were similarities behind DeSantis' policies and those of Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro.

"'Democracy is difficult. It’s messy. That’s why dictators like to ban artists. That’s why they like to ban art, because it is complicated and it makes us feel for other human beings,' said Carmen Pelaez, an acclaimed Cuban-American playwright in South Florida. '

"As far as I know, there are two people that have tried to ban the story of Celia Cruz: Fidel Castro and Ron DeSantis.'" She was referencing "Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa," one of the many books that was reviewed under DeSantis' new law.'"

Legislation signed by DeSantis makes it far easier for individuals to challenge books. DeSantis, who is seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2024 in competition with former President Donald Trump, has pushed back on criticism, claiming that no books have technically been "banned" in Florida — but this overlooks that hundreds of books have still been removed from school shelves in a sort of limbo while they are "reviewed."

This comes amid a number of other controversial cultural policies DeSantis has passed, including a law that makes it almost impossible to even mention sexual orientation in schools, and stacking the leadership of the New College of Florida with right-wing ideologues to suppress liberal thought on the faculty.