MIAMI — About three dozen people gathered outside John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah Saturday to rally in support of Christopher Monzon, the GOP canvasser brutally beaten earlier this week about a mile away — an attack that Monzon’s family and Sen. Marco Rubio said was politically motivated.
The protest on Saturday morning, as voters filed into the early voting site steps away, was organized by people with past or present links to the Proud Boys, a national white supremacist organization. They handed out door hangers with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political platform and prepared to canvass in the nearby homes, a symbolic gesture to finish knocking on the doors Monzon did not get to before he was assaulted.
Protesters waved American flags and Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis gear, and held large, blown-up photos of Monzon lying injured in a hospital bed. Several wore t-shirts and hats marked with Proud Boy insignia. Some covered their faces with Proud Boy bandannas. The blame for the attack was laid squarely on Democrats.
“Chris cannot walk today because of the rhetoric of Joe Biden,” Gabe Carrera, one of the organizers, told the crowd.
The beating of Monzon, about two weeks before Election Day, has received widespread media attention after Rubio — who is running for re-election — publicized an early version of the events on Monday morning, saying Monzon was beaten because he is a Republican.
Police say two men confronted Monzon as he passed out fliers south of Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah, a largely Republican and Cuban American city. Monzon told police that both alleged attackers — Javier Jesus Lopez and Jonathan Alexander Casanova — punched, kicked and slammed him on the pavement, as one of them directed his German shepherds to attack him.
It later surfaced that Monzon had a long history of involvement in extremist protests and groups, including the Florida chapter of League of South, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a white supremacist hate group. He has been quoted in recent news articles as sayig he is a former extremist who has renounced political violence.
On Saturday, organizers opened the rally by praying for God to heal Monzon and to stop communism. Carrera, a lawyer from Broward County, compared the German shepherds that one of Monzon’s assailants threatened to set loose on him to the dogs that sheriffs in the civil rights era used to attack African American freedom marchers.
Monzon’s father, Reynaldo Cedeno, called into the rally around noon and addressed the crowd.
“What they did was an animalistic, cowardly act and I thank you all for coming from the bottom of my heart,” Cedeno said as an organizer held the microphone up to the phone.
He said Monzon was still struggling and had serious injuries to his right eye. Cedeno expressed regret for not attending the rally in person but said he needed to take his son to Bascom Palmer to have his injuries examined.
“Keep up the good fight. Let’s not let these thugs get away with what they did,” Cedeno said to the crowd of a few dozen people.
He then joined in a prayer for his son before hanging up.
Another organizer, Gabriel García, a Miami-Dade GOP committeeman who is facing a federal trial for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, said protesters would head to the neighborhood where Monzon was beaten to hand out fliers, knock on doors and “finish his work.” Hialeah, he pointed out, is GOP territory.
“I’m even more surprised that it happened in Hialeah, a primarily Republican area,” García said.
The organizers also played a clip of Rubio criticizing media coverage of the incident at a Friday press conference.
The Miami Herald reported that the initial Hialeah police report made no mention of a political motive. After Cedeno called in to a radio station describing the beating and said his son was wearing a Rubio shirt, the host declared it a politically motivated attack, blaming “leftists.” Following that radio segment, Rubio talked to the father and tweeted to his 4.4 million followers that the canvasser had been beaten by four “animals” who said Republicans weren’t welcome in the neighborhood.
Hialeah officers reinterviewed Monzon and issued a new report. In that one, Monzon is quoted as saying the attackers went after him because he was a Republican.
While an initial invitation to the event promised appearances from local politicians such as Hialeah Mayor Esteban ‘Steve’ Bovo, none showed up.
García told the crowd he had invited Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava, who is a Democrat but holds a nonpartisan seat.
“She’s a no-show because this doesn’t involve taking a knee,” he said in a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.
García also thanked Bovo and Miami-Dade GOP Chairman Rene García, saying of Bovo specifically: “He said to thank us for being here and he supports us 100 percent.”
Another organizer, Chris Barcenas, said that he “did not have an opportunity” to invite Rubio.
“We respect what’s he’s done so far,” said Barcenas, who said he left the Proud Boys in April to focus on his role as a member of the executive committee of Miami-Dade’s GOP. “He’s been a strong supporter of condemning political violence.”
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