He similarly made a 100-day pledge to appoint a task force targeting drug dealing in the region, as well as to convince American children that using drugs spurs drug-trade deaths south of the border.
In addition, Romney said he would appoint an envoy for “democracy and freedom” who would have a budget and quantifiable goals for spreading those ideals in Latin America.
“Think about this: We convince people around the world to buy a brown, caramel-colored water called ‘Coca-Cola,’ and to pay like a half-day’s wage for it,” he said. “I mean, it’s a great product; I like Coca-Cola. My goodness, we sell it around the world. And yet democracy, we don’t sell that so well.”
Hispanics, especially Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans, are being targeted by all four GOP candidates heading into Tuesday’s Florida primary.
Romney has opened a polling lead in Florida after losing to Gingrich in last weekend’s South Carolina primary, and his confidence was evident in a more than 20-minute speech that contained not one reference to his rival.
Gingrich, by contrast, singled out Romney by name as he defended his immigration views during remarks to the Hispanic Leadership Network immediately before Romney.
Gingrich, repeating some of the promises he made earlier to a Latin Builders Association meeting in Miami, told the crowd he would re-orient the US vision from the Middle East to points south.
He not only urged the US military to move supervision of Mexico from its Northern Command headquarters in Nebraska to Southern Command in Miami, but he also called for rallying opposition to Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
“I think we should take an aggressive strategy, a non-military strategy but an aggressive strategy, of replacing Chavez and of giving the people of Venezuela the opportunity going forward,” he said.
The former House speaker also reiterated what he described as a long-held view Puerto Ricans should be allowed to decide whether their island commonwealth should become the 51st state.
