TSA apologizes for Cuban delegation visit to Miami International Airport – NBC 6 South Florida
The Transportation Security Administration apologized Thursday after a Cuban delegation visited Miami International Airport this week, saying the visit was not communicated ahead of time with airport and county officials.
TSA said in a statement that it met with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other county and MIA officials to discuss the visit where five members of the Cuban government spent five hours at the airport on Monday and were shown two areas, including a security checkpoint and a baggage screening area.
“(We) expressed our shock, and really disappointed that we had not been notified, and this was extremely offensive, especially on the independence day for Cuba, and that our community was really in an uproar about this,” Levine Cava said Thursday.
TSA said in the future, it will coordinate potential visits from aviation officials from other countries well in advance.
“It will be a new protocol going forward because we cannot be surprised like that and we cannot be blindsided,” Levine Cava said. “We need to know who’s coming to our airport, and we need to have a say.”
Cuban delegations have visited the busy airport twice before, in 2011 and 2015. TSA said Cuban delegations have visited American airports a total of six times “with the purpose of exchanging technical information on aviation security.”
“It makes no sense,” Emilio Gonzalez, the former director of MIA, said Thursday. He joins a chorus of local leaders, both Republican and Democrat, condemning Monday’s visit.
“Seeing how many people work there, seeing who is who, seeing the type of equipment that they use — the fact of being inside a TSA secure facility, that’s a vulnerability in and of itself,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez was the director of the airport during the 2015 visit and said he had no idea. Although TSA is a federal agency, as director of the airport, Gonzalez said he was often made aware of delegate visits from other countries.
“Unconscionable. And it tells you a lot when they don’t tell anybody,” he said. “What is highly unusual, questionable, and unfathomable is that you would bring somebody from a country that’s a sponsor of state terrorism. I mean you either are or you’re not.”
