Carter’s foreign policy towards Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti left huge marks on South Florida

The Carter administration era opened the floodgates to Miami.

President Jimmy Carter’s name is indelibly tied to one of the largest sea exoduses in history, one that shaped Miami for years to come and arguably played a part in his reelection defeat: the Mariel boatlift. Between April and October of 1980, about 125,000 Cubans came to South Florida in boats from Havana’s Port of Mariel, provoking political backlash for Carter, who, in a speech that May, said America would “continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom.” His foreign policy left a profound impression in a city where thousands of Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan refugees fled from countries that his administration struggled to steer toward democracy — with little success.

Carter died on Sunday. He was 100 years old. His years in office were marked by mass migration to the shores of South Florida, the rise of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and human rights and constitutional crises elsewhere. Almost half a century later, the failure of the Carter administration to advance democracies in the hemisphere remains a challenge for U.S. policy.