Joe Carollo has spent almost half a century in public life in Miami, a fixture in local politics in a career that includes being a four-time City of Miami commissioner, two-time Miami mayor, and a brief sabbatical as city manager in nearby Doral.

He was Miami’s mayor during the Elián Gonzalez saga in 1999 and 2000, in which a young Cuban refugee floated to Florida alone and was picked up by family, only to be seized by U.S. federal agents and returned to his father in Cuba.

In 1997, the Cuban-American politician successfully challenged the Miami mayoral election, alleging absentee ballot fraud and overturning the election results in his favor.

There’s also his yearslong battle with Little Havana property owners William Fuller and Martin Pinilla over a political feud. It resulted in

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