By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
Alex Otaola, a popular Trumpian, anti-communist influencer behind a recall petition against Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, allegedly orchestrated and amplified a smear campaign against a former ally who bankrolled his rise to fame.
In a December defamation lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Armando Labrador, founder of the Miami-based My Cosmetic Surgery chain and the political organization Cuba Primero Inc., says Otaola used his social media-powered megaphone to slander and harass Labrador. For the past two years, Otaola falsely painted Labrador as an unregistered foreign agent for the Cuban state government, the complaint charges.
Otaola, a Republican, ran an unsuccessful campaign for county mayor against Levine Cava, a Democrat, in 2024, coming in third with 12 percent of the vote. Levine Cava, who was first elected in 2020, won reelection in a landslide, capturing 58 percent.
Otaola is one of the organizers behind a recently approved petition to have Levine Cava removed from office. He’s cited several reasons including rising property taxes and violence, county inspectors harassing small businesses, residents being displaced from their homes by developers who donate to her campaign and the mistreatment of dogs and cats at the animal shelter.
The Miami GOP is backing the effort by circulating the petition on its social media accounts, paying for ads and hosting a website directing voters where to sign the petition, according to WLRN.
The petition drive must gather nearly 66,000 voter signatures by May 14 to trigger a recall election like the one that ousted then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez in 2011.
In a statement, Levine Cava dismissed the recall petition as a “political sideshow.” Like many right-wing influencers in MAGA world, Otaola traffics unfounded conspiracy theories to his one-million-plus followers across various platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
Otaola and Labrador did not respond to Florida Bulldog phone messages and emails seeking detailed comment. “We are confident the complaint speaks for itself and that the allegations will be proven through the judicial process,” Yanina Sheinkerman, general counsel for My Cosmetic Surgery, said in an email.
FROM SPONSOR TO TARGET
For years, Otaola and cosmetic surgery and Labrador, who also founded and runs his own social media channel Cantalo TV, moved in lockstep, leveraging each other’s brands to court the Cuban exile audience that powers South Florida politics.
My Cosmetic Surgery Inc. and Cantalo TV were Otaola’s first and largest commercial sponsors, paying monthly fees tied to the online star’s growing viewership on his flagship YouTube show, “Hola! Ota-Ola!” The sponsorship relationship included paid promotion, mentions during live broadcasts and branding opportunities tied to Labrador’s businesses and community events.
In addition to getting promotional benefits, Labrador, through My Cosmetic Surgery, paid Otaola financial support for the continued production and expansion of the “Hola! Ota-Ola!” program. The fee was based on viewership metrics, online traffic and monetization generated by the broadcasts.
In 2021, Labrador expanded the business relationship by sponsoring Otaola’s second daily program, “El Mañanero con Alex Otaola,” which functions as a gossip-oriented online broadcast designed to generate controversy and viewership. Through early 2024, the business relationship between Labrador and Otaola was harmonious as they shared aligned interests in cultivating Otaola’s reach among the Cuban exile community, leveraging his audience for political commentary and cultural influence, the lawsuit states.
The relationship began to sour when Otaola refused to lend public support for a Cuban Heritage event in 2024 organized by the Miami Marlins that Labrador was promoting. Otaola allegedly did not want to get involved because he had publicly criticized the baseball team over perceived mistreatment of the Cuban exile community during the 2023 World Baseball Classic in Miami.
At the time, Otaola had launched his campaign for county mayor. Labrador also decided to sever ties with the Cuban social media star after learning that Otaola’s then-campaign treasurer Andy Santana “may have engaged in inappropriate conduct involving a minor,” the lawsuit alleges. Later that year, in October, Santana was arrested and charged with unlawful sexual activity with a 17-year-old boy, as well as contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In January of last year, prosecutors dropped the charges against Santana.
CAMPAIGN CHARGES
For nearly two years, Otaola repeatedly made false assertions that Labrador was a traitor and criminal on broadcasts that reach hundreds of thousands of viewers across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, the lawsuit states. Otaola launched the smear campaign during the April 11, 2024 broadcast of the “Hola! Ota-Ola!” show when he allegedly falsely asserted Labrador had suffered a psychotic break.
“Otaola alone made this direct verbal assertion, knowing that it would harm Mr. Labrador’s credibility and, by extension, the businesses and organizations publicly associated with him,” the lawsuit alleges. “In that same broadcast, Otaola further claimed that Mr. Labrador had paid or bribed Cuban dissidents and political activists in Cuba to retaliate against, attack, or discredit Otaola after he refused to support the Miami Marlins event.”
Otaola also repeatedly referenced Labrador’s ownership role in My Cosmetic Surgery, harming the company’s business reputation, sowing mistrust with its patents, disrupting its advertising relationships and damaging its goodwill within Miami-Dade’s competitive cosmetic-surgery market, the lawsuit states.
Otaola continued his onslaught against Labrador, including in a Nov. 5 “Hola! Ota Ola!” broadcast. Otaola accused Labrador of conspiring with the Cuban regime and claimed, without any factual basis, that “public audios and evidence” exist proving the conspiracy and allegedly showing Mr. Labrador’s “close ties” to the Cuban government, according to the complaint.
On his Spanish language program, Otaola has also claimed that Labrador illegally smuggled a Cuban YouTube content creator into the U.S.; was a communist agent working with Cuban state security, and engaged in money laundering and other criminal acts. Otaola’s “insinuations falsely suggest” Labrador is committing federal crimes such as violating the Espionage Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the lawsuit states.
Otaola’s ongoing commentary has caused existing and potential clients to avoid doing business with Labrador and his companies, the lawsuit claims. “In the aftermath of Otaola’s broadcasts, Mr. Labrador has lost customers, has had to cancel and postpone events that would have generated substantial profit and has had some professional relationships damaged,” the lawsuit alleges. “Mr. Labrador has also had to curtail public appearances and engagements within the Cuban community in South Florida for fear of confrontation or harm.”
In September, Labrador filed a police report with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office to document threats and stalking behavior by Otaola fans that were a direct result of the smear campaign, including one individual posting photographs of Labrador’s car at his company’s office.
“Mr. Labrador believed he was being physically followed and surveilled by individuals acting at the urging of Otaola’s broadcasts,” the lawsuit alleges. “Notably, around that time, a fan or follower of Otaola even posted a video online bragging about stalking Mr. Labrador as a means of intimidation. This alarming conduct illustrates the real-world danger created by Otaola’s actions.”
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