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Controversy over assault on a member of Marco Rubio’s campaign in Florida

The aggression suffered by a pollster and member of the Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign staff in Florida caused controversy, after the legislator denounced on his social networks that it was a politically motivated attack, although the local police say they did not. There is evidence of it at the moment.

The police report, to which CNN had access on Wednesday, indicates that police officers from Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade County, responded to the call of a fight in the neighborhood on Sunday.

According to the police investigation contained in the report, the victim was walking on the sidewalk “distributing political flyers in favor of Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Ron DeSantis”, when he was confronted by two men who blocked his way and, after an argument, they threw him to the ground and beat him.

The report indicates that the victim, identified by CNN affiliate WPLG as Christopher Monzón, suffered facial fractures and other injuries.

Agents arrested a man identified as Javier López at the scene after the altercation. This Tuesday, the Hialeah Police arrested a second suspect, Jonathan Alexander Casanova, who according to the report had fled the scene in a car.

The attack in Hialeah gained notoriety on Monday, when Rubió denounced the incident on Twitter, saying that the attackers had told the victim that “the Republicans could not enter his neighborhood.”

Rubio said the man had suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw and that he needed facial reconstruction surgery.

The victim, according to the report, was transported to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. 

This Wednesday, Laura Ortíz, a member of “Team Marco,” a campaign team for the senator’s re-election, told CNN that the campaign’s official response would be limited to Rubio’s messages on social media.

For his part, Rubio defended again this Wednesday on Twitter his hypothesis that the “Republican volunteer” was attacked for political reasons in several messages published on the social network.

Hialeah Police Sergeant José Torres said Wednesday in an interview with CNN that “there are no indications” that the attack was politically motivated and that the investigation remains open and active.