DORAL: With promises of more jobs and tough rhetoric against Cuba and Venezuela, Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich returned Friday to south Florida in an effort to win over Hispanic voters before the state's all-important presidential primary next week.
The candidate who wins in the Sunshine state on Tuesday could consolidate his lead in the race for the right to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in November's presidential election.
Both Romney and Gingrich described as a "threat" and "enemies" the brothers Fidel and Raul Castro of Cuba and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a conference organized by the Hispanic Leadership Network.
Romney said that if elected president, he would appoint an envoy to assess the status of democracy in Latin America, which brought cheers from the audience.
The envoy's assessment would help formulate policies to "oppose those falling in line behind Chavez and Castro," Romney said.
"This person will be given responsibility with a budget, and it will be annually measured, looking at each nation," Romney said. "Are we making progress or falling behind? How do we work with these nations?"
Gingrich said Chavez could create the biggest threat to the United States since the Soviet Union, given his alliances in Latin America and with the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I do believe we have to take Chavez seriously when he says that he's anti-American," Gingrich told Spanish-language media correspondents at the Doral Golf Resort in an upscale Miami suburb.
"I think we should take an aggressive strategy, a non-military strategy, but an aggressive strategy of replacing Chavez and of giving the people of Venezuela the opportunity going forward," Gingrich said.
The meeting in suburban Miami with Hispanic leaders followed a Republican debate that helped Romney extend his lead over Gingrich by nine percentage points (38 percent to 29 percent), according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
Statehood for Puerto Rico also came up at the HLN conference, especially as former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was the only candidate offered time to express his views on whether the island should become the 51st state during a Thursday debate. Puerto Rico is now a US protectorate.
Gingrich said Puerto Ricans should be supported in deciding for themselves whether they want statehood through a referendum.
"It's not my place to judge for Puerto Rico," Gingrich said.
"But what I'm telling you is that if the people of Puerto Rico make the decision they want to be a state, I will work actively to help them negotiate the process of accession to the United States."
Romney largely agreed with Gingrich, saying that if a referendum were to show Puerto Ricans prefer statehood, "we will go through the process in Washington to provide statehood to Puerto Rico and, again, to create a model in the Caribbean and Latin America on the benefits of having freedom."
Among Florida's 22.5 percent Hispanic population, a majority of Cuban Americans identify themselves as Republican.
However, only 15 percent of the state's more than one million Puerto Ricans are Republicans. More than 20 percent are Democrats and 30 percent say they are independents who shift between parties.
Hispanics represent 13.1 percent of registered voters in Florida. About 452,000 are members of the Republican Party, 564,000 Democrats and some 430,000 "undecided," which makes them a target for million dollar campaigns to win their votes.
The candidates said they would seek to revive the economy, which has produced an 11 percent unemployment rate among Hispanics.
They also repeated their support for increased border security to prevent illegal immigration and tough measures to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Gingrich said he would like to relax the visa system to allow more Latin American tourists and business travelers to visit places like Florida.
Immigration returned to the forefront when a group of students interrupted Florida senator Marco Rubio to protest what they called his "anti-immigrant positions."
When Rubio, a Republican, said illegal immigrants "rob us of the American Dream," activists shouted that immigrants should be given the same opportunity.
They carried banners that said, "Marco Rubio -- Latino or Tea-Partino."
Rubio is popular among his fellow Cuban Americans but often criticized by other Hispanic groups for his tough policies on immigration.
He said he told the presidential candidates that Republicans should not be an anti-immigration party but a party that supports "legal immigration."
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