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Biography
Joe Carollo (born March 12, 1955), is a Cuban American politician who served as mayor of Miami, Florida. Defeated in a run-off by former mayor Xavier Suarez, his campaign filed a successful legal change based on voter fraud, becoming mayor in 1998 until 2001. Born in Caibarién, Cuba in 1955, Carollo moved to Miami when he was fifteen years old, having previously lived in Chicago. Carollo was mayor of Miami during the Elián González scandal. As mayor, Carollo supported the efforts of Elian's Miami family to keep the boy in the United States, and criticized the U.S. and Cuban governments for the raid to retrieve Elián. Carollo lost his bid for re-election in 2001, and former mayor Maurice Ferre ran and lost against Manny Diaz, a lawyer who had represented the Miami family of Elián González.