BY ALDO NAHED

A funeral service will be held today for Ivon Fuente, a Little Havana political fixture better known as Estrella Rubio, who helped launch the careers of many Cuban-American politicians.

Fuente died Friday from stroke complications at a friend's Miami home. She was 92.

''She was very ill the last six months of her life,'' said Laura Vianello, a family friend.

Fuente was known for her sharp-tongued political opinions on Spanish-language radio shows and her influence in local politics where she maintained a network of elderly citizens. She was close to dozens of politicians from city commissioners to congressmen. In 1998 Fuente was among 19 people arrested in a vote fraud investigation of city of Miami elections. The vote fraud scandal prompted a state appellate judge to reinstate Joe Carollo as mayor of Miami and remove former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, who was not involved in the fraud.

The probe showed Fuente had witnessed at least two absentee ballots and voted absentee under the name of Fuente. She also witnessed three ballots, using the name of Rubio. She was sentenced to six months' probation.

''I've never done anything outside the law,'' she was quoted as saying to a Miami Herald reporter after undergoing heart surgery in the late '90s.

A Mass will be at 9 a.m. today at San Juan Bosco Catholic Church, 1301 W. Flagler St., followed by burial at Woodland Park North Cemetery, 3250 SW Eighth St.