“What are they afraid of, losing fake news outlets?”
The 2020 presidential election was a fraud. Donald Trump won — by a lot.
The January 6, 2021, attempted coup against the U.S. government was led by the Black Lives Matter movement with help from Antifa.
Candidates running as Democrats in Miami during the 2020 elections were all socialists and communists.
Above is the fake news you heard in the days leading up to and after the presidential election that saw Joe Biden win the U.S. presidency by more than 8 million votes and almost 100 more Electoral College votes from two of Miami’s most popular “Cuban” stations, Radio Mambí and WQBA.
These “alternative facts”* spouted on Cuban Miami radio would not allow differing opinions to be aired during those tense months after the November 2020 defeat of Donald Trump.
It was nothing new, really. “Truthful information has been hard to come by on Cuban radio,” wrote the Miami Herald’s Fabiola Santiago in a column about the brouhaha that has formed since Latino Media Network — a group made up mostly of Democrats, who include billionaire philanthropist George Soros and two former Obama administration officials, plus Latina broadcast veteran Maria Elena Salinas and some disenchanted “Never Trump” Republicans — announced it was purchasing the two Miami radio stations.
Santiago says it best when she writes: “What are they afraid of, losing fake news outlets?” And explains, “Florida’s GOP and its Cuban-American supporters are in a tizzy over the prospect that the sale of two iconic Miami news radio stations will open to debate the Republican-monopolized political conversation in the county’s Spanish-language airwaves.”
It reminds of the case of Raul Martinez, the once popular former mayor of Hialeah turned radio commentator, who for years worked in one of Miami’s Spanish-speaking radio stations, WSUA, a subsidiary of Colombia’s Radio Caracol. Martinez, a Democrat who served as mayor for decades and has extensive political connections in Miami, Tallahassee, Washington, DC, and beyond, had a very popular radio program where he went after corruption in Miami, and the inefficiencies displayed by many of our local politicians. Most belonged to the Republican Party, and most, since 2016, had turned Trump sycophants.
Because of pressure applied by “unknown” persons, Martinez was suddenly fired from his top-rated afternoon show, from one day to the other. No reason was ever given. And Martinez was not even allowed to say goodbye to his audience.
Not one of those same Cuban Americans who are now up in arms about the sale of their propaganda outlets, Mambi and QBA, and who claim censorship, ever said a word about the Raul Martinez firing.
Then there’s the case of Progreso Weekly founder Francisco Aruca, who had wildly popular radio programs in Miami during the 1990s and early 2000s. I asked our editor and publisher, Alvaro Fernandez, who worked closely with Aruca during that period, about the Aruca radio programs and how they were systematically eliminated by mysterious sources and without little, if any, information.
“I’ll start by stating categorically that the Aruca programs revolutionized Miami in the 1990s. He presented a different point of view regarding Cuba and the U.S. relationship with Cuba. It was something that had never been heard —publicly, at least — in this city. And I can say this because I’ve lived in this area since 1960,” said Fernandez.
“There were certain people here who wanted to kill him. And they tried. His businesses were bombed. More than once. And he had a bodyguard that went with him everywhere. Hell, he had a friendship with FBI agents who warned him of tips received of people planning something against him,” added Fernandez. “In spite of this hate, Aruca’s program became so popular among many in South Florida, that Miami New Times voted him the best Spanish-speaking program on Miami radio, and Neil Rogers, who had the highest rated radio program in South Florida, without knowing Aruca, called his program the best in Miami.”
“We knew we were reaching a wide audience because although Aruca worked from a tiny station that he paid (from his own money) time for, we would compare ratings whenever they came out and notice that during the hours of Aruca’s shows, the rating of other Cuban stations would dip and then go back up after his shows…” explained Fernandez.
As Fernandez later explained to me, what Raul experienced recently, that happened to Aruca several times, “20, 25 years ago,” he said. Adding that never did anyone hear of these Miami “Cuban patriots” complain of censorship back then.
So welcome to the Latino Media Network. On a personal level, I hope you don’t cower to the fascist voices in Miami who want to bully us into hearing only one side of THEIR controlled political argument. Again I will resort to the aforementioned Santiago column in the Herald where she states: “With the announced sale of legacy stations Radio Mambi and WQBA to the newly formed Latino Media Network, Republicans in Florida seem to be losing the most important mouthpieces they’ve used to spread misinformation among Miami-Dade’s faithful Cuban-American and other Hispanic voters.”
As for Lourdes Ubieta, a Venezuelan, and the Nelson Rubio, a Cuban, of the Cuban Miami radio world, successors to the Armando Perez Rouras of the past, both who quit Radio Mambi because of the sale, we say, good riddance.
Ubieta was asked why she was leaving. Her answer tells you who these people are. She said that she was leaving “because I do not want to be part of the new company ruling the station.” Fine, she has that right. She then adds, “I am not opposed to Univision selling the stations, but rather to who is purchasing them.”
In other words, these people want capitalism, but only if it favors them, solely.
* “Alternative facts” was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States.
