Univision Sells 18 Spanish Radio Stations to a Group Partially Financed by Soros

Univision recently sold 18 Spanish radio stations, including 10 AMs and eight FMs in the largest Hispanic markets in the nation, to the Latino Media Network, a new company, for a $60 million cash deal. This company was founded by two left-wing Democratic radicals, Stephanie Valencia and Jess Morales Rocketto, with the partial financial assistance of Lakestar Finance that is connected to the Soros Fund Management.

Stephanie Valencia served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in October 2013. Prior to joining the Commerce Department, Ms. Valencia served in the Barack Obama White House in the Office of Public Engagement for almost five years. Later, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Director, and worked on President Obama’s top priorities. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Ms. Valencia served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team and was the Deputy Latino Vote Director on the 2008 Obama campaign.

Jess Morales Rocketto served as Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and Executive Director of Care in Action. She has worked in political advocacy campaigns on behalf domestic workers, economic justice, immigration reform, and opposing sexual harassment.

Ms. Morales, who serves as the Chair of Families Belong Together and We Belong Together and with her organization NDWA, has been campaigning for immigration reform to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants. She is an alumna of Hillary for America, the AFL-CIO, Obama for America, the Democratic National Committee, Rebuild the Dream, and the New Organizing Institute.

The reelection campaign of Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denounced the efforts of radical billionaire George Soros to “manipulate” the midterm elections by helping the new left-wing Latino Media Network purchase two Miami radio stations. The DeSantis campaign released the following statement: “Governor Ron DeSantis is taking [on] Soros on his own turf with a Spanish language ad buy on the Soros network, serving as a PSA to Hispanic Floridians to warn of the pro-socialism, radical agenda behind The Latino Media Network.”

The leaders of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance denounced the purchase of the radio stations

On June 8, 2022, I attended a very important meeting in the Library Museum of the Bay of Pigs Veteran Association Assault Brigade 2506. The leader of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance, Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, called the meeting due to the immense concern over the sale of 18 Spanish Radio Stations across America to a group called Latino Media Network with the financial assistance of Lakestar Finance that is connected to the Soros Fund Management.

The President of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, Rafael Montalvo Gutierrez, opened the meeting requesting a minute of silence for the many patriots who have died fighting communists. He said that the Bay of Pigs veterans are opposed to the sale of the two stations in Miami. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat explained to the many reporters from television and radio and the participants that the meeting was going be conducted in English and Spanish. Several elected and civic leaders spoke during the meeting. They were businesswoman Irina Vilarino, Lt. Governor of Florida Jeanette Nuñez, Mothers Against Repression of Cuba (Mar por Cuba) President Silvia Iriondo, Florida State Senator of District 37 Iliana García, State Representative District 103 Tom Fabricio, and the Mayor of Hialeah Steve Bovo.

I am with Lt. Governor of Florida Jeanette Nuñez, who spoke very well at the meeting of her great concern, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, over the sale of two Spanish radio stations in Miami, Radio Mambí and WQBA, to the left-wing Latino Media Network.

The Cuban American Lt. Governor Nuñez said that her father made her listen to these two stations when she was a little girl on the way to school. She said she did the same with her daughter. Thanks to these radio stations she found out what the Cuban regime was doing in the island.

Jeanette M. Nuñez was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She was elected as Florida’s first Hispanic woman Lieutenant Governor of Florida in 2018. She previously served as a State Representative of the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018 and was named Speaker Pro Tempore from 2016 to 2018.

The 18 stations purchased include 10 AMs and eight FMs in the largest U.S. markets, including eight of the top 10 Latino markets. Markets included are Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno, and Las Vegas. Collectively, Latino Media Network’s stations reach nearly one third of the Latino population. The Federal Communications Commission must approve the sale.

Stations included in the deal are:

• Los Angeles – KTNQ-AM 1020
• New York – WADO-AM 1280
• Miami – WAQI-AM 710; WQBA-AM 1140
• Houston – KLAT-AM 1010
• Chicago – WRTO-AM 1200
• Dallas – KFLC-AM 1270; KFZO-FM 99.1
• San Antonio – KXTN-AM 1350
• McAllen – KGBT-AM 1530; KGBT-FM 98.5; KBTQ-FM 96.1
• Fresno – KOND-FM 107.5; KRDA-FM 92.1; KLLE-FM 107.9
• Las Vegas – KLSQ-AM 870; KISF-FM 103.5; KRGT-FM 99.3

The left-wing radical Democratic activists, Jess Morales Rocketto and Stephanie Valencia who, worked in the past with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were given $60 million by Lakestar Finance. Included in the purchase were two anti-communist radio stations in Miami: Radio Mambí WAQI-AM 710 and Radio La Cubanísima WQBA-AM 1140. These two radio stations have been operating for decades and are listened in Cuba, the Caribbean, Florida, and many other states in America.

Latino Media Network is run by two left-wing radical social activists who espouse a radical socialist woke political agenda. Patriotic Hispanics of all nationalities are extremely concerned and alarmed over the cancel culture and the silencing of the two radio stations in Miami that historically stood as voices for freedom in Cuba and other nations against bloody communist regimes like Venezuela and Nicaragua.

On June 10, I attended the Round Table Defending Free Speech held at the Republican National Committee Center in Doral, Florida.

Sitting at the front table were U.S. Florida Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. Both spoke eloquently in denouncing the purchase of 18 Spanish radio stations by Soros and in particular the Radio Mambí WAQI-AM 710 and Radio La Cubanísima WQBA-AM 1140 in Miami.

I am with Florida Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott who together with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio condemned the purchase of the 18 Spanish radio stations including two in Miami by a new company with Soros funding.

Several elected and civic leaders and civic spoke at the meeting. They were Florida State Senators Ana Maria Rodriguez and Ileana García, State Representative David Borrego, Congressman Carlos Jimenez, Mayor of Hialeah Steve Bovo, and the owner of La Poderosa and Cadena Azul Radio Stations Jorge Rodriguez. The RNC Round Table: Defending Speech was a great success, and it was covered widely by the media.

On June 9, 2022, Florida Senators Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton (R-AR) as well as Representatives Carlos Giménez (R-FL), María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), and Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) wrote a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel regarding the sale of 18 Spanish-language radio stations, including Miami’s conservative Radio Mambí, to the Latino Media Network (LMN)

The letter of the members of Congress stated the following: “We are concerned that LMN, as a newly formed front group led by partisan operatives with zero experience in broadcasting, may work to silence political viewpoints with which its funders disagree. If successful, LMN could exercise virtually uncontested influence over nearly one third of all Hispanics across the country. Given the importance of the FCC’s stewardship over the limited AM and FM bandwidth available across the United States, we ask that the commission carry out its due diligence and thoughtfully scrutinize the takeover of these stations by a partisan organization only announced last week.”

“Far from benign, the proposed sale is the latest in a series of moves by elite progressives desperate to claw back support from Hispanic voters, who have rightly turned their backs on Democrats and their socialist priorities. But instead of overhauling their own unpopular policies, we are concerned that far-left ideologues are attempting to consolidate and expand their control over the media, so they can flood the airwaves with propaganda with the hopes of fooling listeners so that they can silence effective conservative voices who challenge their progressive propaganda.”

Hispanics are worried that these new Soros radio stations will impose a radical socialist agenda contrary to our South Florida community’s Judeo-Christian values. South Florida has tens of thousands of citizens who have lived and suffered under communist regimes in Latin America and other countries of the world like China, Russia, and Eastern European nations.

Patriotic and anti-communist Hispanics value freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and all the rights given to Americans by the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of this great nation. America is a nation that Hispanics love immensely and that many Hispanics and their children and grandchildren have defended by serving in the Armed Forces and fighting in many wars.

The Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, the Cuban Patriotic Council, and many organizations of the Cuban Americans, Venezuelan Americans, and Nicaraguan Americans are part of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance. This organization will stand united to defend and uphold the right of Hispanics to discuss the immense damage of done by communist tyrants everywhere in the world.

Hispanics will resist peacefully any attempt to censor their voices. Hispanics will use legal and legitimate means at their disposal, including boycotts, general strikes, and peaceful protests. Patriotic Hispanics will not be censored! Cuban Americans, Venezuelan Americans, and Nicaraguan Americans will not be silenced! And Hispanics will pray to God for His assistance to prevent America becoming a communist totalitarian nation. Hispanics will continue to fight for the freedom of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and any other nation that has a bloody and oppressive communist regime.

©Frank de Varona. All rights reserved.

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