Cuban exiles vow to boycott if Radio Mambí is ‘silenced’
Promising boycott, protests and strikes, Cuban exile leaders expressed their fear that two Miami stations, Radio Mambí and WQBA — which have traditionally advocated for Cuba’s freedom — would be silenced after being bought by Latino Media Network, a media company run by “social activists with a left-wing progressive political agenda.”
TelevisaUnivision, Inc. reached an agreement to sell 18 stations, including Radio Mambí and WQBA, in different cities, to Latino Media Network
(LMN), founded by Stephanie Valencia, who worked in the White House as a special assistant to the president and as director of public engagement under the Barack Obama administration, and Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked in the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns.
The newly created LMN, which has managed to raise $80 million for its startup, also has funds from the investment firm Lakestar Finance LLC, associated with liberalleaning billionaire George Soros.
The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, on behalf of 35 exile organizations, called a meeting on Wednesday at the Bay of Pigs Museum and headquarters of Brigade 2506, in Little Havana, to express its concern about the “silencing and the marginalization of radio stations that have historically been the voices of support for Cuba’s freedom,” according to a letter delivered to the media.
The group of exiled leaders that included Sylvia Iriondo, from M.A.R. for Cuba, Rafael Montalvo, president of Brigade 2506, and businesswoman Irina Vilariño, who ran for a congressional seat, expressed their rejection to any form of censorship against the radio stations and the conservative views.
“We remain united to defend and safeguard the rights of the Cuban people and to express their suffering in public spaces,” said Iriondo, reading the letter from the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which indicates that they will resort to “legal and legitimate resources available in this nation, including boycotts, strikes, and protests.”
The first step that the organizations will take will be to send “a letter of concern” to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the next 48 hours.
The event featured speeches by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, state Sen. Ileana García (District
37), state Rep. Tom Fabricio (District 103), and Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo — all Republicans — who recalled the community service provided by the stations and the updated information on the situation of political prisoners, the Ladies in White and opponents on the island.
In her speech, Núñez said that she grew up listening to Radio Mambí, which became a benchmark in her political education.
“Since I was a little girl, my dad insisted on turning on the radio every morning on the way to school. I used to tell him, ‘Daddy, why do I have to listen to this again?’ and he ignored me, and it’s good that he didn’t because today my 23-yearold daughter, since she was a child, has also been listening to those radio programs,” she said.
For Núñez, the sale of the radio could have an impact on the access that young people have to historical information on the human rights violations committed in Cuba.
Bovo pointed out that Radio Mambí has opened the doors to Democrats, independents, and Republicans, “as long as they carry the freedom of Cuba on their agenda.”
“When I was a child, I also heard in our car that each person who came was committed to the Cuban cause,” said the mayor of Hialeah, explaining that the station has also reported on violations of freedoms in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
“Radio Mambí grew to be much more than a door to the freedom of Cuba, to be the door to the freedom of many countries. They are not going to shut us up,” Bovo said.