americano media

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this might be generic for all except univision TV

merri ok

SEE CRM

FOX?

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mma

Right-wing media team up with the Trump administration to sell regime change in Cuba

Conservative pundits have spent months agitating for regime change

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Janos Balazs

Published 05/21/26

Right-wing media figures are helping administration officials lay the groundwork for regime change in Cuba in what would potentially be the latest unprovoked act of military aggression by the Trump White House.

MAGA media figures have long embraced a Trumpy version of the Monroe Doctrine, the notion that the United States has the right to exert dominance over the Western Hemisphere. As the second Trump administration has pursued more openly imperialist ambitions, many conservative pundits have cheered on the White House every step of the way, including when the administration started to threaten Cuba.

If Trump does attack Cuba, it may be an attempt to replicate what he sees as the successful operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela — in contrast to the administration’s increasingly unpopular war on Iran.

On May 20, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime to discuss the Justice Department’s indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro.

“Today, finally, accountability is coming for Castro,” Miller said, before offering the administration’s case for escalation.

“Cuba, positioned just a 45 minute flight from American shores, has been a staging ground for America's adversaries for decades,” Miller said. “It is the last outpost of communism. It is the last outpost of the Cold War. American presidents for generations have tried to deal with the problem, the threat of this communist foothold just miles away from American shores.”

“And President Trump,” Miller argued, “has brought us closer than ever to the day when Cuba will be free and when Cuba will no longer be a threat to America but Cuba will be a friend and partner to America, which is essential for our national security.”

Watters responded: “Absolutely, and it will be a historic achievement if that does happen.”

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From the May 20, 2026, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

A week earlier, Fox’s Sean Hannity interviewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime advocate for regime change in Cuba, aboard Air Force One.

“It’s my personal opinion, you cannot change the economic trajectory of Cuba as long as the people who are in charge of it now are in charge of it. That’s what’s going to have to change,” Rubio said.

Hannity agreed and speculated about the possibilities for U.S. capital to flood the country. “If these people are not in charge, I mean, I can envision American wealth and companies — it could become the destination.”

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From the May 13, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity

Amid a report that the Cuban government was considering using drones to attack the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay or Key West, Florida, MAGA streamer Benny Johnson speculated the leaked intelligence could be a “pretext” for launching a war — though he appeared to support the administration’s overall goal.

“I don't buy this,” Johnson said. “Right? Like, why would Cuba ever consider doing this unless it was a false flag — unless it's a false flag that's getting set up by the American administration, and that's what I believe that this is.”

Despite acknowledging the intelligence could be false, Johnson concluded the segment by seemingly endorsing military action.

“Expect this to pop off any day now,” he said. “Hopefully, Iran signs a peace deal, and then we can get Cuba done, as they say.”

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From a May 18, 2026, video posted to the YouTube account of Benny Johnson

For months, some of the loudest voices suggesting regime change in Cuba have come from right-wing Spanish-language media, a trend that has continued into May.

On May 5, Fox Noticias host Andrea Linares said that before there could be any foreign investment in Cuba, “there would have to be a total regime change.”

On May 19, Augustin Acosta, co-host of Actualidad Radio's Cada Tarde, argued that if Trump “believes he can fix Cuba while leaving the regime in power, the president is either completely wrong or has started to lose his mind.”

“In Cuba there is nothing that can be fixed — absolutely nothing that can be fixed — while leaving the dictatorship in power,” Acosta added. “That is absolutely impossible.”

Still, there are already some signs of discontent in right-wing media. Newsmax host Rob Finnerty questioned the wisdom of “another foreign entanglement” in addition to the Venezuela operation and the Iran war, which has caused gas prices to skyrocket across the country.

“According to two new polls — and say what you want about the polling, but it's not good,” Finnerty said. “People are clearly losing their patience.”

He added: “I think people struggle with how this is America First when gas is $4.55 a gallon right now.”

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Laura Ingraham: “If the regime is truly decimated as we've heard and the military is decimated, why isn't this really a victory?”

05/21/26 8:04 PM EDT

2. ### Right-wing media react to Trump's slush fund for allies with unquestioning loyalty — and some vague skepticism

05/21/26

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MMA

Spanish- and English-language right-wing media figures call for U.S. military intervention and regime change in Cuba

MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson said, “I’m here for the invasion of Cuba,” adding, “I'll join Bay of Pigs 2.0”

Written by Monica Rodriguez & Pete Tsipis

Research contributions from Jack Winstanley

Published 03/24/26

Right-wing media pundits, in both English and Spanish, have advocated for U.S. military intervention or U.S.-backed regime change in Cuba — a recent target of the Trump administration following the January 3 U.S. military operation against Venezuela, a longtime Cuban ally. While hosts and guests on Spanish-language conservative radio and online shows have been pushing for U.S. intervention against Cuba for months now, Fox figures have also recently backed the Trump administration’s warmongering, while podcasters have called to make Cuba a U.S. territory as part of an American “empire.”

• ## While tensions rose, the Trump administration communicated its desire to take Cuba

• • President Donald Trump said he believed he “will be having the honor of taking Cuba.” Previously, Trump said, “It may be a friendly takeover. It may not be a friendly takeover.” Speaking from the White House on March 16, Trump said Cuba is “a very weakened nation right now” as the country experienced a nationwide blackout. A series of blackouts across Cuba has caused a humanitarian crisis due, in part, to the de facto blockade imposed by the Trump administration in January following the U.S. abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose government was Cuba’s largest oil supplier, and after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries supplying fuel to Cuba. Reuters, [3/16/26; The New York Times, 3/16/26; CNBC, 3/10/26]

• • While tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have been rising steadily in recent weeks, there have been some efforts at negotiation. On March 15, Trump stated, “Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we ​have to do.” He added, “We're talking ​to Cuba, but we're going to do Iran before Cuba.” Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga has admitted to talks with the U.S., saying the regime is open to “a fluid commercial relationship with US companies.” However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 17 that this offer from Cuba doesn’t go far enough. Reuters, [3/13/26, 3/15/26; The Guardian, 3/17/26]

• ## Spanish-language right-wing media push for US intervention and regime change in Cuba

• • YouTuber Agustín Laje said, “The next objective of the United States consists of … destroying the Castro regime, finally destroying it.” He added, “We may be witnessing a unique and historic opportunity for the United States, governed by Donald Trump, to focus his efforts toward the definitive liberation of the Cuban people once he finishes with Iran.” YouTube, *Agustín Laje Arrigoni*, [3/9/26]

• • OnVoz News, political analyst Diego Loyo stated that between Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba, the latter would be the country where the United States “could most easily intervene, from a military standpoint.” He added that the U.S. military “would definitely have far greater capacity to attack Cuba, and the Cuban regime specifically, than other countries.” Voz Media, *Voz News*, [3/13/26]

• • Jorge Martínez, then the Spanish-language spokesperson for the America First Policy Institute, claimed that “Trump believes in peace through strength” and that “acting firmly” on Cuba now would “help avoid greater conflict later.” La Nueva Poderosa, *Mucho que Decir*, [1/27/26]

• • Former Vice President of Argentina Carlos Ruckauf suggested that “what they did in Venezuela” was a “perfected” example for how to handle Cuba and “end the dictatorship, get these guys out, and usher in a transition.” Appearing on Agustin Laje's YouTube show, Ruckauf said, “Trump is changing the course of history, and specifically the course of history for our continent. … If he ends this dictatorship, which is close, he would be ending the dictatorship that is the mother of narco-socialism of the 21st century.” YouTube, *Agustín Laje Arrigoni*, [3/13/26; YouTube, Agustín Laje Arrigoni, 3/13/26]

• • Voz Newspanelist Alfonso Aguilar said escalations in Iran “send a message to Cuba that everything is on the table.”Aguilar, the Director of Hispanic engagement at the America First Policy Institute, clarified that his preference is to avoid “prolonged wars.” He said, “It would be extraordinary if we could have a Venezuela-type transition that leads to a stable and democratic government” in Cuba. Voz Media, *Voz News*, [2/27/26]

• • Cada Tardehost Agustín Acosta said that if the Cuban government made the “mistake” of repressing its citizens as the Iranian ayatollahs did, Trump would not miss the “opportunity” to “destroy all the military infrastructure and bomb the palace where Raúl [Castro] lives.” He added that if that scenario occurs, “a military intervention would be justified in the eyes of public opinion as a humanitarian intervention.” Actualidad Radio, *Cada Tarde*, [2/18/26]

• • Acosta stated that there should be regime change in Cuba, but claimed that “there will probably not be a single American soldier’s boot on the ground in Cuba, just like in Venezuela.” He argued that this year in Cuba, people could have the opportunity to “hold rallies without repression, precisely without firing a shot from Washington, because they have a gun to the back of their heads at the moment.” Actualidad Radio, *Cada Tarde*, [2/2/26]

• ## Some English-speaking right-wing podcasters and streamers have advocated for the “invasion of Cuba”

• • During an ad read, podcaster Benny Johnson said he’s “here for the invasion of Cuba,” adding, “I'll join Bay of Pigs 2.0.” Johnson also said during another episode that taking over Cuba “feels a little more natural” than the attacks on Iran because it’s “a collapsed and failed nation, it’s something that is right off our coast, it was used to nearly launch a nuclear holocaust on our people, and it’s been a — they’re serving a pawn state to the communist faction of the world that is nonexistent, effectively.” YouTube, *The Benny Johnson Show*, [3/12/26, 3/6/26]

• • Right-wing streamer Zach Hoyt, who goes by Asmongold online, suggested Trump “take over” Cuba and turn it into a U.S. territory. He said, “If Trump is able to take Greenland, basically subjugate Venezuela, get rid of Iran's dictatorship, and then also take over places like Cuba, I think that pretty much locks it in. I mean, I know people might not like this. Right? But, like, really think about that. That's nuts. Like, really? I mean, like, yeah, you get, like, fucking, like, three or four different territories. That's insane.” YouTube, *Asmongold TV*, [1/21/26]

• • PBD Podcastpanelist Brandon Aceto said Cuban Americans would be thrilled if “the United States went in and took out the leader of Cuba the way we did with Venezuela.” Aceto stated, “If you were to think about it from terms of precedent and international law and everything, yeah, sure, you could say like, oh, so we're talking about taking over a country. But no, like, I mean, let's be real. I don't think there's a Cuban in the world that exists that would be upset if the United States went in and took out the leader of Cuba the way we did with Venezuela.” YouTube, *PBD Podcast*, [3/18/26]

• • White nationalist Nick Fuentes advocated for U.S. imperialism in Cuba, saying he likes “seeing more territory have the American flag flying over it” and that he wants “America to be an empire.” Fuentes stated, “I like the idea of America getting bigger, larger. I don't know about you, but I like seeing more of the map become America. I like seeing more territory have the American flag flying over it. Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, why not?” In a later episode, Fuentes stated, “We need more territories. This is the thing, like — I believe in American empire. I want America to be an empire. Yes. Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela.” He added, “These are all the countries we need to capture.” Fuentes would later seem to contradict himself by criticizing the idea of regime change in Cuba, claiming that it would lead to refugees entering the United States. Media Matters, [3/18/26; Rumble, America First, 1/15/26, 2/9/26, 3/16/26]

• • Conservative pundit Jesse Kelly pushed for U.S. intervention in Cuba, saying that “if we’re going to reassert the Monroe Doctrine … Cuba has to be part of that.” Kelly stated, “They're 90 miles off our shore. If we're going to reassert the Monroe Doctrine — and Donald Trump has talked openly about that, where we control our hemisphere — Cuba has to be part of that. We can't have a hostile country 90 miles from our border. We are running into a problem, and they've spoken about this. We don't know. Again, this is similar to Iran — we don't know who's taking over.” YouTube, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [3/6/26]

• ## Fox figures have backed or touted the administration's threats of military intervention in Cuba

• • Fox News analyst Jack Keane said the U.S. can “bend this regime to our will,” referring to Cuba. Keane stated, “You take advantage of the reality that Cuba is near economic collapse ever since we shut down any assistance from Venezuela, particularly their oil. And as a result of that we can bend this regime to our will in a way that we've never been able to do.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [3/17/26]

• • Fox News contributor Dan Hoffman voiced support for a U.S.-led regime change in Cuba. Hoffman stated, “This is probably our best chance that we’ve ever had, with the leverage that we have, to impose some change on Cuba, which would benefit the Cuban people as well.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [3/17/26]

• • Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said the Cuban regime will have to “make a choice” because Trump “has already demonstrated, when you look at Iran and Venezuela, he’s not kidding.” Kilmeade said, “Do they want to end up in a Brooklyn jail or do they want to go some place of their choosing? It depends on the type of landing they prefer.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/9/26]

• • Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe listed Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran as countries that “have required … or may require U.S. military intervention” to achieve freedom. She said: “You look at these three different countries right now, whether it be Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba that have required, or at least Cuba, President Trump’s talking about it, that have required or may require U.S. military intervention to free those societies.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [3/6/26]

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mma

October 2, 2025, edition of Radio Mambi's Sin Censura

LUCY PEREDA [HOST]: La propaganda comunista ha sido enorme. Los recursos y la estrategia de la propaganda comunista en todo el mundo le han lavado el cerebro a tantos incautos que, probablemente, con las mejores intenciones, creen en aquello de la justicia social de quitarle todo a los ricos para dárselo a los pobres, sin darse cuenta que el marxismo, el comunismo, lo que hace es hacer a los ricos pobres y a los pobres más grande todavía. Por eso la gran líder del Reino Unido, Margaret Thatcher, dijo un día, y estoy parafraseando, que si los comunistas se quedaran con el desierto de esa aras, se acabaría la arena. Esa es la verdad, pero, desafortunadamente, han tenido unas estrategias de propaganda a nivel mundial muy grande, y, desafortunadamente, estamos viendo los resultados en la infiltración que hubo de todos estos agentes del gobierno de Castro que han sido enviados a los Estados Unidos para tratar de infiltrar la educación de nuestros planteles educativos. Y estamos viendo los resultados en las protestas universitarias, estamos viendo los resultados en las protestas que hoy están llevando a cabo una campaña antisemita brutal, que uno no puede creer que a estas alturas, después de haber pasado por las experiencias y las historias del Holocausto nazi, todavía a estas alturas, esto esto esté sucediendo hoy en el 2025.

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the # right’s incendiary immigration rhetoric is spreading in Spanish media

La Nueva Poderosa’s Jorge Diaz-Diaz: “Immigration is being used with the sinister and political purpose of destabilizing societies"

WRITTEN BY G. CAPUANO

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MONICA RODRIGUEZ & JANOS BALAZS

PUBLISHED 04/22/24

Over the last several months, Spanish-speaking conservative personalities on radio and social media have joined the cacophony of right-wing media fearmongering about a supposed invasion of immigrants coming to supposedly destabilize the country.

Some are spreading claims that the recent influx of migrants at the southern U.S. border is part of a “very well-designed plan” by Democrats to “get votes,” while others complain that immigrants are costing taxpayers money because they receive benefits and supposedly cause crime.

This rhetoric feeds into a pattern of right-wing media fearmongering about an “invasion” of immigrants coming to contaminate and ultimately destroy the American way of life — a notion that stems from the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which has been gaining traction for years. The commentary is also in sync with former President Donald Trump’s incendiary immigration talking points.

In reality, evidence suggests violent crime has fallen across the country since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, and that immigrants commit violent crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. And it is Republicans, rather than Democrats, who have deliberately blocked bipartisan efforts to reinforce border security for the explicit reason of protecting Trump’s presidential campaign.

Spanish media figures claim Democrats use immigration to get votes

• During an episode of Mucho Que Decir, South Florida radio personality Jorge Diaz-Diaz argued that there’s a “well-designed plan to destabilize the United States” in order “to get votes.”In an earlier episode, Diaz-Diaz claimed, “Immigration is being used with the sinister and political purpose of destabilizing societies. It’s happening here in the United States; it’s happening in Europe.” Mucho Que Decir airs on La Nueva Poderosa, a Miami-based station operated by the Christian conservative media group Salem Media. La Nueva Poderosa, *Mucho Que Decir,* [1/3/24, 2/6/24; Miami Herald, 10/19/22]

• In April, Diaz-Diaz's guest Octavio Ramos, a history professor at Miami Dade College, claimed that “the final purpose” for building a path toward citizenship is “to eventually convert all these immigrants into voters and members of the Democratic Party.” Ramos also claimed that “it is no mystery that the traditional American is changing” and “being replaced mainly by Latinos and immigrants from South America, the Caribbean," adding that “the Democrats are well aware of this.” Diaz-Diaz agreed and claimed, “This has been a coldly calculated plan from the beginning. There is no doubt in my mind, and it seems to me that this administration did not leave the border open out of negligence because … everything they have done has been a plan that they have carried out as a kind of movie script with the sole objective of achieving this in the end.” La Nueva Poderosa,*Mucho que Decir*, [4/1/24]

• During an episode of the South Florida conservative talk show Cada Tarde, host Agustin Acosta claimed Democrats “must have an ulterior motive” for claiming “the border is closed when the numbers say otherwise.” In that same episode, guest Alfonso Aguilar — the former political director for Americano Media who often appears in mainstream media as a conservative political commentator — argued that “the motive is purely ideological,” and that “there’s a commitment, with this administration, with this president, with parts of the left who want to open the doors of the border wide open and let in millions of people.” He added that there is “a political and ideological goal … to change the composition of the nation and weaken [our] social cohesion and sense of identity by bringing in outsiders who can’t assimilate quickly.” Actualidad Radio, *Cada Tarde*, [11/28/23; The New Yorker, 7/15/23, Media Matters, 11/20/23; Twitter/X, 12/7/23; NPR, 1/24/24]

• On TikTok, conservative personality Pelucas GB referenced a viral TikTok that kindled a right-wing freakout over migrant squatters.He claimed that Democrats have a “macabre plan to destroy the United States.” TikTok, [3/21/24; Media Matters, 3/22/24, 3/26/24]

• In another video, TikTok user Luis Sin Filtro, who has over 445,000 followers, claimed that “Democrats opened the borders and are letting in so many people for votes.” He added that “one of the objectives” of “socio-communism” is “infiltrating the United States” and “destroying this country from the inside.” TikTok, [1/26/24]

Spanish media figures fearmonger about migrant crime and migrants' cost to taxpayers

• In November 2023, Cada Tarde co-host Marián de la Fuente claimed that “Afghans, Iranians, et cetera, who are not necessarily good people looking for opportunity but people whose names appear on the most wanted terrorist lists, are coming into the country.”She added, “We know these are the people that form the terrorist cells inside the country that are ready to attack the country at any moment.” De la Fuente also claimed cities like New York are “sacrificing a large part” of the city budget to “satisfy those immigrants that are filling up our cities at a great cost because now the city will be better suited for crime.” In 2023, de la Fuente joined Agustin and Carlos Acosta as replacement hosts for Carines Moncada on Actualidad Radio’s Cada Tarde. Actualidad Radio, *Cada Tarde*, [11/11/23]

• In January, de la Fuente argued the Biden administration’s “open-door policies” are causing “local governments, who obviously have no resources, to take away something as important as security from their citizens.” De la Fuente claimed this “is the case in New York, for example, as Mayor Adams said, because they don’t have a way to face this mob,” and added that Democrats “turned so-called sanctuary cities into a real nightmare.” Actualidad Radio, *Cada Tarde*, [1/4/24]

• In February, Hoy por Hoy host Carines Moncada claimed of immigrants: “You can even commit a crime; you can beat up a cop, then two, three weeks later, you can steal at a Macy's and walk free, and there's no problem.”Moncada also said that “one has to leave the country and enter through the border because apparently there are more benefits for illegal people.” Segment guest Alfonso Aguilar agreed and argued that people are concerned about immigration because the government is “taking resources away” from citizens. America TeVe, *Hoy por Hoy*, [2/15/24]

• During a Spanish-language interview with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Lucy Pereda, the host of Lucy Pereda, Sin Censura, claimed that criminal organizations are “recruiting other immigrants through WhatsApp groups.” She continued that “there is no way to detect all these hundreds of thousands of people who are criminals with bad intentions who have come into our country.” She also claimed, “Many people are of the opinion that this rampant immigration problem, which many are already calling an invasion, is by design, it's not by ineptitude.” Radio Mambi, *Lucy Pereda, Sin Censura*, [2/22/24]

related

Agenda 2030 and New World Order conspiracy theories garner tens of millions of views on Spanish-language TikTok

01/18/24 3:01 PM EST

2. ### Univision hosts and guests whitewash Trump’s anti-immigrant extremism

11/20/23 1:01 PM EST

3. ### With no lifeline to pay its employees, Americano Media is off the air as it begins an apparent shutdown of its operations

08/28/23

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https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/no-lifeline-pay-its-employees-americano-media-will-be-air-next-week-it-0

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https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/spanish-speakers-are-being-targeted-conspiracy-theories-about-climate-change

spanish-language TikTok creators have been pushing fringe conspiracy theories that argue against the existence of man-made climate change, proposing that climate change is a myth created by supposed elites to bring about the so-called Great Reset – a conspiracy theory that claims climate lockdowns will be used to strip individuals of their rights and possessions.

This comes as record heat waves are affecting the entire planet.

Misinformation about climate change on TikTok occurs despite the platform’s moderation policies, which prohibit “climate change misinformation that undermines well-established scientific consensus, such as content denying the existence of climate change or the factors that contribute to it.” Once again, non-English language content that violates platform policy is flying under the radar, spreading damaging misinformation in what is becoming a disturbing trend.

Media Matters found several Spanish-language posts on TikTok denying climate change, insisting it is a hoax made to impose oppressive or even lethal initiatives led by NGOs, like the UN's Agenda 21 and its much newer Agenda 2030, which sets a series of sustainable development goals for 2030. Agenda 2030 conspiracy theories, which are popular in Spanish, are often conflated with the Great Reset, which is also used to deny the need for action on climate change. Other theories include references to a secret weather control program known as HAARP and even flat earth theory. [vid]

other TikToks take clips from news programs where a supposed expert or study is used to sow doubt about the established facts of climate change. One clip had a guest who claimed, “There is no clear evidence that us, human beings, are capable of changing the earth’s climate,” but that what she has clearly seen is “President Biden asleep at the inauguration of the COP26.”Further, several of these news clips were sourced from Russian propaganda outlet RTand despite TikTok’s policy of labeling state affiliated news sources, the videos remained unlabeled – a common discrepancy between English and Spanish content on other major platforms as well.

Other common criticisms of climate science and action come in the form of testimonials or complaints from individuals who deny the existence of climate change without presenting evidence. Additionally, attacks on climate activist Greta Thunberg garner thousands of views and draw false equivalencies between her qualifications and scientists who deny climate change.

Conspiracy theories are increasingly crossing from the fever swamps of Spanish-language media like Telegram onto mainstream social media platforms and news networks like :{Americano Media:(style="background-color:#ff6600;"):}:.For instance, on the July 11 edition of Battleground Americano, host Jesús Márquez claimed that a so-called “New World Order” and the elites seek to manipulate all countries worldwide through international institutions, that they aim to “enslave the majority of the population,” and that “climate change is an excuse to drive changes that favor the elite.”

This makes it all the more likely that the growing Latino electorate will become the target of this type of misinformation in the coming election cycle.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/americano-media-cozying-republican-party

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mma 2 23

Since Americano Media’s inception, the network has provided right-wing radio programming for Spanish-speaking audiences with notable hosts who reliably spread misinformation and extremism. This includes right-wing narratives disparaging immigrants, undermining the results of Democratic elections, attacking the LGBTQ community, and spreading conspiracy theories – including the deeply racist Great Replacement theory, which posits that white people and “legacy Americans” are being deliberately replaced through mass migration from non-white countries.

According to a January 23 report from Politico, the conservative network has a plan to reach centrist Latinos, which includes a $20 million marketing campaign, expansion to 25 radio stations, streaming content, and the creation of a digital news website and app. Politico’s Natalie Allison also reports that Americano has “spent several million dollars building studios to launch new television programs, with plans underway to be on cable in every major battleground state ahead of the 2024 election, and in Puerto Rico in the coming weeks.”

In addition to Americano Media’s investments in marketing and developing content, the network also utilizes social media platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Notably, Americano Media’s Twitter gained a large bump in followers after interviewing former President Donald Trump, from 12,000 followers in late October 2022, when the interview aired, to over 68,000 in January.

Three of Americano Media’s most notable right-wing pundits are hosts Dania Alexandrino, Freddy Silva, and Jesús Márquez, whose shows consist of grandstanding monologues decrying Democrats and the Biden administration while also sticking close to narratives spun by English language right-wing media. These hosts have consistently peddled anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, anti-choice, and election denial rhetoric to Americano’s growing audience, and are poised to gain influence as the network’s multimillion-dollar expansion project takes effect.

Dania Alexandrino

Dania Alexandrino is a prolific disseminator of right-wing talking points and misinformation whose programs Hablando de Frente and En Perspectiva air on Americano Media, and who also has programming on Florida radio station Acción 97.9, her Facebook page with 20,000 followers, and her YouTube channel where she hosts a weekly live show.

Alexandrino is also a staff member of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida and is responsible for developing and teaching a Spanish-language news curriculum. In addition to pushing conspiracy theories, misinformation, and hateful rhetoric on her own shows, Alexandrino has also been a guest on Steve Bannon’s War Room where she attacked George Soros.

The following examples include extreme or misleading statements made on air about immigration, election integrity, reproductive rights, and the LGBTQ community.

Immigration

• Alexandrino said, “If wanting me, my children, and my family to be put first as American citizens before the illegals that are coming into this country violating our sovereignty laws – if that makes me a fascist, well look, I carry it proudly.” *Perspectiva USA*, [8/26/22]
• Alexandrino made fearmongering claims that illegal immigration is bringing crime and “enormous” economic problems to American cities. Rhetoric associating an increase in the population of undocumented immigrants with an increase in crime is false and has been disproven by several studies. In 2020 the University of Wisconsin–Madison published a study showing that “U.S. citizens were twice as likely to be arrested for violent felonies in Texas from 2012 to 2018” compared to undocumented immigrants. *Perspectiva USA*, [8/22/22]
• Alexandrino claimed that President Joe Biden is responsible for allowing an “enormous amount of delinquents to enter through the southern border.” She added that this is because the majority of the Venezuelans passing through the border “are not good people.” *Perspectiva USA*, [9/9/22]
• Alexandrino said that Americano Media is “the only Spanish-speaking media outlet that continues to talk about this chaos on the border and the amount of people entering the country in an illegal manner.” She continued: “We are the only ones that continue to talk about this in a repetitive way so that you understand the chaos that Joe Biden and ‘Alejandrito’ Mayorkas have caused on the southern border.” *Hablando de Frente*, [11/25/22]

Voter Fraud

• Dania Alexandrino claimed that former President Trump’s allegations of irregularities and fraud in the 2020 elections “were not unfounded.” Alexandrino went on to falsely claim that “leftist” ballot harvesting groups funded by George Soros collected ballots from the Black community, disadvantaged people, disabled people, and elderly people and used them to commit fraud. *Hablando de Frente*, [10/28/22]
• Alexandrino said she wants people to vote in person rather than by mail because of “all the tricks they intended to perform in 2020.” *Hablando de Frente,* [11/7/22]
• Alexandrino criticized the use of the term “big lie” to refer to Trump’s baseless accusations of a rigged 2020 election. Alexandrino claimed it’s “a term used in Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and is associated with Adolf Hitler, because … the intention of CNN is exactly that, right, to try to associate Donald Trump with fascism, with Adolf Hitler, and also attempt to say that Donald Trump was telling a lie regarding the irregularities that were seen in the 2020 elections.” *Hablando de Frente*, [10/4/22]

LGBTQ Hate

• Alexandrino spoke against gender-affirming care for transgender youth and claimed that “the most difficult thing is that at that age, they are neither children nor adults, nor are they completely adolescents, and therefore, they are confused, but that does not mean they know what they want.” *Hablando de Frente*, [10/24/22]
• Alexandrino claimed that “there are only two genders, male and female” and that “today, these precepts promoted by the Democratic Party, by this globalist left, have clouded all those lines of normality.” She went on to claim that President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are trying to turn the military into a force of ideological and sexual confusion adding that taxpayer money pays “for degeneracy” in reference to gender-affirming care for children and LGBTQ soldiers, who she goes on to label as “pseudo-soldiers.” *Perspectiva USA*, [7/18/22, 7/18/22, 7/18/22].

Reproductive Rights

• Alexandrino claimed that the only time a woman has a decision about her body is “before sleeping with a man, before having unprotected sex. … You have all the power in your hands to decide who you will sleep with. … Because abortion, as you enact it, should never be used as a contraceptive method. Abortion is simply a radical decision after conception. It is the murder of a defenseless and innocent creature with the permission of the state.” *Hablando de Frente*, [1/13/23]
• Alexandrino claimed that House Democrats voting against the Born Alive act showed how they are “diabolical and murderers of innocent creations.” Alexandrino went on to claim that “the Democratic Party does not care about innocent lives. … The Democratic Party does not care about your health. The Democratic Party only cares about control. … They mandated masks, they mandated the vaccine, but when it’s about an innocent creature, it’s ‘Oh no, we cannot demand that their lives be saved.’” *Hablando de Frente*, [1/12/23]

Freddy Silva

Freddy Silva is another prolific misinformer on Americano Media who, according to his LinkedIn, has been a longtime producer and reporter. Silva’s content is mainly on his radio show Entre Líneas, where he covers popular right-wing narratives often with a guest who aids him in spreading sensationalized commentary. Silva also has an active Facebook account where he posts clips that push globalist conspiracy theories, racist talking points, anti-vaccine fearmongering, and other general right-wing narratives.

LGBTQ Hate

• Silva said that the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires federal and state governments to recognize interracial and same-sex marriages, could in fact be a “threat to the natural family as we know it.” He went on to claim that, as in the case of “gender ideology,” this bill seeks to “impose its own narrative” on society rather than “consulting” it. Silva also claimed the “progressive advance is destroying concepts that until this century … the last two decades, society had clear. The concept of the natural family: dad, mom, kids, but with this progressivism, family can be whatever, and the same is happening with marriage.” He was responding to constitutional lawyer and anti-abortion blogger Gualberto Garcia Jones, who baselessly claimed that the law will lead to “discrimination against those of us who hold a traditional view of marriage as a man and a woman.” *Entre Líneas*, [12/1/22]
• Silva said that “groomers” are trying to sexualize children through sex education after his guest Raymond Azar, a producer for Americano Media, claimed that pedophiles are using the LGBTQ banner to enter society. *Entre Líneas*, [1/18/23]
• Silva claimed that gender-affirming care is part of a “vulgar” attempt to promote “transhumanism,” which he described as" the transformation of homo sapiens, of our human species as we know it." Silva said that “unfortunately, what we are doing is allowing that with these gender-affirmation policies, these LGBTQ policies, and the same gender ideology policies, what we are doing is opening those doors for transhumanism, which is the transformation of homo sapiens, of our human species as we know it for what may come, what will come out of that gross transformation.” *Entre Líneas*, [10/11/22]

Immigration 

• Silva called for “control” at the border, claiming that immigrants fleeing from organized crime in their country of origin meet the same organized crime here in the United States. According to Silva, immigrants involved in organized crime are protected by “the laws, by civil laws, the constitutional laws that allow these individuals, these criminals, these bad people, to continue committing crimes. The moment they serve a sentence they are deported to the border and once again they return to commit crimes.” *Entre Líneas*, [9/6/22]
• Silva said that “Mexican drug cartels are operating and are using many of these migrants as mules to carry the drugs, to transport them and, of course, to move them from one side to the other” despite evidence showing that immigrants are far less likely to traffic drugs than U.S. citizens. *Entre Líneas*, [9/15/22]
• Silva cited an unverified report to claim that “Venezuela empties prisons and sends violent criminals to our southern border.” Silva went on to use the unverified report to claim that agents are warning “that the released prisoners have been seen inside migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico, to the U.S.-Mexico border last July.” *Entre Líneas*, [9/21/22]

Jesús Márquez

Jesús Márquez is an up-and-coming host at Americano Media who uses his radio show Battleground Americano to promote right-wing talking points and misinformation in a similar format to other hosts on the network. In 2014 he ran for Nevada state assembly and is associated with the Republican Party. He has been featured as a guest on Victory News, a Christian TV Network, where he pushed right-wing talking points about censorship, inflation, and immigration.

LGBTQ Hate

• Discussing the Respect for Marriage Act, Márquez said that “one must be very careful with rights, not all are rights, some are privileges. When they give you that right they have to take away the right of others, then it is no longer a right." Márquez added, “In this case, to give homosexual people the right to get married, two people of the same sex can get married, that's fine, but if the religious right is taken away, for example, from a pastor, we’ll say, from a church, for example, in which that person can refuse to marry a same-sex couple because their religious belief prohibits them, or prevents them from marrying these two people, these two men, for example, then that right should stop there.” *Battleground Americano*, [11/29/22]
• Márquez claimed that many feminist women have joined conservative groups against trans women in women's sports teams with the justification that “men who believe they are of a different gender are taking away women's rights.” *Battleground Americano*, [11/25/22]

Voter Fraud 

• Márquez said that, in previous years, the election results were known on election night, but “now it is different and all this is because the Democrats made changes to the electoral systems of several states due to the pandemic, or rather under the pretext of the pandemic. They began to make changes, changes that we are now paying dearly for.” *Battleground Americano*, [11/10/22]
• Márquez claimed that “Kari Lake almost won and possibly even won, but they took the election away from her." *Battleground Americano*, [11/16/22]
• Márquez claimed that Democrats “changed the laws in different states due to the pandemic, where they introduced all this voting by mail, this ‘mail-in harvest,’ where a lot of ballots are still all over the place and are gathered, processed, and counted by Democrats.” Lucia Navarro, a journalist at Americano Media, added that this is the “perfect conditions to commit voter fraud” to which Márquez agreed. *Battleground Americano*, [11/9/22]
• In regards to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision not to count mail-in ballots without dates, Márquez claimed that Democrats “across the country have tried to fight or put regulations and laws that make cheating easier.” *Battleground Americano*, [11/1/22]

Reproductive Rights

• Márquez claimed that “the liberals, the progressives, have changed the language to advance their agenda of death” in reference to calling abortion a reproductive right. Márquez went on to claim, “It is a deadly agenda because when they are seeking at all costs to kill a baby, not only inside the mother's womb, but also when the baby is already born, this is nothing more than a bloody death agenda." *Battleground Americano*, [1/12/23]
• In a bid to characterize anti-abortion activists as a persecuted group, Márquez accused the Department of Justice of targeting anti-abortion activists and called it “the police of the armed wing of Biden and the current regime.” Márquez added, “Democrats are already consolidating themselves as the absolute defenders of abortion. Previously, at least, they felt a little sorry, they didn't openly admit it like that, but today, they 100% admit it." *Battleground Americano*, [10/6/22]
• Márquez compared services offered by Planned Parenthood to the sterilization advocated for and performed by Nazis. His guest, anti-abortion activist Mayra Rodriguez, agreed and added that abortion and gender-affirming care is part of an industry that is playing at God “deciding who is male and who is female, who is born, who is not born.” *Battleground Americano*, [10/24/22]

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When Donald Trump was competing with Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Trump chastised the former Florida governor for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. Trump argued that Bush, a fluent Spanish speaker, was encouraging Latino immigrants to avoid learning English.

But when Trump ran for reelection in 2020, outreach to Spanish-language media was a fundamental part of his game plan — especially in Florida. To a degree, it worked. While Trump lost the 2020 election, Florida was one of the states in which his victory was only possible thanks to conservative Latino voters.

When one of Trump’s former White House press secretaries, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was sworn in as Arkansas governor in early January, she banned the use of the term “Latinx” in government communications and criticized the term for being grammatically awkward in Spanish. Many Spanish speakers find that term offensive (including Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona), and Sanders’ executive order seemed to be an attempt at Latino outreach.

READ MORE: **Democrats and Republicans have a serious problem with Latino voters**

English-only initiatives have been common among MAGA Republicans. But a new right-wing media outlet, Americano Media, is using Spanish to enamor Latino voters.

Reporting for Politico on January 23, journalist Natalie Allison explains that “Republicans have made notable inroads among Hispanic voters in recent election cycles. Now, a conservative media network is looking to cement and further those gains by trying to become the Fox News of Spanish-speaking America. Americano Media, which launched in March, is embarking on an aggressive expansion plan to shape center-right Hispanic opinion during the upcoming election cycle.”

According to Allison, Americano Media “has hired more than 80 Latino journalists and producers, are expanding their radio presence to television, and by the end of the year, will have studios in Miami, Las Vegas and D.C. with reporters covering the White House, Congress and embedding in 2024 presidential campaigns.”

“This month, Americano is launching a $20 million marketing campaign to draw in new viewers,” Allison reports. “It’s the latest development in an arms race to reach and win over the nation’s second-largest demographic group, one playing an increasingly critical role in election outcomes.”

READ MORE:**Historian: Latinos aren’t a monolithic voting bloc — and politicians need to realize that**

This is a big departure from 2015, when Trump, interviewed by Breitbart News, said of Jeb Bush, “I like Jeb. He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo, Americano’s founder and CEO, told Politico that Americano’s goal is to be a “Fox News in Spanish.” And some Democrats are taking notice.

Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of the Democrat-friendly Courier Newsroom network, told Politico, “There is an information war in Latino and bilingual communities in this country. It’s a very smart and very alarming move by conservatives to double down on their investment in Americano Media.”

READ MORE:**Arizona congressman compares Republican Trump devotees to Hugo Chavez’s Chavistas: 'It’s not a party of ideas'**

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Conservative Spanish-language media portrayed the 2022 midterm elections as a referendum on crime and a supposed communist takeover of the government, and spread false claims that tabulation problems in Arizona and pandemic-induced vote by mail efforts were evidence of a Democratic plot to steal the election.This misinformation largely reached radio audiences but was bolstered by often murky and poorly enforced election misinformation policies on major social media platforms.

Leading up to the midterms, conservatives predicted Latino voters would deliver a “red wave” across the United States. However, the election’s results suggest Republicans struggled to engage Latino voters outside of Florida – potentially distancing themselves from an increasingly Latino electorate in the United States.

In September, Micheal Caputo, a former Trump Administration official and current Chief Communications Officer for Americano Media, announced the Spanish-language conservative media network would be moving its platform from SiriusXM to Florida AM radio. Nevertheless, in the weeks leading up to the midterm, Americano Media managed to grow its online presence significantly – releasing an interview with former President Donald Trump in the midst of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover that got the attention of high-profile right-wing personalities. It also invested in a new Television studio for its streaming service.

Spanish-language right-wing media fearmongered about communism

Right-wing media often attempt to generational anxieties about communism in Latino communities to attack Democratic candidates and attract Latinos to the Republican party. In the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterm election, Spanish-speaking right-wing misinformers on both radio and the internet fearmongered about a “radical” leftist agenda seeking to bankrupt the middle class and take over the government.

On her Americano Radio show En Perspectiva, for example, Dania Alexandrino called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) a “fake socialist” who makes millions from Netflix but “wants to redistribute everyone else’s wealth,” adding that she is “an imbecile of little intelligence.” Alan McAbee, a right-wing commentator who sometimes hosts En Perspectiva, told listeners about a “secret, socialist, leftist force” that is “in charge and making [executive] decisions.” In an earlier episode, McAbee suggestedthe “socialist, communist wing” of the Democratic party wants to “bankrupt the middle class” through socialized medicine “like in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.” On their show Cada Tarde, Carines Moncada and Agustin Acosta even suggested Lizzo’s performance with James Maddison’s flute was somehow part of a socialist agenda to “erase” and “degrade” American history.”

Online, popular right-wing social media figures urged conservatives to show up on election day in order to “expel communism and globalism from the United States.” On Facebook, Nelson Albino, a conservative political pundit with over 39,000 followers, and Estamos Unidos, a right-wing blog with over 18,800 followers, shared Americano Media's translation of Trump’s call to “crush the communists at the ballot box” during a Save America rally in Miami, Florida. El American shared a Spanish-language ad calling Democratic candidate Annette Taddeo (FL-27) a “socialist witch.” On Facebook, El Poeta Político, a right-wing blog with over 9,900 followers, shared a post urging Florida Republicans to “involve their whole family” and defend “the last bastion of American freedom” against Democrats who “want to drown our liberties in a socialist swamp of misery.”

Spanish-speaking conservatives attacked Democrats for supposedly being soft on crime

As the midterms grew closer, Spanish-language conservatives followed mainstream right-wing media’s lead in attempting to turn crime into a political cudgel against Democrats – blaming the “defund the police” movement and liberal policies for recent upward trends in violent crime.

On radio, Americano Media hosts leaned heavily into narratives about drugs and violence, often attacking Democrats for being soft on crime. On an episode of Entre Lineas, for example, host Freddy Silva claimed people in cities governed by Democrats are “looting for fun” since “they are no longer afraid of authority.” In an episode of Battleground Americano, host Jesús Márquez claimed that “Biden and the Democrats” “started a war against the police.” Carines Moncada and Agustin Acosta also spread misinformative crime narratives on Cada Tarde, where they suggested Democratic state legislators and mayors are cutting police resources. On En Perspectiva, Alexandrino claimed George Soros funded “progressively-regressive District Attorneys” that have ruined American cities and “radical leftist prosecutors” that care more about the criminals than they do about the police.

On social media, Americano Media claimed “cities governed by Democrats [are] suffering the consequences” of homelessness and hard drugs like heroin and fentanyl, and shared a translated clip of Trump’s false claims that Democratic cities are “drenched in the blood of innocent victims” thanks to the crime wave. On election day, Americano Media’s Vanessa Vallejo suggested Republican Lee Zeldin could win against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) because Americans “are fed up with the drugs and insecurity caused largely by the Democrats’ ‘defund the police.’” On Facebook, The Republican National Hispanic Assembly’s verified account with over 35,000 followers shared a segment from The Epoch Times En Español's Al Descubierto, a known source of Spanish-language misinformation, that blames President Joe Biden for the “open border crisis” responsible “for the free-flowing [fentanyl] that is killing our youth.”

Spanish-language right-wing media spread claims that tabulation issues in Arizona were evidence of mass voter fraud

Much like their English-language counterparts, who spent the last two years making claims that Democrats were plotting to steal elections, Spanish-speaking misinformers took to social media and radio to spread misleading claims about the Arizona election. In particular, they honed in on printer issues that slowed the vote counting process in Maricopa County, Arizona, and were found by a court to have precluded no voter “from turning in a ballot.” Despite this and without evidence, misinformers claimed that these issues disenfranchised “tens of thousands” Republican voters.

In the days that followed the election, Americano Media hosts were determined to cast a shadow over the validity of the results. On Battleground Americano, for example, guest host Lucia Navarro argued that the integrity of the governor’s race in Arizona could not be verified, given Democratic winner Katie Hobbs’s “conflict of interest” as Arizona’s then-acting Secretary of State. Navarro’s guest Cristina Junge also falsely claimed, “what happened here in Arizona was the same thing that happened in 2020 — they robbed us,” arguing 17,000 votes in Maricopa County had been “lost” and been tampered with. On his show Cada Tarde, Agustin Acosta also compared the 2022 midterms to the Big Lie of 2020, claiming evidence of “very strange results in two or three states” in “a repeat” of “what happened in 2020.”

Online, Spanish-language misinformers claimed tabulation issues in Arizona were evidence of a Democratic plan to steal the election. On Twitter, La Derecha Diario, a right-wing outlet with more than 254,000 followers, shared a subtitled clip of Fox News' misleading reporting on Maricopa County to suggest there could have been fraud in “the most Republican parts of the state.”  On Twitter, Albino, a pundit for Americano Media with over 3,000 followers, claimed Democrats “want to steal the election in Arizona again” and accused Hobbs of “violating” voters’ rights. James Nava, a right-wing Spanish-speaking misinformer, spent the month following the election “updating” his 22,000 followers with false claims about “the Democrats’ outright fraud in Arizona.” Eduardo Menoni, a known misinformative Spanish-language YouTuber who often rantsabout censorship, took to fringe platforms like Telegram and Rumble to claim tabulation problems in Arizona “prove elites will do anything to prevent patriot candidates from winning.”

Spanish-language right-wing media echoed conservative claims that vote-by-mail is cheating

In the days that followed the 2022 midterms, Spanish-language misinformers also sought to discredit vote-by-mail efforts, claiming Democrats manipulated the voting rules in states like Pennsylvania and Nevada to rig the election in their favor.

Shell-shocked by Republicans’ underwhelming midterm performance, Americano Media personalities spent the days after the election spreading conspiracy theories about Democrats illegally altering voting procedures to manipulate results in their favor. On Battleground Americano, Jesús Márquez argued Democrats used “the pretext of the pandemic” to “make changes to the electoral rules in several states,” claiming pandemic-induced vote-by-mail initiatives like Nevada automatically sending out absentee ballots are “dirty,” claiming that Democrats can send absentee ballots to anyone – “even dead people” – and accept “any vote that goes their way.” On his show, J&J Prime host Jimmy Nieves claimed election-reporting delays were unconstitutional and make the United States “look like a banana republic.

Online, misinformers claimed that U.S. Senator-elect John Fetterman (D-PA) campaign’s suit to count all mailed-in ballots was proof of a Democratic plot to change voting rules and prevent Republicans from winning. On Twitter, La Derecha Diario shared a piece claiming Democrats “were trying to steal the election” by “accepting late and undated mailed-in ballots.” Rafael Capacho, a misinformative YouTuber, celebrated the Pennsylvania court’s decision not to count improperly dated mailed-in ballots and shared right-wing claims that polling places in Pennsylvania that ran out of paper were “disenfranchising voters.”

Related

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