A phenomenon began growing among the Latino electorate around the time when President-elect Donald Trump entered the political arena — and it ultimately would contribute to Miami’s MAGA makeover. | Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images
MIAMI — Flowing from a car stereo, or trickling in from a small radio at the backroom of a café, the sound of vibrant trumpets blare as a singer croons in Spanish, “¡Viva!” It’s the day after the presidential election, and on Radio Mambí’s afternoon show, Sin Censura — Without Censorship — everybody is celebrating.
“It’s a very good afternoon,” the host, Lucy Pereda, says. “I hope everyone is having a very happy afternoon.”
“Long live the republic!” a caller cheers.
“I couldn’t sleep; I was up at 4 am,” says another. “God is good. God blessed us.”
“What needed to happen happened. The truth won.”
“Lucy, we won! Finally!”
“It’s a red tsunami,” Pereda says.
If you’re from Miami, Radio Mambí’s celebratory vibe is no surprise. This is, after all, the radio station that has been a touchstone for Miami’s Cuban exiliados, or exiles, since they arrived. It’s the radio station that made Miami Cuban politics. But since the 2016 election, it’s morphed into a hotbed of misinformation — one that impacted the 2024 presidential election.
Miami-Dade County, which usually votes blue in national campaigns, swung red in the presidential election for the first time in 36 years, reflecting the general rightward shift of Latino voters in this election cycle. This outcome was years in the making, dating back to at least 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected president.
If you tuned in to Radio Mambí 710 AM in 2020, you might have heard a caller questioning the results in Georgia and Pennsylvania, demanding recounts or denouncing the election as a fraud. In 2021, you might have heard the hosts repeat claims that Black Lives Matter and Antifa members were behind the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — and you definitely would have heard claims that President Joe Biden was a socialist. In 2024, listeners tuning in heard callers and hosts calling Vice President Kamala Harris a Marxist extremist, sharing concerns about the “humanitarian crisis” in Springfield, Ohio, or spreading theories about voters being registered without proof of citizenship — with the hosts rarely stepping in to correct the record.
You’d never guess that Mambí, the focus of a national controversy about disinformation in Latino communities, is now owned by Democrats.
In 2022, the Latino Media Network — run by Stephanie Valencia and Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — bought Mambí as part of a $60 million package deal. Cubans were outraged. It was an attempt at censorship, they said, by Democratic operatives hellbent on shutting down the opposition. The real kicker? The buy was funded, in part, by progressive billionaire George Soros — the boogeyman of the far-right.
Several popular hosts quit in protest. Some listeners tuned out. Some advertisers left. Mambí has fallen to No. 2, outpaced by Venezuelan current events radio Actualidad 1040 AM.
“Fue una puñalada en el corazón del exilio Cubano,” says former Mambí host Lourdes Ubieta, the daughter of Cubans who sought refuge in Venezuela.
It was a stab in the heart of the Cuban exile.
Few expected Mambí’s content to remain the same after the sale, even as its owners insisted they wouldn’t change the integrity of the station. But here’s the thing: It did stay the same. Actually, some argue, it’s become even more MAGA.
Mambí, says Democratic strategist and pollster Fernand Amandi, is “Trump cult programming now, with massive disinformation, MAGA talking points, verifiable lies.”
Read the full story at POLITICO.com
