Carin茅s Moncada gained notoriety last year after she made the racist, on-air claim that Black Lives Matter is a Satanic cult out to "destroy U.S. cities." The day after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in Washington D.C., Moncada 鈥� who co-hosts the popular Spanish-language radio talk show 鈥淐ada Tarde鈥� (Each Afternoon) on Miami AM station Actualidad 鈥� took aim at BLM again.
"We've confirmed that an An African-American activist from Black Lives Matter who on several occasions has called for the violent removal of [then] President Trump from the White House has been identified as one of the people who entered the Congress building," Moncada falsely asserted.
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Moncada's "Cada Tarde" co-host Augustin Acosta then just as falsely claimed that "facial recognition technology" proved that BLM and Antifa militants had infiltrated the Capitol insurrection mob and stoked the violence that left five people dead.
To repeat: that claim hasn't just 鈥� it had already been widely retracted by a number of pro-Trump media outlets before Moncada and Acosta went ahead and broadcast it on their show.
It鈥檚 the sort of right-wing conspiracy 鈥� another was the false trope that Joe Biden would be a dictatorial "socialista" 鈥� that Spanish-language radio in Miami was blasting around the clock that week in January "like surround sound," say media watchdogs.
And so those monitors have now focused on that week in hopes of showing just how rife disinformation is on the Spanish airwaves here. , released last week, is called 鈥淒isinformation in Miami After the Capitol Insurrection.鈥�
READ MORE: Why Are So Many Latinos Obsessed With Demonizing Black Lives Matter?
鈥淭here鈥檚 a feeling that there鈥檚 no accountability, less oversight for these Spanish-language outlets 鈥� that they're allowed to fly under the radar," said one of the report's lead authors, Andrea Mercado, who co-directs the political empowerment nonprofit in Fort Lauderdale.
Florida Rising compiled "Disinformation in Miami" with the nonprofit and communications firms and
The report examines four radio shows between Jan. 6 and 13 on Miami鈥檚 top Spanish-language stations, and . Mamb铆 is owned by Spanish-language TV network Univision, based in Doral.
Mercado says their constant repetition of former President Trump鈥檚 lie that the election he lost was fraudulent stood out.
鈥淵鈥檏now, as someone who works with hundreds of election volunteers," Mercado said, "to me Agustin Acosta鈥檚 comments that 'Thousands of dead people voted, that thousands of people who weren't citizens voted, that thousands of people voted from prison' (and, by the way, Mercado is quoting Acosta directly from the "Cada Tarde" recordings) was really alarming because it really does undermine belief in our democracy and our electoral process."
There's a feeling that there's no accountability, less oversight for these Spanish-language outlets - that they're allowed to fly under the radar and undermine belief in our democracy."Andrea Mercado
Acosta did not respond to SA国际传谋's requests for comment. Nor did Moncada or Actualidad management.
And nor did the Miami U.S. Congress members who are often guests on these Spanish-language shows. They include Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar who, shortly after the Capitol insurrection, went on Radio Mamb铆 with "En Mi Opini贸n" host Ninoska Perez and claimed, falsely, that "in Pennsylvania there [were] 200,000 more votes" than there were registered voters in the state.
Perez took the statement as fact and then added her own falsehood: that "the great majority of this country" doubted the election results and believed it may have been stolen from Trump. At the time, showed some 80% of Americans believed the results were legitimate.
Perez also did not respond to SA国际传谋 requests for comment.
'MACHIAVELLIAN PLAN'
What's more, SA国际传谋 found that since January South Florida members of Congress have kept up their role in disinformation on local Spanish-language radio.
In March, "Cada Tarde" hosted Miami Congressman Carlos Gimenez to talk about the border crisis. The hosts claimed President Biden is letting thousands of undocumented immigrants in as part of a 鈥淢achiavellian plan," as Acosta put it, to make them Democratic voters. To which Gimenez replied:
"No te dudo." I don't doubt it.
English-language talk radio is of course guilty of disinformation, too. But because, as the 鈥淒isinformation in Miami鈥� report points out, Spanish-language radio tends to fly under the U.S.'s public and regulatory radar, media watchdogs say its disinformation also tends to be more brazen.
In Miami, Actualidad is the most listened to AM station 鈥� and Latinos are the majority population. That raises bigger concerns about the broader effect on public discourse than it perhaps would in other U.S. markets.
鈥淭he tone, the vitriol that comes from this, the impact is more acute here," said Eduardo Gamarra, a political scientist at Florida International University in Miami who also monitors Spanish-language communications.
Gamarra points out the chilling effect Spanish-language radio disinformation may be having here on the expression of different perspectives as well as outright facts.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e getting away with it," Gamarra said of the Spanish-language outlets. "And so it somehow becomes OK. It鈥檚 not only OK, but now it鈥檚 truth. And as a result, those who think differently aren鈥檛 as comfortable voicing opinions that are contrary to what鈥檚 the dominant rhetoric.鈥�
Gamarra adds a big part of the issue isn't just the disinformation but what he calls la coyuntura 鈥� the conjuncture of U.S. and Latin American politics in Miami Spanish-language media. It can make the demonization of dissenting viewpoints more intense 鈥� and the use of disinformation a more-accepted means to an end of promoting the downfall of communist and socialist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, or the suppression of leftist politics in Colombia.
Many Colombian expats here voted for Trump believing, thanks in no small part to Spanish-language radio lies, that Biden is a radical "izquierdista," or left-winger.
"What happens politically in Colombia or Venezuela has a big impact politically here," said Gamarra, "and becomes part of the echo chamber."
Perhaps an even bigger question, though, isn't so much why there isn't more monitoring of Spanish-language radio but why there aren't more moderates on those airwaves 鈥� more factual, mainstream-style talk radio voices.
Part of the problem is economics. When conservative-leaning media company America CV this year bought Radio Caracol 鈥� one of Miami's only moderate Spanish-language radio outlets 鈥� Caracol general manager Luis Gutierrez told SA国际传谋 it was largely because the station wasn't making money.
"Most Miami [Spanish-language] talk radio is to the far right," Gutierrez said, "and if you're not, it's hard to be profitable."
Still, Mercado of Florida Rising said more moderate and liberal groups and donors "need to invest in the infrastructure of radio and other Spanish-language here" to counter the disinformation problem.
South Florida Latino Democrats especially are sounding that call.
"Donors who believe in democracy need to ensure that all voters are receiving the truth," including Spanish-speaking voters, said Evelyn Perez-Verdia, a Democrat and a Colombian-American media strategist who heads the firm We Are M谩s in Weston.
"We're letting these cheap-shot radio programs define who Democrats are."
Either way, the 鈥淒isinformation in Miami鈥� report is one of the first real efforts to define what's going on inside the city's Spanish-language radio.
