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Juan Manuel Cao: A Tireless Voice of Cuban Journalism in Miami After the Suspension of América Tevé

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Analysis of the interviews with Juan Manuel Cao conducted by Ninoska Pérez Castellón of La Nueva Poderosa and Sarah Moreno of Nuevo Herald, published on May 9, 2025.

In an unexpected blow to Hispanic television in Miami, América TeVé has suspended its live programming, directly affecting one of its most emblematic figures: Juan Manuel Cao, host of the popular program "A Fondo." With a two-decade career at the channel, Cao faces this new challenge with the same determination that has characterized him throughout his journalistic career.

"On May 8, live productions were suspended for the time being," América TeVé officially announced, leaving in limbo one of the most influential programs in local Hispanic television, precisely when it was enjoying its greatest popularity and international reach.

A Program at Its Peak Interrupted by Corporate Disputes

"I wasn't doing badly, I was doing incredibly well," Cao confessed to El Nuevo Herald, highlighting the paradox that his program was suspended just as it was reaching its zenith. The Cuban journalist noted that interviews such as the one with attorney Ángel Leal accumulated 4 million views on YouTube in just three days, demonstrating the international reach that "A Fondo" had achieved. 

 

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"My program was at its best moment, with more impact than ever, thanks to YouTube, where segments and interviews reached hundreds of thousands, even millions of views," Cao explained to Sarah Moreno of El Nuevo Herald. This digital expansion transformed what began as a modest local television space into a media phenomenon of international reach. "Thanks to the internet, it had ceased to be a local program, as we now have followers in all corners of the world where there is a Cuban and also of other nationalities."

The suspension of América TeVé's live programming is not due to economic failure or lack of audience, but to a complex legal dispute between shareholders Carlos Vasallo and Mexican company Pegaso Televisión. This conflict has developed in bankruptcy courts in Florida and a civil court in Delaware, resulting in a situation where neither party has total control of the company.

"It's a dispute that I don't understand because it's full of many complexities," Cao explained during his appearance on Ninoska Pérez Castellón's radio program, where he suggested there might be political motivations behind the conflict. "Behind it, according to the statement also, and I believe it to be so, is a political dispute... where they're talking about how the channel of the 'worms' of Miami, of the Trumpists, of the right, is now finished."

Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a historic voice of Cuban exile and longtime friend of Cao, expressed during the interview her concern about the constant attempts to silence conservative voices: "Unfortunately, there have always been all kinds of attempts to silence us conservatives, those of us who have not agreed and who have denounced, as you have, the Cuban regime."

From Prison in Cuba to a Reference in Miami Journalism

Juan Manuel Cao's story is a testimony of perseverance. A political prisoner in Cuba at age 19 for "writing subversive literature," he managed to exile himself to Panama where he began his media career with journalist Mayín Correa. "I was imprisoned very young, accused of writing subversive literature, or enemy propaganda. I joined the Pro-Human Rights Committee and went into exile in Panama, where I started working in television and radio," Cao recounted in his interview with El Nuevo Herald.

During his conversation with Ninoska Pérez Castellón, Cao gratefully remembered his professional beginnings: "I want to start by thanking you because you've always been there in difficult times. I always tell how I started working, I met you in Panama many years ago when I was working for our dear Mayín Correa, who continues to fight there in Panama."

His arrival in Miami was marked by his work at Univision, thanks to Ninoska Pérez Castellón's recommendation, and later at Telemundo, where for 13 years he traveled the world and had memorable confrontations with figures of the Cuban regime. "Then when Hurricane Andrew came, I was hired as a reporter at Telemundo 51, and for 13 years I traveled half the world and had those explosive encounters with Fidel Castro, Robaina, Lage, or Felipe Pérez Roque," Cao explained.

These confrontations, which became emblematic moments of Cuban journalism in exile, were not always well received by other colleagues. As he recalls in his interview with Ninoska: "Confronting, and you've been at many of those events, Fidel Castro, Carlos Lage, Pérez Roque, chasing them... it was journalism with a lot of risk, especially from other colleagues who were very bothered." According to Cao, many journalists claimed that because of his confrontational style, "we were the cause of them not being able to get good interviews."

Cao also shared anecdotes about his encounters with other political figures: "With Hugo Chávez, it happened to me once in New York, I asked him something that bothered him and he left, and the other journalists said he had left because of me. And with Clinton too, here once when I asked him why he wanted to eliminate the exodus plan from the foundation, Clinton turned around and left without answering."

"We spent a week in Caracas touring with him [Mario Vargas Llosa] and with Carlos Alberto Montaner several universities in Lima," Cao recalled when speaking of one of his most significant interviews. These and other transcendental reports are part of archives that, he laments, "are gathering dust in Telemundo's archives. I'd like to recover them. They're part of my life. I'd like to show them to my children, to see amazing things like the day when, together with [Telemundo reporter] Marilys Llanos, we went into the eye of a hurricane."

The Future: América Radio and New Projects

Despite the television setback, Cao maintains his space on América Radio (1260 AM), owned by Carlos Vasallo, where his program airs from 2 to 5 p.m. "We continue there in the afternoons, they're announcing an extra hour for me, and I hope that Andrés Reynaldo, José Antonio Évora, and Liana María Delgado will continue to accompany me," the journalist commented.

Carlos Vasallo, president and executive director of América CV Network, has expressed his commitment to maintaining América Radio as an independent space: "We will continue trying to reach an agreement that saves this company. Meanwhile, we will always continue with América Radio, which is independent and 100 percent my property, and from where we will always defend the exile," he stated according to El Nuevo Herald.

For this "breathing space," as he himself calls it, Cao plans to advance two personal projects: a documentary about his journalistic career under the direction of filmmaker Orlando Jiménez Leal, and a book about his prison experiences from a different angle. "I'm going to tell more or less comic, or tragicomic, anecdotes about prison. It's a different angle, something like 'Prisoners Also Laugh,' or 'Laughing in Hell,'" he previewed.

The documentary project with Orlando Jiménez Leal represents a special honor for Cao, as he shared with Ninoska: "Now I'm going to see if I can finish with Orlando Jiménez Leal the documentary he's making about my encounters with Castro officials and all that." Jiménez Leal, whom Cao describes as "a legend" of Cuban cinema, will document the journalist's historic confrontations with figures of the Castro regime, thus preserving these emblematic moments of journalism in exile.

The Challenge of Social Media and the Future of Television

The journalist acknowledges that, despite his late entry into social media because he considered a possible conflict with his television work, these platforms offer "an unprecedented margin of editorial freedom." When asked if he will start his own YouTube channel, Cao is cautious but open to the possibility: "Why not? But if I launch, I'd like to do something different."

During his conversation with Ninoska, Cao delved into this dilemma: "There's the challenge that everyone has been telling me for a long time, 'Why don't you have your own YouTube channel?' Well, because I enter into contradiction with the YouTube channel of América TV, where I am a fundamental element of that YouTube channel of América TV, and it could be a conflict that I've never wanted to enter."

This dilemma reflects the professional loyalty that has characterized his career, as he explained to Sarah Moreno: "I have the impression that being on a television channel and at the same time having your own YouTube channel could be interpreted as a conflict. The channel has its own page and its own YouTube channel, of which I am a part of its content. I've always been very loyal to the companies I work for. My bosses know well that I've rejected offers and temptations, but now I have to reevaluate everything."

Regarding his adaptation to the new digital environment, he acknowledged during the radio interview: "There's a change in the media, especially in television, because notice that this impact I'm talking about of the program is fundamentally on YouTube. That is, we now have viewers that we never dreamed of."

On the future of television, the communicator believes that more than changing the way of making it, we must "change the way of transmitting it" and find "new ways to monetize the digital product." In his words: "It's time to be creative, or perish. We must adapt to the times."

Ninoska Pérez Castellón, for her part, highlighted in the interview the importance of public and advertiser support in the survival of media: "Advertisers have a lot to do with all this that makes programming possible. The support we've always had from listeners and viewers when necessary has a lot to do with it."

A Message of Hope and Gratitude

For his colleagues at América TeVé, Cao extends a solidarity embrace: "I don't want to end without extending an embrace to my colleagues of many years at América TeVé. We'll see each other on the road." In his conversation with Ninoska, he expanded on this feeling of camaraderie: "An embrace to all my colleagues at América TV, we've been together for so many years trying to bring forth against all odds a company that is ours, from here in Miami."

Ninoska, knowledgeable about the media world, added a reflection on the invisible effort behind each program: "People sometimes don't understand the sacrifice and work that lies behind what may seem very glamorous to some people, the time and sacrifice it requires." To which Cao responded: "Doing 2 hours of radio and 2 hours of television every day, do you know what that means? No, it's a tremendous thing."

To his audience, he assures that he will continue "giving battle, without renouncing my commitment as a free man, as a journalist, and as a Cuban." This commitment includes maintaining the plurality that has characterized his program: "Despite the fact that the majority of our audience in Miami is rather Trumpist (that is, they support President Trump), the program strived to keep the debate open: the same for Republicans as for Democrats. And although some protested, I think deep down they appreciate it."

Cao also expressed his gratitude for the support received: "I also want to extend my affection to the hundreds, hundreds of calls I've had from regular audience, people from the press, advertisers, business owners, from everywhere, who have told me 'we are supporting the type of journalism you do, we will follow you wherever you go.' And that seems very important to me." To which Ninoska responded: "Well, that's the best recognition, Juan Manuel."

"It won't be the first time I've risen from zero," he affirms with the conviction of someone who has overcome greater adversities. Recalling the officer who interrogated him in Cuban prisons, Cao shared a revealing anecdote: "I always think of myself at 19 in a cell at Combinado del Este and Villamarista in Cuba, where Braulio Mauri, the officer was called... I've looked to see if he's living here, at least that was the name of the Villamarista interrogator. [He told me:] 'Now you're going to be a zero citizen, a non-person, you're not going to raise your head in your life.' So, here I am, here I am. One comes from many battles."

And so, amid the uncertainty of América TeVé's future and the certainty of his own determination, Juan Manuel Cao continues to write his story in Miami journalism, with the hope that the parties in conflict "reach an agreement for the good of an important sector of the Cuban community."

As he concluded in his interview with Ninoska: "We continue here giving battle, let no one be mistaken."

A statement that summarizes the unbreakable will of a journalist who, from his days as a political prisoner in Cuba to his current position as a media reference in Miami, has demonstrated that adversities, far from silencing him, have only strengthened his commitment to freedom and truth.

 

Direct link: https://cubanamericanvoice.com/pwa.html