Remigio Ángel González

Remigio Ángel González is a Mexican-born owner of the Latin American media network Albavisión. He has lived in Miami since 1987.[1] The network (previously named Televideo Services[2]) is named for his wife Alba Elvira Lorenzana, who is from Guatemala.[1] González was estimated to be worth $350m in 2002,[2] and by some accounts is now worth $2bn.[1] González has a conservative political stance, but he aims to keep a low profile and cooperate with host country governments.[3] As part of this strategy, he is said to have modified the editorial lines of his stations, particularly in Guatemala and Nicaragua, to accommodate government preferences.[3]

Albavisión

The foundation for the Albavisión network, created in May 2008,[1] was laid in 1981 when González acquired his two Guatemalan television stations (Canal 3 and 7).[2][3] At the time, González was a sales representative for Mexico's Televisa, selling its programming in Central America, and used Televisa's loan backing to acquire the station.[3] In the mid-1990s he acquired Guatemala's Canal 13, and completed a "virtual monopoly control of that nation's commercial television airwaves".[3]

In January 2010 the Albavision network had 26 television stations (including La Red (Chile), ATV (Peru), SNT (Paraguay) and Canal 9 (Argentina) and 82 radio stations.[1] Many Latin American countries have laws restricting foreign ownership, and as a result the network has a range of "phantom companies run by local relatives, friends and stand-ins";[2] his Guatemalan properties are in his (Guatemalan) wife's name.[3]

Through Albavision, González controls four television stations in Guatemala—El Super Canal, Televisiete, Teleonce and Trecevisión[1]—attaining a monopoly of commercial television channels inside the country.[3] He also controls three of Nicaragua's nine television stations (Channels 10 and 4 (until 2018)).[1] As of May 2018, all the stations González owns, operates or advises in Nicaragua have sons and daughters of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, an associate of González,[4] running them. González also owns three stations in Costa Rica, as well as five in the south of his native Mexico.[1]

A 2001 study of González's media properties in Guatemala and Nicaragua found that they had a tendency to squeeze out voices opposed to the government, and concluded that "Gonzalez’s ownership practices create an atmosphere that undercuts the development of democracy."[3] He has a strong influence in Guatemalan politics, for example giving $650,000 to Vinicio Cerezo's 1985 presidential campaign,[3] as well as more than $2.6 million and free airtime to Alfonso Portillo's 1999 campaign. "Political analysts say the free commercials helped Portillo win the election."[2] After becoming president, Portillo "named Gonzalez's brother-in-law, Luis Rabbe, as his minister of communications, infrastructure and housing, a powerful Cabinet position whose jurisdiction includes the oversight of broadcast media."[2]

As of August 2018, Gonzalez owned 35 television channels, 114 radio stations and two newspaper companies in 11 Latin American countries.[5]

References
  1. Dom Serafini, Video Age International, Central American Television Touched By An Angel, January 2010
  2. Will Weissert, Associated Press, 9 June 2002, Domination of Latin airwaves has 'Ghost' scaring his critics
  3. Rockwell, Rick and Janus, Noreene (2001), "Stifling Dissent: the fallout from a Mexican media invasion of Central America", Journalism Studies, 2: 4, 497 — 512
  4. "Nicaragua names police chief sanctioned by US over crackdown". AP NEWS. 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  5. Alvarado, Laura (2018-08-30). "US Congressmen Requests Sanctions Against Mexican Angel Gonzalez Owner of Repretel Costa Rica". Costa Rica Star News. Retrieved 2019-03-21.

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