By Ahiza García-Hodges - NBC News
According to various reports, the board of directors of the Latino food company Goya voted to censor its CEO, Robert Unanue, after he made unsubstantiated public claims about alleged electoral fraud during the 2020 presidential elections.
On Wednesday, January 20, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration, Unanue gave an interview to the Fox network in which he said that the victory of the president-elect was not "verified", and assured that "a war" was coming. imminent.
"They [the Democrats]
achieved what they set out to do, which was to get Trump out of the way
," Unanue said in the interview, "I think it was a mission accomplished by the unions, the associations, the social media conglomerate, the big tech companies, big media and government influencers to usher in a new world order. "
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"A war is looming now that the president is leaving," he added, referring to Donald Trump.
The board's decision, made Friday and first reported by the
New York Post
, means that Unanue will no longer be able to give interviews to the media without obtaining prior permission.
Unanue confirmed to the aforementioned newspaper that he would no longer speak publicly about politics or religion, but did not directly mention the ban.
"Independently, I made the decision to lower the temperature and stop talking about politics and religion," Unanue said, "I realize that this is important because of the diversity of opinions within the company and in our market."
Unanue caused anger in July when he praised Trump at a White House event and said the country was "truly blessed" to have him at the helm.
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Those comments led to pushback from Hispanic politicians like New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and led to calls on social media to boycott the company.
Trump supporters later responded to criticism against Unanue, praising Goya.
Ivanka Trump, one of Trump's daughters and also one of his advisers in the White House, spoke out in support of the company and asked consumers to buy Goya products, thereby violating the rules on brand promotion by of government officials.
Goya does not publicly disclose its financial earnings, so it is unclear what impact Unanue's comments had on the company.
However, a source who spoke to CNN said the CEO's comments "put the future of the company in jeopardy," and that "sales growth is lower than it was" prior to his comments.