The Trump administration ordered the shutdown of a major broadcasting agency with headquarters in South Florida that is financed by the federal government, placing its employees on administrative leave.
7News cameras on Sunday captured the headquarters of Radio y Televisión Martí, or Radio and TV Martí, in Northwest Miami-Dade. The premises are now vacant, a day after employees were forced out.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent company of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí.
Administration officials said the move is a continuation of its effort to continue the reduction of the federal bureaucracy.
Radio Martí was created in 1983, a Reagan-era effort to allow information to Cubans in the troubled island. TV Martí was added in 1990.
An email sent to the employees, obtained by The Miami Herald, reads in part:
“During the period that you are on administrative leave, you are not to enter USAGM premises … Since you will not have any official business during this time, on request, you will be immediately expected to surrender your official USAGM identification badge, press pass, telephone devices, and other equipment.”
The email states employees are being placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits.
USAGM Senior Adviser Kari Lake supports the executive decision. In a statement, she wrote:
“I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud and abuse run rampant in this agency, and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.”
The Office of Cuban Broadcasting had an annual budget of $12 million, after reductions in recent years. Previously, it received more than $20 million annually from Congress.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., called the move a gift to the communist regime.
“They’re broadcasting music, where there used to be neutral, objective information that ensured that Cubans on the island can really be able to get access to information that they need to be able to oush for their own rights,” she said. “It’s going to basically strengthen the regime.”
Radio y Televisión Martí’s employees will remain on administrative leave until further notice.
