Remigio Ángel González (

Higueras, Nuevo León Higueras is a municipality in Nuevo León, Mexico. It has an area of 600.2 square kilometers. It is bordered on the north by Sabinas Hidalgo and Salinas Victoria, on the south by Doctor González y Marín, to the east by Agualeguas and Cerralvo Muni ...

, June 14, 1944) is a Mexican-born owner of the Latin American media network Albavisión. He has lived in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

since 1987. The network (previously named Televideo Services) is named for his wife Alba Elvira Lorenzana, who is from Guatemala. González was estimated to be worth $350m in 2002,Will Weissert,

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, 9 June 2002
Domination of Latin airwaves has 'Ghost' scaring his critics
/ref> and by some accounts is now worth $2bn. González has a conservative political stance, but he aims to keep a low profile and cooperate with host country governments. As part of this strategy, he is said to have modified the editorial lines of his stations, particularly in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, to accommodate government preferences.

Albavisión

The foundation for the Albavisión network, created in May 2008, was laid in 1981 when González acquired his two Guatemalan television stations (Canal 3 and 7). At the time, González was a sales representative for Mexico's

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

, selling its programming in Central America, and used Televisa's loan backing to acquire the station. In the mid-1990s, he acquired Guatemala's Canal 13, and completed a "virtual monopoly control of that nation's commercial television airwaves". In January 2010, the Albavision network had 26 television stations (including

La Red La Red (Spanish for "The Network" or "The Net") may refer to: * ''Rossana'' (film), known in Spanish as ''La red'', a 1953 Mexican drama directed by Emilio Fernández * La Red (Chilean TV channel), a private television channel in Chile * , a tel ...

(Chile),

ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...

(Peru), SNT (Paraguay) and Canal 9 (Argentina) and 82 radio stations.Dom Serafini, ''Video Age International''
Central American Television Touched By An Angel
January 2010 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"; his Guatemalan properties are in his (Guatemalan) wife's name. Through Albavision, González controls four television stations in Guatemala— El Super Canal, Televisiete,

Teleonce WLII-DT (channel 11), branded on-air as , is a television station licensed to Caguas, Puerto Rico, serving the Territories of the United States#Permanently inhabited territories, U.S. territory as an affiliate of Univision and UniMás. Owned b ...

and

Trecevisión Canal 13, formerly known as TeleTrece and Trecevisión is a television station headquartered in Guatemala City, Guatemala, with repeaters throughout the country. The network and stations broadcast in the NTSC format. It is one of the five station ...

—attaining a monopoly of commercial television channels inside the country. He also controls three of

's nine television stations (Channels 10 and 4 (until 2018)). As of May 2018, all the stations González owns, operates or advises in Nicaragua have sons and daughters of Nicaraguan President

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

, an associate of González, running them. González also owns three stations in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, as well as five in the south of his native México. channel 13 méxico 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."Rockwell, Rick and Janus, Noreene (2001), "Stifling Dissent: the fallout from a Mexican media invasion of Central America", ''Journalism Studies'', 2: 4, 497 — 512 He has a strong influence in Guatemalan politics, for example giving $650,000 to

Vinicio Cerezo Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo (born December 26, 1942) is a Guatemalan politician who served as the 40th President of Guatemala from 1986 to 1991. He also served as the Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA) from 2 ...

's 1985 presidential campaign, as well as more than $2.6 million and free airtime to

Alfonso Portillo Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera (born 24 September 1951) is a Guatemalan politician who served as the 45th president of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004. He took office on 14 January 2000, representing the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), the p ...

's 1999 campaign. "Political analysts say the free commercials helped Portillo win the election." After becoming president, Portillo "named Gonzalez's brother-in-law,

Luis Rabbé Luis Armando Rabbé Tejada (born 26 May 1956) is a Guatemalan politician and media entrepreneur. He was President of the Congress of Guatemala between 14 January 2015 and 14 January 2016. Rabbé was elected to the Congress of Guatemala in the 2 ...

, as his minister of communications, infrastructure and housing, a powerful Cabinet position whose jurisdiction includes the oversight of broadcast media." Until the creation of the name Albavisión, González used the name Televideo Services. As of August 2018, Gonzalez owned 35 television channels, 114 radio stations and two newspaper companies in 11 Latin American countries.

Personal life

His second wife, Alba Elvira Lorenzana, is the largest shareholder of Radio y Televisión de Guatemala, S.A. and Televisiete S.A.; their daughter Jani González Lorenzana (born 1973) is a psychologist by profession, and is the main shareholder of Interacel Argentina as well as holding shares on Televisiete.

References

http://www.poder360.com/article_detail.php?id_article=5236&pag=1

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Remigio Angel Living people 1944 births Mexican television company founders Television executives Businesspeople from Nuevo León