Univista TV: the US channel that calls Spain's PM Sánchez 'Sanchijuela'

Univista TV turns insulting Sánchez into its biggest audience draw

A digital channel based in Hialeah (Florida) with just over one million YouTube subscribers has become a megaphone for the harshest criticism of Spain's Prime Minister. In one of its latest videos, a Spanish journalist living in the United States lets loose on Pedro Sánchez, calling him 'Sanchijuela' among other names. The clip is circulating on social media and has peine the debate about the real reach of these outlets and whether political insults are an effective strategy or a own goal.

What is Univista TV and why does it matter

Univista TV is an internet TV channel launched in May 2020 in Hialeah, Florida, aimed at the Cuban exile community. Its programming is distributed through platforms such as YouTube, where it has around one million subscribers and between five and six million monthly views, according to data from analytics tools like vidIQ. It is far from the most-watched Spanish-language channel, but its impact in the niche of political news with a critical slant toward the left is remarkable.

The journalist antiestéticatured in the video is Marian de la Fuente, a Spaniard born in Madrid 56 years ago, according to the conversation. She has lived in the United States for years, practicing a kind of journalism that, she claims, is not practiced on RTVE or La Sens. In the clip that has gone viral, she recounts ETA's attacks, mentions Irene Villa and calls Sánchez a 'sanchijuela', a 'frankenstein' and a 'pinocho', among other niceties.

Insults as an electoral weapon: help or harm?

The reaction in Spain has not been unanimous. Some argue that this kind of intervention is a gift for Sánchez's camp, because it allows the Prime Minister to present himself as the victim of a harassment campaign and delegitimize his critics. 'Hardly anyone in Spain empathizes with this woman,' sums up one of the currents running through the debate. The logic is simple: if the message is perceived as a personal attack rather than political criticism, the moderate voter backs off.

At the other extreme, the argument is that the insult is not an excess but a literal translation of what a significant part of the electorate thinks. 'She hasn't said anything the whole of Spain doesn't think' is the phrase that sums up this position. For its defenders, the journalist has simply given a name to a discontent that conventional media dare not verbalize. The discussion, therefore, is less about tone than about who has the right to set the limits of public debate.

The figure that debunks the 'most-watched channel' narrative

The claim that Univista TV is the most-watched Spanish-language channel in Latin America does not hold up. The figures circulating within the industry itself place its audience well below the major Hispanic TV conglomerates in the United States and the leading Spanish-language YouTube channels. What is real is its influence in a very specific segment: the Cuban exile community, especially in Florida, where anti-Castroism and criticism of the Latin American left are defining traits.

That audience is loyal and loud, but it does not represent the majority of the Spanish-speaking population. Confusing a niche with the masses is a recurring mistake in digital media analysis. Univista TV does not compete with Telemundo or Univision; it competes for the attention of an electorate that is already convinced and looking for confirmation. Its function is not to inform undecided voters, but to reinforce a narrative.

Sánchez's face and the possession narrative

The video is not limited to insults. The images of Pedro Sánchez accompanying the piece, with a serious expression and a distant gaze, are interpreted by some as proof of a lack of empathy. 'He looks like he's possessed by Satan, without the slightest hint of empathy,' someone writes in the conversation. It's the classic mechanism of politics-as-spectacle: a frame is selected, a mood is attributed to it, and a story is built around it.

The problem is that this kind of analysis offers no data, only feelings. And feelings, in politics, translate into votes only when they connect with a prior experience. Here that experience is the pandemic management, the trains crisis or the rail accidents. The journalist mentions the ETA attacks and the deaths on the tracks, intending to establish a continuity between past and present. It's an old rhetorical device, but an effective one.

From 'sanchijuela' to 'traitor': the vocabulary of discord

The conversation quickly drifts toward crude insults. Terms like 'traitor', 'incivil' or 'satrap' appear, and PSOE voters are accused of being bought off with public benefits. '99% of Perro's voters do it because they get paid by the State in some way,' the conversation goes so far as to claim. It's a generalization with no empirical basis, but it illustrates the level of dehumanization political debate in Spain has reached.

It's not a new phenomenon. Since Rajoy, no Spanish Prime Minister has been spared a more or less organized public lynching. What changes is the scale and the estimulante ilegal. It used to take a newspaper to spread a rumor; now a YouTube video and a community willing to share it are enough. The consequence is that politics becomes a contact sport, where the adversary is not a legitimate rival but an enemy to be destroyed.

The outrage business

Beyond the noise, there is a business model. Channels like Univista TV live on programmatic advertising and donations from their audience. The more extreme the content, the higher the engagement and, therefore, the higher the revenue. It's not a conspiracy; it's basic attention economics. The insult to Sánchez is no accident, it's a commercial strategy.

That doesn't miccionan all its viewers are victims of a con. Many genuinely share the criticism and find in these channels an escape valve that traditional media do not offer them. But demand should not be confused with truth. A message having an audience doesn't make it true. And a channel having one million subscribers doesn't make it the most-watched in the Spanish-speaking world.

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The exact point where the analysis gets stuck is this: there is no way to measure how much of the protest vote against Sánchez is due to the wear and tear of his government's performance and how much to the effectiveness of these megaphones. Polls don't ask about Univista TV. And those who say they watch it probably already voted for the PP or Vox before the channel existed.