From the December 3, 2025 edition of Actualidad Radio's Cada Tarde

CARLOS ACOSTA (HOST): Agustin, I saw in a local news source, and today we'll talk with doctor Hector Benitez about this, that there are swearing-in ceremonies of American citizens that are suspended.

 

AGUSTIN ACOSTA (HOST): Suspended!

 

CARLOS: There are people who had their interview to do the citizenship exam, people who have already turned in their papers, people who were investigated and now go take their citizenship exam with the new rules. Suspended.

 

AGUSTÍN: All suspended.

 

CARLOS: And I'll go a little further. The lady, Kristi Noem has no right to call my country, nor the country of the Cubans, nor anyone's country, "damned countries." She has no right. My country is not damned.There are damned Venezuelans, that's another thing, and I try not to use that word.

 

AGUSTÍN: Let's check history a bit, because that woman seems to be acting with severe racism, or with a tremendous intellectual myopia that is reckless and dangerous, because that "damned country," one of the 19 "damned countries" produced the family of Marco Rubio who came to the US.

 

CARLOS: That's right.

 

AGUSTÍN: His mother and father came from one of those 19 countries.

 

CARLOS: From one of those "damned countries."

 

AGUSTÍN: Ok? The father of Jeff Bezos, the one who gave his last name to the owner of Amazon when he was adopted at 6 or 7 months old, the senior Bezos came from Cuba. Ex-Senator Melquiades Martinez, who was also a member of George W. Bush's cabinet, came from Cuba. The parents of Mario Diaz-Balart, the parents of Maria Elvira Salazar, who were both born here, and Carlos Gimenez came from Cuba.

 

CARLOS: That's right.

 

AGUSTÍN: University professors, high-ranking military members who attained ranks of armed forces general, like Erneido Oliva, came from Cuba.

 

CARLOS: Business people have come. And from Venezuela?

 

AGUSTÍN: From Venezuela, all sorts of brilliant people who have contributed in an exemplary manner to the social and political life of the United States have come, and today they run universities, businesses, political offices in different places, media outlets. So to this woman I believe that someone needs to stop her right now. If the president, her boss, does not do it, then we stop her, at least like we're doing on this show, because you can't generalize due to a totally savage act of an individual who grabbed a weapon and shot two other human beings, and so now the just will pay for the sinners, and paint has been brushed over 19 countries that according to her are "damned countries" who are sending their worst here, the dregs. No ma'am, no, they are not sending the dregs. There have been individuals who are really unsavory and real bad actors, of course, but they do not come just from these 19 countries, they have come from other places too, because the mafia that included the Cosa Nostra in New York, where did they come from? They came from Italy.

 

CARLOS: And Italy is not a "damned country."

 

AGUSTÍN: No, no, no.

 

CARLOS: And Italians are not all mafiosos.

 

AGUSTÍN: And the Russian mafia has come from Russia. The grandparents of Mr. Stephen Miller came from Europe, eastern Europe, they were persecuted by Hitler, they were Jews from eastern Europe, and they came here, his grandparents did not speak English. They came here, they were received by this country, and from there came Miller's family, he's a presidential advisor. I imagine that if we dig a little deeper, President Trump's grandparents came from Germany, ok?

 

CARLOS: President Trump's wife.

 

AGUSTÍN: She's an immigrant, born in eastern Europe, and the first wife of president Trump, the mother of his oldest children, also came from eastern Europe. So, ma'am, be very careful with your tongue.

 

CARLOS: To close out this topic, I will recall what an eminent director of the Republican Party told me when I asked about Kristi Noem. I am not authorized to say his name, but perhaps if we have him on this show, I'll ask him and he'll say the same thing. "You have to be very careful with what this woman does and says, because she was governor of a state where there are more buffaloes than voters."