Liberty Counsel today unveiled a 60-second Spanish-language radio program, Llamado de Libertad, “with the goal to encourage, educate and reach out to the Hispanic community.” Staver, who is also a board member of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, in a statement described Latinos as a monolith who concurs with his organization’s right-wing ideology:
“We are very excited to announce the launch of our Spanish version of Freedom’s Call, Llamado de Libertad,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “The Hispanic Community believes in the same values as does Liberty Counsel—sanctity of life, family, and religious freedom.”
“Llamado de Libertad fulfills a need in Hispanic broadcasting,” said Yuri Mantilla. “The Spanish community needs to know more about what is going on in our nation—the laws and issues that Liberty Counsel is advocating.”
Liberty Counsel is partnering with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference on a new Hispanic Initiative. “As the legislative and policy arm of the NHCLC, it is important that Liberty Counsel is communicating with the Hispanic community,” said Staver. “Building our presence on Spanish-language radio stations is a step in that direction.”
But like other groups, Latinos don’t speak with one voice, especially on the social issues that Liberty Counsel concentrates on.
One clue that Latinos aren’t aligned with the rabidly anti-Obama Liberty Counsel is that a whopping 71% of Latinos voted for Obama in the last election.
Liberty Counsel also might have little luck attracting Latino supporters over the group’s two central goals: criminalizing abortion and fighting gay rights.
ABC found that among Latino voters, 66% supported keeping abortion legal, compared to 59% of Americans at large. A 2012 Lake Research poll found that 68% of Latinos believe that abortion “should remain legal,” and NBC/WSJ poll reports that Latinos “increasingly oppose [Roe v. Wade] being overturned.”
Latino voters also outpace non-Hispanic whites and African Americans in their support for marriage equality, with 59% backing same-sex marriage. Quinnipiac similarly observed that with 63% favoring marriage equality, Latinos “support same-sex marriage than any other demographic.”
But just as Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber erroneously predicted that Jewish voters would turn en masse against Obama, the ultraconservative group’s latest stunt to appeal to Latinos may come up dry.
