Noticias Univision’s León Krauze has officially left the Spanish language broadcaster in a surprise move that was announced internally Wednesday morning.
“TelevisaUnivision expresses its most sincere gratitude to León Krauze for his outstanding contribution, experience, and deep analysis throughout his career in our news division. We sincerely appreciate your efforts dedicated to empowering and informing Hispanic communities both nationally and locally for more than a decade. We extend our best wishes to Leon in all his future professional endeavors,” the network said in a statement to LasTop News, which first reported the news.
Krauze has been co-anchoring Univision’s late-evening news program Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna for the past two years, most recently alongside Maity Interiano. Before taking on this role, Krauze was the lead anchor for Univision’s Los Angeles station KMEX, having served in that capacity for 10 years.
Krauze still had a little more than a year left in his contract, and his departure comes amid criticism the company is receiving for a recent interview with former President Donald Trump.
In a story published Tuesday, The Washington Post detailed turmoil inside Univision’s newsroom and among Democrats after the presence of parent company executives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, and a laundry list of other incidents, including an interview Noticieros Televisa anchor Enrique Acevedo conducted with Trump. It was a sit-down with a softer approach towards the former president — one not at all reminiscent of the tough stand Univision Noticias took with Trump during his presidency. For example, Notciero Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was once expelled from a press conference held by Trump when he was president.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Mexico City-based Televisa and Miami-based Univision were separate entities during the Trump years. They’re now a single media entity (TelevisaUnivision), but with separate news divisions. Televisa news programming airs on the Las Estrellas network in Mexico, while Univision news programming continues to air on the Univision network in the U.S.
Acevedo, the Televisa anchor who conducted the Trump interview for TelevisaUnivision, is a veteran bilingual anchor and correspondent who once held Krauze’s role on Univision’s late-evening newscast.
Krauze, a veteran bilingual journalist as well, also hosted Epicentro, a weekly news podcast for Univision Noticias. His work has been published in Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, El País, Letras Libres, The Daily Beast, and The New Yorker. He’s currently a weekly columnist for Mexico’s El Universal and The Washington Post‘s Global Opinions section. He has covered the last four U.S. presidential election cycles and became the first journalist from a U.S. media outlet chosen to moderate a presidential debate in Mexico in 2018.
TelevisaUnivision has not said who will replace Krauze on Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna, and the award-winning Mexican journalist has not indicated his next steps.
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*Additional reporting from A.J. Katz