Controversial Goya Foods boss speaks out after leadership change. ’I will not be silenced.'

The embattled CEO and president of Goya Foods has spoken out following a recent board vote regarding his employment with the company.

Robert Unanue, who has led the Jersey City-based Hispanic food brand since 2004 — and later sparked backlash against Goya Foods, following his vocal support of President Donald Trump — said in a Monday press release he’s been “left in limbo” and “has no real answers” after a board vote, which appears to have removed him from his position.

In a statement provided to NJ Advance Media Tuesday, a spokesperson for Goya Foods confirmed “a change in leadership,” but would not provide specifics on the company’s “internal operations.”

The spokesperson added the change “has absolutely no connection to politics or media appearances.”

Unanue, a Wyckoff native, first gained national attention in 2020, when he visited the White House for the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, pledging more two million food products to U.S. food banks. While there, he praised the president, saying, “We are all truly blessed … to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.”

Unanue’s comments stirred public uproar, given Trump’s statements directed toward Mexican-Americans and immigration policies. A public boycott of Goya food products followed, echoed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

Unanue declined to retract his comments, saying it was a “suppression of speech.” Soon after, Republican voters launched an “anti-boycott” campaign. Unanue said that the company experienced a 1,000% sales spike as a result.

Goya’s board of directors voted to censure Unanue in January 2021, effectively banning him from speaking to the media, CNN said. The action was taken after the CEO claimed in an interview with Fox Business that the 2020 presidential election was “unverified” and that it was the dawn of a “new world order and great reset” on the day of former President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.

At the time, the nine-person board was in favor of removing Unanue from the company entirely, but the regulations of the family-owned business, founded in 1936 by Prudencio Unanue Ortiz — Robert Unanue’s grandfather — would not allow it, as noted by the New York Post.

Unanue repeated those false election claims during an appearance at CPAC 2021. He claimed Trump was “the real, legitimate, and still actual president” and that the Georgia election was “not legitimate.”

Unanue also served as executive producer on the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom,” a thriller based on the life of an anti-trafficking advocate, which further entrenched the Goya leader with far-right supporters.

“Supporting the film has become a cause du jour for the MAGA crowd,” the Los Angeles Times noted at the time.

Trump himself hosted a screening of “Freedom” at his Bedminster golf course that summer. Unanue also spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention last summer.

While Unanue did not confirm his departure Monday, he seems geared toward an exit from the company. He said he intends to focus on his philanthropic efforts, namely eliminating the child trafficking. He’d previously created the Goya Cares initiative to provide education trafficking and online exploitation.

“The uncertainty at Goya Foods will not deter me from making the world aware of the evils of child trafficking, and I will not rest until the over 325,000 children lost over the last 2 years are recovered,” Unanue said. “I will not be silenced. I will not give in to those who want me to give up the fight.”

Related coverage:

Goya Foods boss, coming off tumultuous year, braces for war on new fronts in 2022

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com