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August 23, 2024
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Rights Action recommends this podcast series by Michael Fox, with NACLA and The Real News Network, that takes a long look at US-led imperialism in Latin America, starting in the early 1800s.
As Israel’s genocidal ethnic-cleansing, land-theft onslaught continues in Palestine, all supported and legitimized by the US-led imperialist west of today, and as US-led interventionism continues unabated in Latin America today – supporting right-wing ‘open-for-global-business’ regimes and governments, attacking and demonizing governments working to transform their unjust, unequal economic systems, Rights Action is grateful for Under The Shadow that exposes again the deep imperialist roots of the US-led west, past and present.
Complimentary to Under The Shadow, Rights Action shares again this two-part article by James Phillips, summarizing the fundamental imperialism of the US and the west, past and present.
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This podcast series takes listeners across Latin America to the scenes of some of the region’s most devastating, revolutionary, and historic moments. In Season 1, journalist Michael Fox dives deep into the past of Central America, uncovering the history of U.S. intervention and its lingering effects in the region today.
Episode 1 – The Beginning: Monroe and Migration
In this episode, we look back on the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the devastating impact on the region. The list of U.S. invasions, occupations, coups and sanctions is endless. Hundreds. From Mexico to Panama. The Caribbean. Colombia to the tip of Chile and Argentina.
No country in Latin America has remained free from the shadow hanging over them. The shadow of the United States. The shadow of the Monroe Doctrine. Two hundred years ago, on December 2, 1823, then-president James Monroe delivered his State of the Union address to Congress. In his address, he laid out what would become both one of the most consequential and devastating ideas for Latin America—the Monroe Doctrine.
We look back on the history of the Monroe Doctrine and the devastating impact on the region.
In the second half of the episode, we meet migrants walking North toward the United States on the edge of Central America. A very real manifestation, right now, of the never-ending impact of U.S. intervention in Latin America.
Episode 2 – Guatemala: United Fruit
Host Michael Fox looks at the outsized role of the U.S. banana corporation, United Fruit, in Central America. You literally can't talk about the history of Central America in the 20th Century without mentioning the UFCO (United Fruit Company). Fox goes in search of the legacy of the company today. He travels to the Guatemalan town of Tiquisate, which was built by the company. We dig into the past and the 1954 CIA coup, which overthrew the democratically elected president in the name of U.S. corporate interests.
We also look at the inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo—the son of the country’s first democratic president—who was sworn in on January 14, 2024
Episode 3 – Guatemala: The Disappeared
Host Michael Fox visits a memorial for the disappeared on the outskirts of the Guatemalan town of San Juan Comalapa. He walks back in time to the 1980s, into the country’s genocide of Indigenous peoples, uncovering the overwhelming support from the United States and then President Ronald Reagan in the name of fighting the so-called “communist threat.”
Between 1962 and 1996, 200,000 Guatemalans were killed and 45,000 were forcibly disappeared. For the majority of families, the whereabouts of those lost loved ones are still unknown, even decades after security forces abducted them. Most of the victims of the conflict were Indigenous. Most of the perpetrators were members of government forces.
Episode 4 – El Salvador: The Innocent Victims
Host Michael Fox heads to San Salvador, where he visits a memorial for the innocent victims and looks at the legacy of El Salvador's armed conflict today. In the 1980s, El Salvador was ground zero for the U.S. intervention in Central America. The United States funneled over $6 billion to El Salvador in mostly military aid and police and security training throughout the country’s 12-year civil war, which lasted from 1980 until 1992. The violence and the U.S. support for the country's bloody authoritarian regimes had a deadly cost, claiming the lives of and tens of thousands of innocent victims.
Episode 5 – El Salvador: Rebel Radio
Today, we look at Radio Venceremos—a grassroots guerrilla radio station that broadcast throughout El Salvador’s Civil War, denounced violent state repression, and inspired a nation. In this episode, Michael Fox visits the Museum of Word and Image, the home of the archives of Radio Venceremos. He hears from former members of the radio about the revolutionary project and the U.S. and Salvadoran military attempts to shut it down.
Episode 6 – USS Honduras
In the 1980s, Honduras was also ground zero for U.S. operations in Central America. It was a base of operations for the U.S.-trained, funded, and backed Contras, in their war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. And it was a staging ground for U.S. military involvement and CIA missions in the region.
Within the country, that meant using the same strategy seen throughout the rest of the region: state repression, disappearances, torture, and the overwhelming presence of the United States.
In this episode, host Michael Fox visits Honduran family members of the disappeared and the walls of the largest U.S. military base in Central America.
Update 1 – Arévalo, Presidente
Michael Fox returns to Guatemala, speaking to political scientist Jo-Marie Burt about the significance of President Bernardo Arévalo's inauguration.
Update 2 – Bukele, Presidente
Michael Fox returns to El Salvador for the presidential elections, which incumbent Nayib Bukele won in a landslide. He sits down for an in-depth conversation with Dartmouth assistant professor of Latin American Studies Jorge Cuéllar.
Episode 7, Part I – 2009 Honduras: La Resistencia
Michael Fox dives into the tremendous resistance to the U.S. and Canadian-backed 2009 coup. He looks at the government of ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the push back he faced from Honduran elites and the United States.
Episode 7, Part II – Honduras 2009: Legacy of a Coup
Michael Fox looks at the fallout of the 2009 coup in Honduras, diving into the fraudulent elections that ushered in a narco-dictatorship, as well as the resistance movement that, after years of struggle, ultimately did what it set out to do: remove the coup regime and return democracy to Honduras.
Update 3 – Narcodictator, Convicted
Michael Fox speaks to Karen Spring about the conviction of Honduran former president Juan Orlando Hernández for drug trafficking and the elephant in the New York courtroom: the role of the United States and Canada in propping up his narco-state.
Episode 8 – Nicaragua: William Walker
Michael Fox retraces the steps of William Walker, the 19th century filibuster who invaded Nicaragua and attempted to annex and rule Central America. It's a story of U.S. imperialism that has lasting repercussions for Latin America, the United States, and the world.
Episode 9 – Nicaragua: Sandino
Michael Fox visits the birthplace of Nicaraguan liberator Augusto Sandino and speaks with historian Michel Gobat about Sandino’s life, the long U.S. occupation of Nicaragua, and how it set the scene for dictatorship and revolution.
Episode 10, Part I – 1980s Nicaragua: Revolution
Michael Fox walks back into 1980s Nicaragua to the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza and the beginning of both the Sandinista government and the U.S. response to it.
Episode 10, Part 2 - NICARAGUA, 1980S. CONTRA WAR
Michael Fox walks back into the 1980s, to the U.S. response to revolution in Nicaragua and to the international solidarity that pushed back.
Bonus 1 - Hollywood and Empire
Michael Fox speaks with British film director Alex Cox about his 1987 movie Walker, the filming process in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and the role of U.S. intervention and the film industry.
Bonus 2 – Chomsky on U.S. Intervention in Central America
Under the Shadow looks back on Chomsky’s 1983 lecture at the University of Colorado, as some of the worst aspects of the Reagan administration’s Cold War-era foreign policy ravaged Central America.
Episode 11 - US hand in Costa Rica
Despite its reputation for pacifism and prosperity, Costa Rica is one of the region’s most unequal nations—and the story of how it got there runs through its ties to Washington during the Contra War.
Episode 12 - The Panama Canal
In its pursuit of global empire, the US aided a separatist movement in Colombia to create the nation known as Panama—once home to 100 US military bases.
Bonus 3 - Venezuela, Media War
Unrest in Venezuela following recent elections has captured the international spotlight, but there’s an actor in the shadows escaping scrutiny—the US media.
Bonus 4 - The Legacy of Monroe
Historian Greg Grandin examines the long shadow of the Monroe Doctrine, which continues to shape US imperialism in Latin America.
… More episodes to come …
Considering Michael Fox’s podcast work: https://www.patreon.com/mfox
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Rights Action (U.S. & Canada)
Chipping away to transform our profoundly unjust and unequal, local-to-global, economic, military and political order
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land, justice, human rights and democracy struggles, environment, community development and emergency relief projects in Guatemala and Honduras. Rights Action works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala. In our archives (https://rightsaction.org/archives), find some of the community defense and justice struggles Rights Action has supported since 1995.
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land, environment, democracy, human rights and justice defenders in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- US: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown, Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-card donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate/
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected]
Donate securities, write to: [email protected]
Act / Stir up the pot / Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family and friends, your networks, politicians and media outlets, asking: ‘When will there be binding legal and political accountability for how our governments and militaries, companies, banks and investment firms help cause, benefit from and turn a blind eye to corruption and impunity, and to poverty, repression environmental harms in countries like Honduras and Guatemala (and beyond)?’
Follow work of other solidarity/NGO groups
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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-Card Donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate/
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected]
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected]
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