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Podcast – WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean

Mexico’s Fourth Transformation And Why The US Wants To Stop It

March 16, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , , ,
It is this democracy that must be defended now: not, as media outlets would have you believe, from AMLO, but from those who would weaponize the electoral issue to justify a disastrous foreign intervention, in whatever form it might ultimately take. Although the 4T has not fulfilled everyone’s expectations, it has, in four years, created a governing movement that is taking control of its energy resources (including the nationalization of lithium) and is adopting a role of regional leadership in Latin America: two sins the United States has not historically forgiven anywhere.

Colombia-Total Peace And The Fight To Free All Political Prisoners

March 9, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In April 2021, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Colombia to demand change. They rejected decades of state violence and deepening inequality. Over the course of three months, the largest protest in Colombian history spread to over 800 municipalities throughout the country. The months-long protests played a huge role in creating the conditions for the election of Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez. Changes are afoot in Colombia, and the inauguration of President Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Marquez on August 7, 2022 marks an important shift away from decades of political repression.

Devastating Effects Of Militarization On Puerto Rico And Her People

March 2, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
The U.S. has been overtly and covertly intervening in Puerto Rico's internal affairs since 1898. Like the Spanish, British, Dutch, and the French, the U.S. understood the strategic value of the Puerto Rican archipelago, which would give their expanding empire a military advantage toward enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, thereby securing its established intent to dominate the Western Hemisphere. A new wave of militarization began soon after the change of colonial ownership, the implications of which would devastate the island municipalities of Culebra and Vieques. Culebra was militarized in 1901 and expelled the Navy in 1975. Vieques was militarized in 1941 and expelled the Navy in 2003.

Peru – More Than Statistics

February 23, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
In today’s episode, WTF host Teri Mattson shares some of the key findings of the Preliminary Report of the International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights Delegation which arrived in Peru on February 7, 2023 and deployed its work in the country until the 13th of the same month.  Teri was one of 19 human rights observers comprising the delegation.

A Conversation With Human Rights Activists In Peru

February 16, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On In Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On December 7, 2022 a right-wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power. The predominantly poor indigenous rural and Amazonian communities resoundingly and overwhelmingly voted for Castillo, rejecting outright the neoliberal regime installed by the previous governments. Violence not seen since the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship (1990-2000), has been led by the Peruvian Armed Forces, under orders of coup-leader Dina Boluarte, the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular Party, and other political factions.  It’s been over 67 days since the parliamentary coup led by the right-wing forces of Fuerza Popular with their puppet Dina Boluarte, now commonly referred to as “usurper assassin,” at the helm. 

‘So They Can See Us’: Peru’s National Protest Advances To Lima

February 2, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
Deadly protests have gripped Peru since Congress expelled the country's first working-class president, Pedro Castillo. Timeline of events since December 7, 2022: Dec 7, 2022: The surprise winner of the July 2021 presidential election, Castillo comes under immediate attack from the right.  On December 7 he attempts to dissolve Congress before it can debate a third impeachment motion against him and says he will form an emergency government and rule by decree. Dec 7: Lawmakers vote overwhelmingly to remove him from office for "moral incapacity" to exercise power. He is arrested for "rebellion". Vice President Dina Boluarte becomes Peru's first woman president. She says she intends to serve out the rest of Castillo's term, until July 2026. The United States pledges to work with Boluarte.

CELAC 2023-Latin American Integration Includes The Voices Of The People

January 26, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF Is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
Founded in 2011, CELAC, or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, is a multilateral group of 33 countries from across the Western Hemisphere that excludes Canada and the United States It was created to be an alternative forum for Latin American countries. Inaugural leaders, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, envisioned the group as a counterweight to the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), which they viewed as dominated by the United States. CELAC, unlike the OAS, allows Cuba to be a member. Its stated goals are to promote regional integration and cooperation. CELAC represents 600 million people. The Seventh Summit of CELAC leaders was held Tuesday, January 24 in Buenos Aires hosted by CELAC President Pro-Tempore Alberto Fernandez, current President of Argentina.

Asylum For Sale, Profit And Protest In The Migration Industry

January 19, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On the heels of last week’s North America Trilateral Summit, from which not much changed within the migratory system, today’s episode will focus on migration as a for-profit industry which has turned migrating humans into commodities. Our guest Adrienne Pine is co-editor of the book Asylum for Sale:  Profit and Protest in the Migration Industry published by PM Press in November 2020.  Here is brief description: Through essays, artworks, photographs, infographics, and illustrations, Asylum for Sale: Profit and Protest in the Migration Industry regards the global asylum regime as an industry characterized by profit-making activity: brokers who facilitate border crossings for a fee; contractors and firms that erect walls, fences, and watchtowers while lobbying governments for bigger “security” budgets; corporations running private detention centers and “managing” deportations; private lawyers charging exorbitant fees; “expert” witnesses; and NGO staff establishing careers while placing asylum seekers into new regimes of monitored vulnerability.  Humanity is not for sale, and no one is illegal.

North America’s Trilateral Summit

January 12, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
The United States, Mexico and Canada on Tuesday, January 10 vowed to tighten economic ties, producing more goods regionally and boosting semiconductor output, even as integration is hampered by an ongoing dispute over Mexico's energy policies. U.S. President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Mexico City and pledged to beef up supply chains after weathering serious disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We're working to a future to strengthen our cooperation on supply chains and critical minerals so we can continue to accelerate in our efforts to build the technologies of tomorrow - right here in North America," Biden said in a joint news conference with his fellow leaders after their meeting.

A History Of The First Revolution In The Americas

January 6, 2023 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On January 1, 1804, Haiti became an independent republic, following the revolution which had begun 13 years earlier as a rebellion of enslaved people against slavery and French colonialism. Previously known as Saint-Domingue, it was the most profitable colony in the world, generating greater revenue than all of the continental North American colonies combined. This immense wealth was generated by the sweat and blood of enslaved Africans who were being worked to death in their tens of thousands on coffee and sugar plantations. Shortly after the French revolution, which supposedly espoused the ideals of "liberty, equality and fraternity," on August 22, 1791 enslaved people rose up, demanding those ideals be realized, and slavery and colonialism abolished.

Saab Oral Argument Focuses On Legitimacy Of Maduro Government

December 30, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On December 20, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida, Judge Robert N. Scola heard oral arguments on Alex Saab’s motion to dismiss the case against him. The factual issue for the Court to decide was “whether Mr. Saab was a special envoy from Venezuela to Iran traveling on a mission when he was detained in Cape Verde and extradited to the U.S. and, therefore, entitled to diplomatic immunity.”  Dan was present for the hearing and will discuss, in detail, the hearing results.  WTF has been following The Case of Alex Saab since his detainment on Cape Verde 12 June 2020. Today is our third update.

Deconstructing The Anatomy Of ‘Forgetting’

December 22, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. , ,
An encore broadcast with journalist, author, activist and educator Roberto Alvarenga Lovato. Roberto Lovato is the author of Unforgetting (Harper Collins), a “groundbreaking” memoir the New York Times picked as an “Editor’s Choice.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” 2020 book which the Los Angeles Times listed as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Unforgetting was also shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Lovato, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is also a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Guernica, Le Monde Diplomatique, La Opinion, Der Spiegel and other national and international media outlets.

Lawfare: Judicial And Legislative Coups In Argentina And Peru

December 16, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
On Tuesday, December 6, An Argentine court sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in jail and disqualified her from holding public office in a high-profile corruption case on Tuesday. The vice president, who has temporary immunity due to her current role, will not face immediate prison time and is expected to appeal the sentence, with the case likely to spend years winding through higher courts. The crisis in Peru reached the streets, after Congress dismissed former President Pedro Castillo on December 7 for wanting to dissolve Parliament and establish an emergency government. The appointment of Vice President Dina Boluarte as President of the Republic, far from bringing calm, has led to a wave of protests in Lima and in the interior of the country.

Decolonization, Multipolarity And The Demise Of The Monroe Doctrine

December 8, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , ,
December 3, 2023 will mark the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine. It will also mark its obsolescence in the face of popular resistance and the Pink Tide of progressive governments in Latin America that have been elected over the past two and a half decades. The prevailing ideology of these left and left of center movements rejects the “Washington Consensus” and opts for a new consensus based on the decolonization of the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. This consensus is accompanied by encounters and conferences that advance liberatory traditions developed since the 1960’s as well as those deeply rooted in indigenous cultures. It is Washington’s failure to respect and adjust to this political and ideological process of transformation that precludes, at this time, a constructive and cooperative U.S. foreign policy towards the region.

Bringing The People’s Voices Into Government

December 2, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. , , , ,
This episode was broadcast LIVE FROM BOGOTÁ with guest Lilia Solano, Vice Minister of Social Dialogue and Equality for the government of Colombia Host Teri Mattson has been in Bogotá since 24 November attending several encuentros organized by Vice Minister Lilia Solano.  In this episode Teri and Lilia discuss the Petro government’s vision of bringing the 1991 Constitutional reform of direct democracy to reality among the Colombian people and the creation of social movements to develop informed citizens, build political formation and continue to create electoral candidates for the continuation of the Pacto Historico.
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