WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean

EPISODE: Ecuador’s Presidential Election heads to a Second Round in October

GUEST: Pilar Troya

Pilar is an Ecuadorian feminist anthropologist. Her main areas of interest are social public policies, especially concerning gender equality and the feminist movement. She has served as an advisor to the Ministry of National Planning and as an advisor and Deputy Minister to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Ecuador. She is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

BACKGROUND:

Luisa González, of the Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana party, on Sunday took a lead in the first round of Ecuador’s presidential and legislative elections, which have been marred by political assassinations as the Andean nation struggles with a wave of violence that has brought homicide rates, under the Lasso administration, to record levels.

Gonzalez is set to face the surprise second-place finisher Daniel Noboa in a run-off election in October, according to the National Electoral Council of Ecuador (CNE), as neither candidate won more than 50% of the ballot.

González has promised to enhance public spending and social programs and wants to address the security crisis by fixing the root causes of violence, such as poverty and inequality. A former tourism and labor minister in Correa’s government, González has also called for the judiciary to be reinforced to help with prosecutions, analysts say.

Daniel Noboa is the son of banana businessman Álvaro Noboa – who himself has run for the presidency at least five times. The 35-year-old was a lawmaker before outgoing President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the legislature and called for early elections.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Ecuador’s President Dissolves National Assembly Triggering Early Elections

Ecuador: The Lasso Government Post-National Strike

Ecuador Erupts Against Neoliberalism

TriContinental: Institute for Social Research

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with: Alliance for Global Justice, Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action, Task Force on the Americas, and Venezuelanalysis

EPISODE:

Nicaragua, A History of US Intervention & Resistance

GUEST:  Author, Activist and Labor Attorney, Daniel Kovalik

BACKGROUND:  

The latest book by labor and human rights attorney, Daniel Kovalik, Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance (2023, Clarity Press, 292 pages), is a worthy addition to the author’s collection of works on countries targeted by U.S. imperialism, such as Venezuela, Russia, and Iran. While giving readers a thoughtful and much fuller picture than one can glean from the corporate media, this volume tells an engaging tale based on personal experience and extensive research.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Nicaragua: A History of U.S. Intervention & Resistance

Book Review: Nicaragua, A History of US Intervention & Resistance, by Daniel Kovalik

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action, Task Force on the Americas, and Venezuelanalysis 

EPISODE:

Sandinistas Speak. Nicaraguans Defend their Revolution

This episode is bi-lingual with subtitles.

PRODUCER and HOST: Ramiro Sebastian Funez

Friday, June 30, WTF returned to Managua, Nicaragua to do follow-up study of Caribbean Coast government funded infrastructure projects and to celebrate the 44th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19. While on assignment, each week we will share with you segments of the documentary Nicaragua Against Empire. The film journals our March 2021 Sanctions Kill / Friends of the ATC, Nicaragua delegation

In this episode, you hear directly from working-class Nicaraguans who support their socialist government. You also hear their thoughts about U.S. sanctions and regime change. These are perspectives rarely shared in mainstream media.

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action; Task Force on the Americas; and Venezuelanalysis.com 

EPISODE: Nicaragua against Empire - Part II Managua Against Empire, an inside look at Managua, Nicaragua, from a revolutionary socialist perspective.

PRODUCER and HOST: Ramiro Sebastian Funez

Friday, June 30, WTF returned to Managua, Nicaragua to do follow-up study of Caribbean Coast government funded infrastructure projects and to celebrate the 44th Annivesrary of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19. While on assignment, each week we will share with you segments of the documentary Nicaragua Against Empire. The film journals our March 2021 Sanctions Kill / Friends of the ATC, Nicaragua delegation. From film producer and delegate Ramiro Sebastian Funez:

"In March of 2021, I traveled to Nicaragua as part of a 13-member delegation. The trip was organized by the Sanctions Kill coalition and the Friends of the Rural Workers’ Association, known as the ATC.

We traveled to Nicaragua to understand the effects of imperialist sanctions on ordinary Nicaraguans and how they're fighting back. We also witnessed the wide range of social advancements carried out by the Sandinista Revolution.

For eleven days, we traveled across diverse parts of Nicaragua. We visited the urban sprawls of Managua, the rural countryside of Estelí, and the tropical Caribbean coastline of Bilwi.

We met and spoke with locals and grassroots activists to see the reality of Nicaragua. What we saw was completely different from what we see on imperialist mainstream media."

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.

This week we are excited to welcome Venezuelanalysis.com into our broadcast partner family!

EPISODE: Mexico: Expanding Democracy and Defending Sovereignty

GUEST:  José Luis Granados Ceja, journalist with Venezuelanalysis and The Mexico Solidarity Project

BACKGROUND:  

The international press is again bludgeoning Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, this time accusing him of attacking the country’s democratic institutions. It’s a baseless charge intended to undermine a government that refuses total obedience to US hegemony.

On February 23, an electoral reform bill received its final approval in the Mexican Senate en route to being signed into law

The National Electoral Institute (INE) is widely recognized to be riddled with excess expenditure and a top-heavy bureaucracy. The new law simply mandates similar cost-saving measures to those that the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has applied to other governmental departments. It eliminates duplicate functions at the local and district level, and fuses certain higher-level job descriptions. It also reins in eye-catching top salaries.

The law also facilitates voting rights for the disabled, those held in pretrial detention, and the millions of migrants living abroad. It provides tougher sanctions for the endemic practice of vote-buying and enshrines in law the inclusion of minorities and members of vulnerable groups on candidate lists

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

No, AMLO Is Not Undermining Mexican Democracy

Venezuelanalysis

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.

EPISODE: Alex Saab, Three Years as a Kidnapped Diplomat

GUEST:  Fiorella Isabel of The Convo Couch

BACKGROUND:

The case is a terrifying example of the US’s continuing commitment to illegal, unilateral intervention and ‘regime change,’ where no country is truly safe, writes FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ (link to full article below)

From his article: “June 12, 2023 was the third anniversary of the illegal kidnapping and imprisonment by the US of Alex Saab.

Because the brutality and cruelty of the US blockade was wreaking havoc on the economy and millions of the most vulnerable in Venezuela were being deliberately denied their human rights to the most basic necessities of daily life, President Nicolas Maduro tasked Saab with traveling around the world procuring food, medicines and fuel for his country.

Breaking every treaty, protocol, law and norm of international diplomacy, the US plotted to have Saab arrested while in transit to Iran to fulfill his diplomatic mission, by pressing the Cape Verde government to illegally arrest him on June 12 2020.”

The plane Saab was traveling on was denied refueling in Morocco and Senegal thus being forced to land in Cape Verde. In his book, Never Give An Inch (2023), Donald Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo admits as much: “No other nation has the global reach to interrupt an Iran-Venezuela plot in real time and convince a small island nation to hold a wanted man.”

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Alex Saab, hostage of the hybrid war against Venezuela

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean: Alex Saab, Sanctions & the Extra-Judicial Reach of the U.S. (September 16, 2021)

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean: Film Screening + Discussion, Alex Saab A Kidnapped Diplomat (October 20, 2022)

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean: Saab Oral Argument Focuses on Legitimacy of Maduro Government (December 31, 2022)

Free Alex Saab Campaign

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.

EPISODE: Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Resigns to Run for President

GUEST: Independent journalist Alina Duarte who joins us from Mexico City

BACKGROUND:

Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, one of the leading contenders to be the country's next leader, said on Tuesday he will resign to focus on winning the presidential nomination of the ruling MORENA party for the 2024 election.

Ebrard, a former mayor of Mexico City, wants to succeed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the standard-bearer of the left of center National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which now dominates national politics.

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Alina Duarte

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En Re Podcast

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Una jugada maestra, Lopez Obrador resuelve la sucesión

Mexico’s Fourth Transformation and Why the U.S. Wants to Stop It

VI Cumbre de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC), Desde Palacio Nacional (Septiembre 2021)

238 Aniversario del Natalicio de Simón Bolívar, desde el Castillo de Chapultepec (Julio 2021) 

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.

EPISODE: Isolationism Ends: Maduro Visits Brazil

GUEST: Ricardo Vaz, political analyst and editor at Venezuelanalysis.com

BACKGROUND:  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro traveled to Brazil as part of an official visit to meet with his counterpart Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva where the pair discussed regional and international cooperation, including the potential entry of Venezuela into the BRICS bloc.

The high-level meeting comes as part of joint efforts to strengthen their bilateral ties following the restoration of diplomatic and economic relations after years of tension under Lula’s predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who embraced Washington regime change plots against Maduro, backing the so-called “interim” government of opposition figure Juan Guaidó.

Monday’s bilateral meeting also focused on reactivating trade between the two countries, which fell precipitously after Bolsonaro’s recognition of Guaidó, severely impacting populations on both sides of the border. The pair also discussed efforts to advance regional integration.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Venezuela's Maduro Floats BRICS Entry in "Historic" Bilateral Meeting with Lula in Brazil

Toward a new UNASUR: Pathways for the Reactivation of South America Integration

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance (Stop the Machine! Create a New World) broadcast in partnership with:  Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team; CODEPINK: Women For Peace; Common Frontiers; Council on Hemispheric Affairs; Friends of Latin America; IRTF - The InterReligious Task Force on Central America; Massachusetts Peace Action; and Task Force on the Americas

EPISODE: Ecuador’s President Dissolves National Assembly Triggering Early Elections

GUEST: Author and Journalist Joe Emersgerger. You can find his work published at CounterPunch, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), MintPressNews and more. Also, be sure to read his book Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela

BACKGROUND:

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree on May 17 bringing forward legislative and presidential elections and heading off an attempt by opposition politicians to impeach him.

Opposition politicians wanted to impeach Lasso over accusations he disregarded warnings of embezzlement related to a contract at state-owned oil transportation company Flopec, charges the president denies.

A majority of lawmakers had backed a resolution accusing Lasso of allowing the corrupt contract to continue after taking office in 2021, although a congressional oversight committee, which heard testimony from opposition lawmakers, officials, and Lasso's lawyer, said in its report it did not recommend impeachment.

Lasso says the impeachment process - the first against an Ecuadorian president in decades - is politically motivated and has sparked a grave crisis that has threatened democracy. The dissolution was necessary, he said.

Citing the crisis and inability to govern, Lasso invoked the constitution's so-called "two-way death" (Muerte Cruzada) provision, which allows the president to call elections for both his post and the assembly under certain circumstances, including if actions by the legislature are blocking the functioning of government.

According to the constitution, he will now remain in office and rule by decree.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Ecuador’s “Democratic Backsliding” Has Been Ongoing Since 2017, With US Support

Elections in Ecuador Unmask Western Media Dishonesty

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean: Ecuador Erupts against Neoliberalism

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean: The Lasso Government Post-National Strike

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.

EPISODE:   Whatever Happened to that Plane? U.S. Unilateral Sanctions and the Saga of Venezuela’s Emtrasur Cargo 747

GUEST: Orlenys Ortiz, citizen journalist joining us from Venezuela

TRANSLATION: Carmelo Valasquez, Velasquez Translations, Buenos Aires, Argentina

BACKGROUND:

On May 3, 2023, the Argentinian press reported a US prosecutor requested the US Justice Department to order the definitive execution of the seizure order of Emtrasur’s Boeing 747-300. (Empresa de Transporte Aerocargo del Sur). The plane arrived in Argentina in June 2022 in what was supposedly a routine cargo flight. Nonetheless, the aircraft, its cargo, and its crew quickly raised the alarms across Argentina, and it was seized by local authorities. Shortly after, US authorities got involved claiming the sale of the aircraft by the Iranian state carrier Mahan Air to Venezuela’s Conviasa was a clear violation of the US Export Control Laws. Conviasa deployed the 747 on its cargo subsidiary Emtrasur.

Almost a year has passed; the crew has been released, but the plane remains grounded in Buenos Aires. Venezuela’s government has repeatedly requested the return of Emtrasur’s Boeing 747. In the meantime, the US government has conducted a process to seize the aircraft. Argentina’s Ministry of Justice has received a letter sent by the US Justice Department requesting that the aircraft be handed over to it.

Argentina is now in a complex geopolitical spot. On the one hand, it can support the US’ claims and deliver the aircraft. On the other hand, it can choose not to pick a fight with Venezuela and Iran, which is said to be closely watching the development of the crisis.

Emtrasur acquired the aircraft in 2022. It operated a few cargo services across Latin America in 2022 before its grounding in Buenos Aires. According to the Department of Justice, Mahan Air violated the temporary Denial Order and US export control laws when it sold the aircraft to Emtrasur without the US Government's authorization. Other violations of US laws occurred between February and May 2022 when Emtrasur flew the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela; Tehran, Iran; and Moscow, Russia, without US Government authorization.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Emtrasur’s 747 Detained in Buenos Aires: U.S. Attorney Requests Immediate Execution of Seizure

US Official Requests Seizure of Emtrasur’s Grounded Boeing 747

Diosdado Cabello

OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.