NACLA Radio

Sep 04 2024 52 ep. 41 mins 46

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Under the Shadow Ep. 13 | Panama. US Invasion.

Sep 04 2024 54 mins

On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama with tens of thousands of troops. It was the largest U.S. invasion since Vietnam. The first U.S. military action since the fall of the Berlin Wall one month before. The testing ground for the Iraq wars. The U.S. invading forces destroyed 20,000 homes and killed hundreds of innocent Panamanians, dumping bodies into mass graves.

Under the Shadow Bonus 3 | The Legacy of Monroe

Aug 13 2024 64 mins

In December 1823, U.S. president James Monroe delivered his State of the Union address in which he coined what would become known as the Monroe Doctrine. It was a framework that would later be used to legitimize U.S. intervention up and down the hemisphere. But in those early days, Monroe’s statements were applauded by Latin American leaders as supporting their independence strug

Under the Shadow Ep. 12 | Panama Canal

Jul 24 2024 56 mins

Panama is, perhaps, the country in the region that has suffered under the longest U.S. shadow—right from the very beginning. The country and the canal would become the United States’ most important asset in the region. The United States installed as many as 100 military bases throughout Panama, during World War II, and it was the base of Washington’s Latin American military t

Under the Shadow Ep. 11 | Costa Rica. Peace & Democracy—Maybe.

Jul 09 2024 60 mins

Costa Rica has been called the “Switzerland of Latin America.” In this episode, host Michael Fox takes us on a dive into this so-called peaceful and democratic beacon for a region beset by dictatorships and violence. He looks at the myth Costa Rica has created around the elimination of the military and how the United States did its utmost to encourage San José to do its biddin

Under the Shadow Bonus 2 | Chomsky on U.S. Intervention in Central America

Jun 25 2024 13 mins

Noam Chomsky needs no introduction. He’s a celebrated linguist, who has long denounced U.S. empire at home and abroad. And he has a long relationship with Latin America.Chomsky’s 1985 book, Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace, was formative for many academics and activists analyzing the U.S. role in the region.In 2012, NACLA awarded

Under the Shadow Bonus 1 | Hollywood and Empire

Jun 24 2024 34 mins

In the late 1980s, British film director Alex Cox spent several months in Nicaragua filming his movie Walker, about the U.S. filibuster who invaded and took over the country in the mid-1800s.As Cox puts it, he was trying to make “a revolutionary film in a revolutionary context." That did not go over well in Hollywood. The movie would get him blacklisted. Even today, you still can

Under the Shadow Ep. 10 | 1980s Nicaragua. Part II: Contra War

Jun 24 2024 67 mins

In the early 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan launched a covert war to destroy the fledgling Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. It was brutal: paramilitary war, CIA attacks, economic blockade, and more. The war wreaked havoc on the country, killing tens of thousands and ravaging the economy. But an international solidarity movement stood up in response. Meanwhile, the Reagan go

Under the Shadow Ep. 10 | 1980s Nicaragua. Part I: Revolution

May 14 2024 38 mins

The 1979 Nicaraguan revolution that overthrew a brutal U.S.-backed dictator ushered in a wave of hope in the Central American country. The new Sandinista government launched literacy and healthcare campaigns, carried out land reform and promised to improve the lives of all. But the United States, under President Ronald Reagan, feared the dominos would fall across Central America, a

Under the Shadow Ep. 9 | Nicaragua. Sandino.

Apr 23 2024 72 mins

In 1912, the United States invaded Nicaragua and began what would become the longest U.S. occupation in Latin American history. The occupation would birth both a dictatorship and one of Latin America’s most important revolutionary heroes: Augusto Sandino.Sandino would wage a six-year-long guerrilla insurgency to rid Nicaragua of the U.S. Marines. And he would win. The United Stat

Under the Shadow Ep. 8 | Nicaragua. William Walker.

Apr 12 2024 54 mins

William Walker was a journalist, lawyer, and physician from Nashville, Tennessee, who in 1855 invaded Nicaragua with a few dozen troops and conquered the country. At the time, he was one of thousands of private U.S. citizens who had their sights set on taking over foreign nations, all in the name of Manifest Destiny.In this episode, host Michael Fox retraces the footsteps of Willia