Under the Shadow The Real News Network

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.

It would wreak havoc on the country, killing tens of thousands and ravaging the economy. But an international solidarity movement stood up in response. And the Reagan government's hubris, and drive to fuel its war on Nicaragua, would break U.S. laws and lead to a shocking scandal in Washington: Iran Contra.

In this episode, host Michael Fox walks back into the 1980s, to the U.S. response to revolution in Nicaragua and to the international solidarity that pushed back.This is Part 2 of Episode 10.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests:
Alex Aviña
William Robinson
Alex Cox
Marvin Ortega Rodriguez
Eline Van Ommen
Peter Kornbluh
Coleen Littlejohn
Grahame Russell
Jose Francisco Artola

Edited by Heather Gies.
Sound design by Gustavo Türck.
Theme music by Monte Perdido and Michael Fox.

Permanent linksFollow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox. You can also see pictures and listen to full clips of Michael Fox’s music for this episode.Additional links/info
Monte Perdido's new album Ofrenda is now out. You can listen to the full album on SpotifyOther music from Blue Dot Sessions.For declassified documents on the U.S. Contra war on Nicaragua and the Iran Contra affair, you can visit Peter Kornbluh's National Security Archives here and here.Brian...

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 improving the lives of all.

But the United States, under president Ronald Reagan, feared the dominos would fall across Central America, and they unleashed assault on the country: paramilitary war, CIA attacks, economic blockade, and much more.

In this episode, host Michael Fox, walks by into the 1980s, to the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza and the beginning of both the Sandinista government and the U.S. response.This is Part 1, of episode 10.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests:
Alex Aviña
William Robinson
Marvin Ortega Rodriguez
Eline Van Ommen
Peter Kornbluh

Edited by Heather Gies.
Sound design by Gustavo Türck.
Theme music by Monte Perdidoand Michael Fox
Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Follow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox

You can also see pictures and listen to full clips of Michael Fox’s music for this episode.

For Declassified documents on the U.S. contra war on Nicaragua, and Iran Contra, you can visit Peter Kornbluh's National Security Archives here and here.

Eline van Ommen’s book, Nicaragua Must Survive: Sandinista Revolutionary Diplomacy in the Global Cold War (University of California Press, 2023), is available here.

For the 2007 documentary American Sandinista, you can visit the website of director Jason Blalock. https://jasonblalock.com/

Here are links to the 1980 documentaries...

In 1912, the United States invaded Nicaragua and began what would become the longest US 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 US Marines. And he would win. The United States finally pulled out in 1933, the year before Sandino was assassinated by the forces of the man who would take power and rule for decades.

In this episode, host Michael Fox takes us on the trail of Augusto Sandino. We visit his hometown and then speak with University of Pittsburgh historian Michel Gobat about Sandino’s life, the US occupation, and how it set the scene for everything that would come decades later, including the 1979 Sandinista Revolution.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests:
Michel Gobat

Edited by Heather Gies.
Sound design by Gustavo Türck.
Theme music by Monte Perdido and Michael Fox
Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Follow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox

For background, see Michel Gobat’s book Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua under U.S. Imperial Rule (2005, Duke University Press)

The Real News Network
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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/under-the-shadow--5958129/support.

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 follows in the footsteps of William Walker as he recounts one of the most twisted stories of U.S. imperialism in Central America — a story that still has lasting repercussions for Latin America, the United States and across the world.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.
In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests: Michel Gobat
David Díaz
Many thanks to Victor Acuña

Theme music by Monte Perdido. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Follow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox

The Real News Network
Donate: therealnews.com/uts-pod-donate
Sign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/uts-pod-subscribe
Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnews
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/under-the-shadow--5958129/support.

A New York court has found former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of drug trafficking and weapons possession. It’s a huge verdict that will likely see the former president imprisoned for life.

In the last episode of Under The Shadow, host Michael Fox looked deeply at Hernández’s time as president from 2014 to 2022, which many came to call a narco-dictatorship. He won office in a fraudulent election, consolidated unprecedented power, pushed a neoliberal sell-off, and carried out widespread human rights abuses. 

In this Update 3, Fox looks at the New York trial that convicted him. What went down, what it meant, and what it means going forward for Honduras. And most important, what was missing — namely the role of the United States and Canada in propping up the Hernández regime.

For this update, we speak with Karen Spring, the co-coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network and host of the Honduras Now podcast. She was in the New York courtroom throughout Hernandez’s trial.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, to tell the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. 

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.
Recorded in San Salvador, El Salvador

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests: Karen Spring

Theme music by Monte Perdido. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Follow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox

The Real News Network
Donate: therealnews.com/uts-pod-donate
Sign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/uts-pod-subscribe
Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnews
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/under-the-shadow--5958129/support.

In June 2009, Honduras faced a devastating coup that shattered the country’s fragile democracy and sunk the country into violence, repression, and a decade-long narco-dictatorship.

But the people fought back.

In this continuation of Episode 7, host Michael Fox looks at the fallout of the 2009 coup in Honduras, walking from 2009 into the present. He takes us to Tegucigalpa to dive into the fraudulent U.S.-backed elections that ushered in a narco-dictatorship, and also the resistance movement that, after years of struggle, ultimately did what it set out to do: remove the dictatorship and return democracy to Honduras.

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode looking at the 2009 coup in Honduras and the aftermath.
Under the Shadow is a new investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present.

In each episode, host Michael Fox takes us to a location where something historic happened — a landmark of revolutionary struggle or foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, a monument, or a museum. But every place he takes us was once the site of history-making events that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Guests:
Bertha Oliva, COFADEH
Grahame Russell, Rights Action
Adrienne Pine
Felix Molina
Jesse Freeston
Karen Spring
Alex Main, CEPR

Edited by Heather Gies.
Sound design by Gustavo Türck.
Voice Actors: Andalusia K. Soloff
Theme music by Monte Perdido. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Follow and support journalist Michael Fox or Under the Shadow at https://www.patreon.com/mfox

Click here, to watch Jesse Freeston’s documentary, ResistenciaResistance, about the campesino struggle in the Aguan Valley.

Karen Spring is has been covering the New York trial of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernáandez. Visit Honduras Now for updates, or follow @springkj and @HondurasNow on Twitter.

The Real News Network
Donate: therealnews.com/uts-pod-donate
Sign up for our newsletter: a...