WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean Teri Mattson/Popular Resistance

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.