Two countries in Latin America have had elections where after decades of US-influenced, multinational corporation dominant governments have lost to insurgent leftist candidates, Xiomara Castro in Honduras, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
One other country in the Caribbean, Haiti, has faced the same sort of right-wing neoliberal interventionist governments, a recent example ending up with an assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Right now massive protests have gotten to the point of anarchy over fuel hikes and US-UN intervention on behalf of corporations and their wealthy Haitian overlords. How did we get here and where do we go from here?
Today we feature excerpts from the UCSB radio program No Alibis Third World News Review [https://spinitron.com/KCSB/show/169197/No-Alibis] with host Elizabeth Robinson, Jack Eidt, EcoJustice Radio Executive Producer, and commentators Gerard Pigeon, Katia McClain, and Hector Javkin.
Jack Eidt discusses new government transitions in Honduras and Colombia.
Professor Gerard Pigeon covers the history of Haiti, and why we have seen this international-interventionist mess before. Unless many nations work together to support a Haitian-led solution, where the business and corporate interests and their US and UN military power step back, nothing will improve there.
We also included a commentary by Prof. Katia McClain, calling for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and fiction writer. In addition to co-founding SoCal 350, he publishes the website WilderUtopia [https://www.wilderutopia.com/]. He has written about Latin American issues for decades.
Gerard Pigeon is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Black Studies at UCSB [https://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/people/gerard-pigeon], and specializes in Francophone African and Caribbean literature, language, and cultural traditions. He gives us a comprehensive rundown on Haiti’s history since they became an independent republic, the first modern state in the Americas governed by people of African descent. And he covers what is happening today since the assassination of their president and ongoing political instability. He has published many books including Favelas (Les Editions St. Germain), Le Choix, Edition St. Germain; and Frontiere (Oswald, Paris, 1976).
Katia McClain is a Lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at UCSB [https://www.gss.ucsb.edu/people/katia-mcclain].
More Info:
Rights Action: https://rightsaction.org/
Reviving Democracy in Honduras: https://jacobin.com/2022/07/honduras-socialist-president-xiomara-castro-democracy-libre-party
Repression in Cayos Cochinos: https://elfaro.net/en/202207/centroamerica/26304/The-Survivors-of-Cayos-Cochinos.htm
Total Peace in Colombia: https://nacla.org/petro-new-peace-plan-colombia
Struggles Over Oil in Arauca: https://nacla.org/dirty-war-oil-arauca-colombia
For an extended version of this interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/
Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/
Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
Intro and Executive Produced by Jack Eidt
Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats
Episode 149
Photo credit: Jack Eidt
