Helen talks to guest editor and contributor Bret Gustafson about Caribbean energy structures, and how US administrations from Reagan to now have pushed fossil fuel dependency in the Caribbean as a “national security” concern.

NACLA Radio

New Energy Empires

Helen takes a deep dive with Jonathan Devore, author of the latest NACLA Report’s feature essay on the early days of the Brazilian Odebrecht Company in rural Bahia. Rural residents’ memories and perspective on Odebrecht add new dimensions to the Petrobras scandal, which is now reverberating throughout the region— How does bringing in often overlooked voices change the way we tell histories of political scandals?

Odebrecht’s Original Sins

Andrea Bolivar did most of her dissertation research in Chicago, spending time with and learning from the trans Latina women whose experiences in the sex industry have emerged from a confluence of transphobia, racism, and criminalization.

Somos fantasías

NACLA Report contributor Moira Birss talks with Helen about how private companies and governments in Latin America have criminalized environmental human rights defenders, and how a confluence of violence, harassment, smear campaigns, and policing tactics threatens to silence environmental justice movements throughout the Americas.

49.3.2 From Standing Rock to Yanacocha: Policing and Environmental Activism

Helen speaks with NACLA Report contributor Marisol LeBrón, whose article for the latest issue of the Report traces the Puerto Rican state’s policing and surveillance programs from the 1950s to now. They discuss the internal complexities at play in Puerto Rican politics beyond the colonial dynamic between the U.S. government and Puerto Rico, and Marisol explains how policing tactics were used to undermine the Puerto Rican Nationalist party leading up to a crucial vote over ratifying Commonwealth status for the territory. Helen and Marisol also discuss how Puerto Rico fits into a larger institutional discourse about “best practices” for policing, surveillance, and responding to crises throughout Latin America and in the mainland U.S., where urban police forces have carried out similar tactics to those the FBI and the PRPD previously “tested” in Puerto Rico.

hubhopper

NACLA Radio

hubhopper